Significance of Loanwords

The existence of loanwords, whose emergence has a profound connection with cultural globalization, is undoubtedly obliged to be valued. This phenomenon of linguistic integration can be appreciated everywhere in all major languages which are still widely spoken. However, this has led to the resistance of some nationalist linguists, who advocate the purity of their respective languages. Nevertheless, the purported “linguistic purity” is a false concept unquestionably. The lexical interflow is undoubtedly of irreplaceable significance, which can never be denied. Cultural diversity is absolutely the unchangeable mainstream. With this mindset, the world will be harmonious with a sense of freedom to bathe in light of tolerance and empathy.

Creative Bilingualism in Late-Medieval Welsh Poetry

This article considers why bilingual poets from medieval Wales exploited their various languages as avenues of creativity. It discusses five poems from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that synthesize Welsh and either English or Latin to varying degrees. The article untangles the conscious and often complex linguistic integration, using the term 'extralinguistic bilingualism' to do so with two exclusively English poems that nonetheless use Welsh strict metre and 'orthography'. One of these is a series of once anonymous English englynion recently found to be the work of prolific poet Tudur Aled, who flourished in the last quarter of the fifteenth century and the first quarter of the sixteenth century. By examining the poems in tandem and contextualizing their apparent isolation within Wales's contemporary linguistic landscape and within the phenomena of multilingual poetry, Marian lyrics and 'aureate' diction, the impetus behind their curious hybridity is queried. It is argued that comedy, piety and literary craft are key considerations, and that all are connected by an overarching concern for relative linguistic prestige: the perceived divergence between the social and literary status of each language.

Zur Entwicklung supranationaler Deskriptoren für die zweitsprachliche Alphabetisierung – das LASLLIAM-Projekt des Europarats

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag stellt das vom Europarat geförderte Projekt Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LASLLIAM; 2018–2022) vor, das die Entwicklung von qualitativ hochwertigen Lernangeboten für gering literalisierte erwachsene Migrant*innen unterstützen möchte. Dazu werden zunächst die Zielsetzungen des Projekts und seine Entwicklungsschritte beschrieben, bevor das LASLLIAM-Handbuch und seine Einzelkapitel genauer charakterisiert werden. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die Skalen und domänenspezifischen Tabellen, die an Beispielen aus dem Bereich Lesen illustriert werden.

Immigrant linguistic integration in the multilingual context of Montreal

We investigate the relative intensity of use of English and French at home for allophone immigrants in the Montreal metropolitan area. We find that the linguistic distances between immigrants’ mother tongues and English and French have an important impact on the relative intensities of use at home of the two Canadian official languages. However, immigrants whose mother tongues are closer to French than to English are relatively less likely to use an official language at home. We further investigate the role of spousal and other characteristics on the integration of immigrants. The results suggest that the home environment is an important factor contributing to the linguistic integration. Individuals exposed to an official language at home with their spouse have significantly higher rates of linguistic integration. Also, English is more attractive than French in the sense that immigrants with an Anglophone partner will have higher integration rates to English than those with a Francophone partner integrating to French.

Multilingual Behaviour within the Portuguese and Italian Communities in Montreal: A Quest of Purism

Many heritage speakers, starting particularly from the second generation, return to the practice of their heritage languages so as to build or rebuild their diasporic and heritage identities. Within an urban context such as in Montreal (Quebec), multilingual behaviour exists. This is due to the presence of multiple languages and dialects, as well as the bilingual reality of this city, where both French and English are dominant. Such conditions provide evidence of how determinant in-group ideologies and stereotypical attitudes are concerned with communities and languages (standard and vernacular) and how they function in the process of linguistic integration within the group and the Canadian city. Focusing on recent research that compares heritage speakers of Portuguese and Italian origin in Montreal, this contribution addresses whether identifying places have an important role in the process of integration within the group, in shared spaces of language or dialect practice, both private and public. Moreover, questions arise as to how standard languages are valued within both communities (mainly in schools) and how competency and legitimacy have been evaluated and by whom, in this process of integration. The two communities observed are very different, given the practice and behaviour as well as in-group ideologies of inclusion. This contribution argues that, as a consequence of our ‘global’ societies, there is an extension of new identities during the process of development where multilingual behaviour is reviewed and analysed for the dynamicity in the repertories of new generation speakers. Our comparison brings to light a central ideology of language purism, and the ways in which it is institutionalized and/or contested across the two groups.

Language and Social Integration in Times of Increasing Anti-Immigration Discourses

This article analyses the structural barriers affecting the processes of linguistic integration among adult migrants and refugees by focusing on both teachers’ and learners’ experiences in the context of an EU-funded project for good practice exchange. Reflections and assumptions of language teachers for migrants and refugees from four European countries (Spain, Germany, Italy and Poland) are set against the linguistic needs and expectations of their students through the case of a Pakistani migrant woman in Barcelona. Although language training for migrants’ labour integration and participation is widely emphasized by supranational, national and regional institutions, it is not a genuine priority in most of the countries of reception. Limited training focused on issues related to language and anti-immigration and/or nationalist discourses condition well-intended initiatives from third sector organisations. Moving away from purely pedagogical factors, this article aims to contribute to locating language learning as social integration under the lens of social justice.

Translanguaging, intercomprensione e didattica inclusiva in contesti ‘svantaggiati’

The aim of this paper is to propose a reflection on three concepts – translanguaging, inter-comprehension, inclusion – apparently unrelated to each other, trying to establish interconnections for the linguistic integration of migrant subjects, considered ‘disadvantaged’. In fact, many widespread social representations and some L2 learning/teaching practices are opposed, in favour of mimicry and monolingualism, to any manifestation of diversity, plurality, non-conflicting coexistence respecting otherness. Instead, didactic practices based on the recognition of translanguaging and intercomprehensive approaches can constitute a concrete tool of inclusion.