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Due to globalisation and migration, multilingualism has become both a reality and an aim of education systems across Europe, affecting how language education is shaped. To improve the ways in which schools cater for language education in diverse settings, research is required on the potentials of multilingualism in order to design curricula that foster skills in different languages. This paper aims at identifying and explaining research priorities in the field of multilingualism and language education in a cross-national perspective. It draws on data from a survey with 298 expert participants in five European countries (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain) who ranked pre-identified research topics in relation to their perceived urgency. Results show that experts identified ‘effectiveness of multilingual support in regular lessons’, ‘features of multilingual didactics’ and ‘effectiveness of literacy support in home languages on the development of academic language skills in the majority language’ as having the highest research priority overall. However, these results vary across national settings investigated. While the German, Dutch and Portuguese respondents attributed urgency to research on academic language skills, other issues were rated higher in the Spanish and Italian research contexts. The advantages and limitations of conducting cross-national research are also addressed.

Across and even within European states, heritage language education (HLE) for pupils with a migration background varies considerably, as do the political and academic discourses surrounding HLE. Due to the intensified public discourse around migration, educational opportunity and multilingualism, research on heritage languages (HL) and HLE has increased in recent years (Mehlhorn, 2020). However, there is still little agreement among scholars concerning the role of HLE for children’s linguistic, educational or personal development. Although studies suggest that support for heritage languages does not bear negative consequences, empirical findings on the optimal design and delivery of heritage language lessons (HLLs) are still lacking. How, then, should research be prioritised in different contexts? We consulted a large cross-national survey on research priorities for multilingualism and language education (Duarte et al., 2020) in order to uncover findings relating specifically to HLE. The findings derive from the rankings of research priorities by panels of expert participants (n = 300) in five European countries: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The rankings indicate that research on HLE is considered important in all countries, albeit to a lesser degree in Spain. Research on the effects of HLE on the majority language and subject comprehension was deemed most important by the expert participants, or at least as urgent as effects on the heritage language itself. Experts also attributed importance to topics concerning HLE quality. Other findings point to country-specific priorities. We present the overall results from two sets of questions concerning research on HLE and attempt to offer qualitative interpretations of these findings.

This article highlights issues of Othering and linguicism and identifies the challenges of undoing taboos of race and racism in popular and academic discourses in Germany. We discuss the prospect of introducing critical race theory to expose these issues that we see as especially urgent, as Germany remains host to very large numbers of international migrants. A monolingual and monocultural idea of Germany does not befit this country of immigration in the twenty-first century.

This article introduces the present forum edition on linguistic identities in twenty-first-century Europe. We consider how discourses of inclusion and exclusion, embedded in discourses of the nation, continue to be relevant in understanding and interpreting the social, cultural and political status of (minority) languages and their speakers. In order to introduce the various studies that comprise this forum, we relay how language debates provide a lens through which wider systems of prestige and hierarchy may be focused. Such debates can, at one and the same time, both alter and reflect the meanings and interpretations of Europe itself.

This paper provides insights into online language practices among bilingual teenagers who speak and learn a lesser-used language. Regarding language diversity, the internet is seen to pose both cha...

The Irish language (‘Gaeilge’), although the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, is a minority language in public life. In recent years, social media campaigns have been organised to promote the use of Irish online. In this paper, we analyse two such campaigns (#EDL #Gaeilge; and #TrasnaNadTonnta) and explore how participation in them is connected to everyday practices of media use and meaning making, and how this in turn influences minority language promotion in social media. Drawing on sociolinguistics and media and communication studies, we address the following research question: How can everyday life and media use influence participation in Twitter campaigns that aim to promote the Irish language? We find that the success of each campaign was dependent on the participants identifying connections between the campaigns and their everyday lives. #TrasnaNadTonnta found particular salience among the Irish diaspora, for whom the language is a marker of a unique cultural identity. This Twitter campaign provided a platform for Irish-language users to connect with others across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia – places where the Irish language has not been traditionally spoken. Although the same platform was provided in #EDL2017 #Gaeilge, Irish-language Twitter users did not identify with this campaign to the same extent. We further surmise that the unique hashtag created for #TrasnaNadTonnta, reminiscent of a song sung in childhood, had particular semiotic appeal when compared with the more policy-oriented approach of #EDL2017.

