Crossing
Borders of Foreign Language Education
& Translation in Palestine
This is the third seminar
of a series of online events jointly organised by The English Language
Department at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) & AHRC research project Researching Multilingually at the borders of the body, language,
law and the state (RM Borders)
Thinking through the
impacts of the globalisation of English(es)
What are
the implications for the teaching and learning of languages, and what are the
opportunities for working with multiple languages in research projects?
Speakers
Dr Prue Holmes (Durham University)
Dr Jane Andrews (The University of the West of England UWE)
Date:
Monday 8th February, 2016
Time: 11.00 – 13.00 (Gaza) / 09.00 – 11.00 (UK)
Venue: Tiba Conference Hall at IUG
Hint: you can download the reading materials for the seminar from readings section bellow.
One of the impacts of
globalisation on education in some contexts around the world has been to
strengthen the role English plays in a) educational processes, e.g., English
medium instruction in schools and universities, and b) in research processes.
The struggle to encourage language learning at degree level in the UK is well
documented (e.g., Watts, 2004) and could be seen as a consequence of the
predominance of English in the world; concerns about initiatives such Content
& Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) have served to promote English
language learning without necessarily having a strong pedagogic rationale
(e.g., Bruton, 2013). The impact of English on research processes and practices
may be seen at a range of stages such as when undertaking and designing
research projects and getting them funded, in the language expectations of
project funders and academic supervisors, and in the language priorities
assigned to
publication and dissemination.
In this seminar we
question—and invite a discussion of—the processes and assumptions
underpinning global trends in languages education and in research projects by
highlighting the opportunities and affordances of a multiple languages approach
to undertaking research and education. Drawing on the AHRC-funded project
“Researching multilingually at the borders of language, the body, law and the
state” we present insights from our own experiences of working multilingually
across a large project which involves multiple languages and contexts. We then
refer to the emergent findings from our own work within this project which
demonstrate the opportunities and complexities of researching multilingually.
We explore ways researchers can and do draw on their own multiple language
resources as they undertake their research; in doing so we invite discussion of
the role of English as a lingua franca in research and (language) education in
order to open up an agenda for researching multilingually.
We provide two readings to
accompany this seminar which we invite you to read prior to participation in
the seminar. Our presentation will have specific points where we invite our
audience to engage with the issues and debates. We therefore welcome your
participation in and discussion of the ideas we present.
Readings
to be prepared for the seminar you need to read this articles
Canagarajah, S. (2007). Lingua
Franca English, multilingual communities and language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 91, 923-939
Holmes, P., Fay, R., Andrews,
J., & Attia, M. (2016, in press). How to research multilingually:
Possibilities and complexities. In H. Zhu (Ed.) Research methods in intercultural communication (pp. 88-102).
London: Wiley.
References
Bruton, A. (2013). CLIL: Some
of the reasons why … and why not. System,
31, 587-597.
Watts, C. (2004). Some reasons
for the decline in numbers of MFL students at degree level. The Language Learning Journal, 29(1),
59-67.
NOTE for UK / Externals attending
via Skype
Please email Iyad ([email protected]) with your Skype details no later than Sunday 7 February 2016 so that
you may be added to the online event.