Modern Language Journal· 2019Q1
SLA and the Study of Equitable Multilingualism
- 412citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2019year
Short summary
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research must center multilingualism and embrace social justice to achieve the transdisciplinary agenda envisioned by the Douglas Fir Group (2016) and support equitable multilingualism for all.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- SLA research needs to explicitly center multilingualism as its primary object of inquiry.
- Adopting social justice as a core disciplinary goal is crucial for SLA's transdisciplinary agenda.
- These shifts are necessary to provide sustainable support for SLA research, particularly in the current sociopolitical climate.
- The paper identifies missing components for SLA researchers to contribute to equitable multilingualism.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract The Douglas Fir Group (2016) sought to articulate a transdisciplinary agenda for SLA but said little about multilingualism specifically. Moreover, many multilinguals are under siege in a worrisome world where threats to human difference have risen to the mainstream in the aftermath of Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I argue that considering multilingualism as the central object of inquiry and embracing social justice as an explicit disciplinary goal are two moves necessary to provide sustainable support for the kind of transdisciplinary SLA that the Douglas Fir Group (2016) envisioned. I examine some missing pieces of the puzzle of transdisciplinary transformation that may make it possible for SLA researchers, and particularly those who investigate linguistic–cognitive dimensions of language learning, to contribute knowledge about the human capacity for language while supporting equitable multilingualism for all.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Modern Language Journal, 2019 · DOI ↗
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Field: Linguistics and Language
Linguistics and LanguageSocial Sciences