The ideology of monolingualism and its impact on bi/multilingualism studies

Abstract:

The monolingual ideology, which prioritizes monolingualism and devalues bilingualism and multilingualism, originates from historical and cultural factors. The rise of nation-states and the associated emphasis on linguistic uniformity contributed to the development of this ideology (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000; Heller, 2010), which has significantly influenced and shaped the development of bilingualism and multilingualism studies (Blackledge, 2000). This presentation explores the historical and contemporary impact of this ideology on these fields, examining its effects on research, policy, and societal attitudes. Historically, the monolingual view dominated many Western societies, leading to the marginalization of bilingualism and multilingualism (Baker, 2001), which led educational policies to discourage or prohibit the use of minority languages in schools. As a result, early studies of bilingualism and multilingualism were often limited in scope and focused primarily on the challenges and deficits associated with these language abilities. In recent decades, however, the study of bilingualism and multilingualism has experienced an important shift determined by factors such as increased globalization, immigration, and cultural diversity. As a result, bilingualism and multilingualism studies have expanded to encompass a wider range of topics, including language acquisition, cognitive development, and sociocultural identity (Banerjee, Kaur and Matharou, 2024). Despite this progress, the monolingual ideology continues to exert a powerful influence on research, policy, and societal attitudes. For example, some research continues to focus on potential problems associated with bilingualism, rather than strengths, thus perpetuating negative stereotypes (Cummins, 2009; Grosjean, 2010). Moreover, many countries continue to prioritize monolingual education, limiting opportunities for bilingual education and language maintenance (Cummins, 2009).

To address the ongoing impact of the monolingual ideology and to help create a more multilingual and inclusive society, we need a more inclusive approach to the study of bilingualism and multilingualism. This means challenging negative stereotypes, promoting bilingual education, and acknowledging the value of linguistic diversity.

 

References

Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Multilingual Matters.

Banerjee, D. S., Kaur, D. S. & Matharou, D. G. S. (2024). ‚Exploring the Effects of Multilingualism on Cognitive Development and Academic Achievement’. Migration Letters, 21(S2): 1565–1574. Retrieved from https://migrationletters.com/index.php/ml/article/view/7947

Blackledge, A. (2000). ‘Monolingual Ideologies in Multilingual States: Language, Hegemony and Social Justice in Western Liberal Democracies’. Sociolinguistic Studies, 1(2): 25-45.

Cummins, J. (2009). Multilingualism in the English-Language Classroom: Pedagogical Considerations. TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect. 43. 

Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingualism: Past, Present, and Future. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Heller, M. (2010). Bilingualism and Globalization: A Critical Perspective. Routledge

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic Genocide in Education: Or Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education. Multilingual Matters.

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Dr. Antonini's Webpage

Multiliteracies pedagogy in action: Argumentative meaning-making in a written versus a multimodal EFL task
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In line with the principles of multiliteracies pedagogy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2016), we suggest that the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) should attach similar levels of importance to the development of students’ linguistic and multimodal competence, higher order thinking skills, and democratic values aimed at strengthening social justice. Against this background, our talk contemplates a two-fold objective: to explore the pedagogical and social relevance of approaching TEFL from the perspective of multiliteracies pedagogy and to present research we are currently conducting along these lines. Specifically, our multiliteracies pedagogy-oriented research looks at high school students’ development of argumentation and critical awareness in relation to an issue of social justice when these meaning-making processes are realized in two different modes: a conventional monomodal composition and a digital multimodal PowerPoint presentation. To this end, a group of high school students (13-to-14 years old) completed the two previously-mentioned argumentative tasks before and after being instructed following a cinema-based teaching intervention which focused on the topic of arranged marriages as presented in Brave (Chapman, 2013). In this talk, among other foci of attention, we adopt a qualitative case study approach to elucidate the ways in which two EFL students engaged in meaning-making in both task modalities. Using a systemic functional linguistics-informed multimodal framework (Kim et al, 2021), we offer insights into how the students employed specific modal resources to articulate their socially-charged arguments.

