Introduction : the multilingual edge of education

In this volume, we raise the need to invest in new educational perspectives in which multilingualism is valorized and used strategically in settings and contexts of instruction and learning. While the title of the book, ‘The multilingual edge of education’, undeniably alludes to the way in which the multilingual repertoires of pupils in mainstream classrooms are often perceived as an insurmountable problem, it equally underlines more current perspectives in which multilingualism is viewed as possessing cutting-edge potential for transforming linguistically heterogeneous classrooms into more inhabitable, more equitable and more efficiently organized spaces for teaching and learning. Is the multilingual edge an abyss, or do we look to multilingualism for giving learners the edge over the challenges faced by the educational contexts in which they participate today? The chapters in this book are written by an international group of contributors who present findings from empirical studies on different educational approaches which draw on students’ multilingual repertoires as a pedagogical resource for learning and teaching. The authors document a variety of classroom practices, while engaging with students’ and teachers’ experiential voices, local and national policy contexts and so on, so as to explore the potential of multilingualism as learning capital, which, once capitalized upon, can enrich and support educational processes in diverse sociolinguistic contexts

The multilingual edge of education

This book highlights the need to develop new educational perspectives in which multilingualism is valorised and strategically used in settings and contexts of instruction and learning. Situated in the current educational debate about multilingualism and ethno-linguistic minorities, chapter authors examine the polarised response to heightened linguistic diversity and how the debate is very much premised on binary views of monolingualism and multi- or bilingualism. Contributors argue that the diverse linguistic backgrounds of immigrant and minority students should be considered an asset, instead of being regarded as a barrier to teaching and learning. From its title through to its conclusion, this book underlines the current perspective of multilingualism as possessing cutting edge potential for transforming diverse classrooms into more inhabitable, more equitable and more efficiently organised spaces for learning. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in educational linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, pedagogics, educational studies, and educational anthropology

Incorporating translation into sociolinguistic research: translation policy in an international non-governmental organisation

This article explores aspects of translation, multilingualism and language policy in the field of transnational civil society. By focusing on translation policies at Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organisation that performs a key role in global governance, this article seeks to contribute to a globalisation-sensitive sociolinguistics. It argues that combining a sociolinguistic approach, more precisely linguistic ethnography, with translation studies leads to an increased understanding of the language practices under study. Furthermore, the article calls for more interdisciplinary research, stating that there is a space for sociolinguistics and translation studies to contribute to research in international relations and development studies by highlighting the role of multilingualism and challenging the traditionally powerful position of English in transnational civil society

Disclosure and (re)performance of gender-based evidence in an interpreter-mediated asylum interview

In order to handle the complexities of increasing influxes of people, asylum agencies tend to adhere to static categorisations of the variability encountered in the institutional space. This study demonstrates that, although classification is to some extent inevitable, isolation of social categories (gender, age, citizenship) into policy guidelines and routine procedures can be counterproductive in socially heterogeneous settings, such as the asylum determination interview, where several participants (asylum officers, interpreters, decision makers) are deeply implicated in the discursive co-construction of client identities. Drawing on sociolinguistic micro-analysis of gender-based evidence from an interpreted asylum interview in the Belgian asylum procedure, this study shows how the (re)performance of gender issues is deeply embedded in and therefore cannot be understood outside the specific socio-discursive dynamics and the broader institutional context of the asylum interview