Researchers of minority language media are increasingly interested in the role of internet-based communication in language usage, maintenance, and revitalisation. This study explores the use of hashtags signifying the Welsh/Cymraeg, Frisian/Frysk, and Irish/Gaeilge languages on Twitter. Acknowledging the challenges of interpreting social media data, we focus on the hashtag and what it can tell us about the social and digital lives of minority languages. Specifically, we examine the agents using those hashtags, the topics they discuss, the languages used and the extent to which ambient communities may be formed through their use. Our analysis reveals different types of agents who are active and who have a variety of purposes in applying the minority language hashtag - sometimes to promote content in the minority language, more often to draw attention to content about those languages. Comparative analysis between the three language hashtags reveals statistically significant differences along a number of different dimensions, indicating that each minority language hashtag community has its own unique character. Through this comparative, platform-specific contribution we reach some generalisations concerning minority languages in the digital age, while also paying attention to the particularities of each language context and the exploitable features of social media for those languages.

Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit autochthonen (altansassigen) Minderheiten und ihren Sprachen in Europa. Im Folgenden wird beschrieben, wie diese Sprachgemeinschaften im Kontext der Nationenbildung entstanden sind und wie sie sich klassifizieren lassen. Skizziert wird zudem die aktuelle Lage der Minderheitensprachen in Europa.

Das Handbuch Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung fuhrt zwei Themenbereiche zusammen, die haufig getrennt voneinander gedacht werden – und wenn sie auf einander bezogen werden, so geschieht dies oft mit einem Akzent auf Schwierigkeiten, die mit Mehrsprachigkeit fur Bildung verbunden sind oder sein konnen. Dies aber ist eine verkurzte Sichtweise. Tatsachlich sind sowohl Mehrsprachigkeit als auch Bildung in sich vielschichtige Forschungs- und Handlungsfelder.

This chapter offers a systematic review of German research on the relationship between ethnicity and educational inequality. Three major research traditions are identified: (1) characteristics of migrant students and their families as causes of inequality, (2) features of the education system and their relevance for inequality, and (3) linguistic diversity as a cause of educational inequality. The debate related to the underachievement of children ‘with a migration background’ started in the early 1970s. Initial studies concentrated on the attributes of migrant students themselves or their families. A second research tradition focusses on the school system, school culture or teaching strategies, and their potential effects on a multicultural and multilingual student population. The third tradition includes a linguistic perspective on the causes and effects of educational disadvantage. In all areas, historical, qualitative and quantitative methods are often combined. Most studies examine Turkish migrants or speakers of Russian who come from a range of Eastern European countries. Across all three research traditions, German is the primary language of publication. English has recently begun to assume an important role. The relationship between the research community and government is both critical and collaborative; in our contribution, we discuss examples of research projects from both perspectives.

This paper provides an overview of the deliberations on cultural diversity and language policy that have occurred in Northern Ireland since the onset of the peace process. The paper looks specifically at how policy decisions and political debate on the Irish language and the languages of migrant communities are driven by competing notions of Britishness and Irishness, despite a supposed desire in the Belfast Agreement to promote ‘respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity’. The paper argues that the peace process has increased the level of policy discussion on both autochthonous and allochthonous language issues, but has also served to cement their position within ethnic conflict. While debates on new policy directions have raised discussions on intercultural awareness in policy delivery, the competing interests of the political parties have tended to act as a barrier to the development of a true linguistic pluralism.