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Webpages: Pedro Antonio Férez Mora i Dra. Yvette Coyle

Researching the development of writing skills: from individual writing to computer-mediated and multimodal collaborative writing

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Written production has been an seemingly ignored skill and has had “an uneasy presence” (Byrnes, 2013, p. 97) in foreign language classrooms, mainly due to the lack of time in class to work on this skill adequately and the prioritization of the development of oral skills in the communicative approach. The first efforts to fully include this skill in the classroom were based on a conceptual change in which the focus of writing shifted from “learning to write” to “writing to learn” (Manchón, 2011). This change in perspective, together with the emphasis on the fact that learning occurs in situations of social interaction (Vygotsky, 1978), led to the exploration of collaborative writing and to research into its effectiveness with respect to individual writing and collaborative corrective feedback processes (Storch, 2019). The use of technology to produce texts collaboratively opened a new avenue of research that explores whether the results of previous research were corroborated when the processes were carried out online and whether the use of technological tools affected these processes (Villarreal et al., 2021). The latest step in this evolution has been the development of multimodality and the inclusion of AI-generated feedback in writing processes and its effect on subsequent compositions. In this talk we will present the results of different studies carried out by our team that show this evolution. First, we will present studies which compare collaborative writing with individual writing. Second, we will explore collaborative writing on paper and online. Third, we will evaluate the effect of using feedback in pairs or collaborative writing on new individual compositions (Bueno-Alastuey et al., 2022) and the effect of producing the compositions on paper or online. And finally, we will analyze the experience of introducing transpositions (moving from monomodal to multimodal texts) in the foreign language classroom (Elola et al., u.r) and the results of introducing these transpositions together with collaboratively processed ChatGPT feedback in new individual texts (Colmenar & Bueno-Alastuey, 2024).

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Bueno-Alastuey, M. C., & Rodero Albaiceta, S. (2019). The effects of using collaborative writing vs. peer review treatments on subsequent individual writings. Huarte de San Juan. Filología y didáctica de la lengua, (19), 32-61.

Manchón, R. M. (Ed.). (2011). Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language. John Benjamins.

Bueno‐Alastuey, M. C., Vasseur, R., & Elola, I. (2022). Effects of collaborative writing and peer feedback on Spanish as a foreign language writing performance. Foreign Language Annals, 55(2), 517-539.

Colmenar, M.A. & Bueno-Alastuey, M.C. (2024) Multimodal language learning: Integrating collaborative writing and collaborative processing of AI-based feedback in the EFL classrooom (Unpublished Master thesis).

Elola, I, Bueno-Alastuey, M.C. & López-Perez, M.V. (en revisión) Integrating collaborative digital multimodal tasks in Spanish as a second language course.

Storch, N. (2019). Collaborative writing. Language Teaching, 52(1), 40–59. doi:10.1017/S0261444818000320

Villarreal, I., Bueno-Alastuey, M. C., & Sáez-León, R. (2021). Computer-based collaborative writing with young learners: Effects on text quality. M.P. García Mayo (Ed) Working collaboratively in second/foreign language learning. (pp. 177-198). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Harvard University Press.

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“That’s worth investigating”: Toward conversational human–Generative AI interaction

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The availability of Generative AI (GenAI) tools has led to an increase in human–GenAI interaction, raising fundamental questions about the nature of GenAI’s utility for tasks beyond query-driven information seeking. Within world language education, a primary bottleneck in the instructed language learning experience is access to naturalistic conversational practice (Kasper & Kim, 2015). Building on prior GenAI conversation research, where GenAI consistently produced turns in dialogic roleplays that violated Grice’s Maxim of Quantity (Sydorenko et al., 2024), we designed an empirical study to explore the human-like conversational ability of GenAI. We designed the study with the goal of assessing the pedagogical potential of GenAI as a language-learning conversational interlocutor in order to explore its potential for the development of interactional competence and to experiment with prompt design that better constrains ChatGPT’s overly verbose responses.

 

ChatGPT 3.5 interaction data was elicited from 28 university students using a controlled prompt, “Where are my keys? Can you ask me questions to help me locate them? Please ask only one question at a time.” The majority of the data utilized English, with smaller samples in Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish. Data also include interactions generated by student-designed prompts and self-assessments of human-GenAI interaction. We investigate ideational and interpersonal metafunctions and holistic assessments of perceived ‘naturalness’ of the interactions. Specifically, we focus on data-driven sequential analysis of discourse moves, including the consistency of actions in adjacency pairs, which arguably constitute an evolving set of digital literacy practices that are now central to both informal and formal language learning activities. Implications for world language education include considerations for effective prompt design and attention to the iterative and co-evolving patterns of human-GenAI interactions. Limitations of GenAI interfaces like ChatGPT, such as the disproportionate training of LLMs on English language data, are also discussed.

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