Some aspects of multilingualism and their educational implications

It is often assumed in second and foreign language pedagogy that the first language and the target language are two more or less homogeneous and independent systems standing in confrontation with each other. There is now a growing awareness, however, that the two systems are not so easily distinguished, and that the target language may assume a variety of forms and functions for the learner, especially in the case of the immigrant who is learning the language of the host country. The paper examines these functions and their educational implications. In the social and cultural development of the learner, the target language may have integrative, interpersonal, heuristic and aesthetic functions. It can lead to important metalinguistic, linguistic, and normative understanding in the developing linguistic awareness of the learner. And in the affective relationship of the learner to the target culture, the target language can have crucial educational potential. Properly taught, it can smooth the transition from home to school, it can help to structure the affective world of the learner, and it can be the basis for an education that is linguistically and culturally ‘decentred’ and thus protected against ethnocentrism

Epistemology · Ethnocentrism · Heuristic · Interpersonal communication · Linguistics · Multilingualism · Normative · Pedagogy · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

• From applied linguistics to sociolinguistics

  Louise Dabène•International Journal of the…•2003

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