In 2007 a remarkable development for the Irish language outside of Ireland took place. A dedicated space for speaking and learning the language was established in Ontario, Canada, now known as Gaeltacht Thuaisceart an Oileain Uir. While the adoption of the term ‘Gaeltacht’ may be controversial in an allochthonous context, this site is sustained by a diasporic community that endeavours to preserve an Irish cultural identity through learning and speaking the language. This paper presents the results of fieldwork conducted among Irish-language learners in Canada who have invested time and resources to establish a permanent space for the language. Data retrieved through an online survey reveal that the language serves as a vehicle for those wishing to maintain or connect with an Irish cultural identity, as well as for those outside of the diaspora who learn the language for other social, professional or educational purposes. Notably, such narratives are perfectly at ease within a modern, multicultural Canada.

Pedagogy of multiliteracies: rewriting Goldilocks , by Heather Lotherington, New York/London, Routledge, 2011, xx + 213 pp., £85 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-88710-6 ‘Multiliteracies’ was coined in 1...

In Canada today, Irish language learners may avail of a variety of formal and informal contexts. A number of higher-level institutions offer instruction in the language. The development of a multiculturalism policy after the 1960s sought a place for Canada’s “heritage languages” and led to the establishment of the so-called “ethnic” chairs for the study of Canada’s heritage groups other than the British or French and their languages. Subsequently, a chair of Celtic Studies was founded at the University of Ottawa, a chair of Gaelic Studies at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, and a chair of Irish Studies at St. Mary’s University, Halifax. Elsewhere, the Celtic Studies program at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto was born out of a strong research interest in Anglo-Irish literature. It has run for some thirty years. And the School of Canadian Irish Studies/Ecole des Etudes Canado-Irlandaises at Concordia University in Montreal focuses on both the history and culture of Ireland and “the contribution of Irish immigrants in all regions of Canada to the social, cultural, economic, religions [sic], educational and political life of the country.” Thanks to such initiatives as the Ireland Canada University Foundation Irish Language Programme (established in 2009), Irish can continue to be taught, and increasingly offered at Canadian universities. As well as the offer of instruction though university programs, the Irish experience in Canada is also very much lived and remembered through informal Irish-language learning. As such, the Irish language resonates among those contemporary Canadians who have actual or cultural memories of migration from Ireland. In a recent memoir, John Donahue recalled that he had

The Belfast Agreement (1998) contains a clause on respect and tolerance for linguistic diversity in Northern Ireland (NI). It is unsurprising that this clause was included given the role of Irish – and Ulster Scots – in identity politics in the region. The call for respect for NI's languages can therefore be seen as a type of conflict management. Renewed powersharing through consociational arrangements points to a relatively successful peace process, while inward migration has greatly increased in recent years. NI's sociocultural landscape has diversified to such a degree that respect for linguistic diversity should no longer be viewed solely as a means of reconciliation between just two communities; it can be treated as a move towards overall multiculturalism in the region. Yet language issues remain divisive, recently highlighted by the rejection of legislative protection for the Irish language. This article examines current attitudes towards linguistic diversity in NI, with reference to the co...

In recent decades, the interdisciplinary field of literacy research has made significant advances in uncovering and challenging the narrow conceptions of literacy propagated in educational institut...

Globalization and language in contact: scale, migration and communicative practices, edited by James Collins, Stef Slembrouck and Mike Baynham, London and New York, Continuum, 2009, xii +283 pp., £...

The impact of new information and communication technologies on European societies could not have been foreseen at the time the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) was adopted two decades ago. Although the text of the ECRML contains no reference to such technologies, they clearly have a role in the context of linguistic communication, given their current social ubiquity. The measures outlined in the ECRML concerning, inter alia, media and cultural facilities, are precisely those being affected by the new media landscape. We can therefore be certain that the internet has some sort of impact on regional and minority languages in Europe, yet detailed assessments of this impact at the policy level are lacking. This article seeks to uncover the extent to which the Committee of Experts of the ECRML assesses the impact of the internet on those languages that have been selected by state parties for protection and promotion under the provisions of the ECRML. Findings show that references to the internet have increased in the reports of the Committee of Experts since monitoring began. However, the role of new technologies in inhibiting or facilitating regional and minority languages is seldom evaluated.