Intersecting Linguistic Landscapes: Cultural Discourse Perspectives in Education

1. Intercultural Education A Transnational Perspective Universidade Nova de Lisboa, November 2010 Karen Risager Roskilde University risager@ruc.dk

2. Contents • The national phase in language studies • Local and transnational linguistic flows • Linguistic landscapes • Rethinking the language-culture relation • Linguaculture – culture in language • Discourse – culture across languages • Implications for intercultural education risager

3. The national phase in language studies • the national phase from the mid 1800s to around 1990 • from the 1990s: a beginning problematisation of the national paradigm • Karen Risager: Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Paradigm (Multilingual Matters 2007) • Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University risager

4. Local and transnational linguistic flows • languages are not territorially bound • a language spreads through two processes: • the mobility of language users • language learning • the global means of communication strengthen relations between users of a language • we see local and transnational linguistic flows in social networks all over the world risager

5. Linguistic landscapes • flows of different languages form complex linguistic landscapes (linguascapes), e.g. in a state or a city • language encounters of different types, incl. language hierarchisations and language alternation (code-switching) • language policy becomes more visible: language, identity, power and recognition risager

6. Rethinking the language-culture relation • two extremes concerning the relationship between language and culture: • a (national) language and its (national) culture are inseparable, or • a language is or can be used in a culturally neutral way • a third position: a language always carries linguaculture, but can be separated from other cultural phenomena risager

7. Linguaculture – culture in language • three dimensions of linguaculture: • the semantic-pragmatic dimension • the poetic dimension • the identity dimension • we all have our personal linguaculture • we carry linguaculture with us • when we migrate, move • when we learn new languages risager

8. Discourse – culture across languages • discourse has linguistic form, but is not bound to a specific language • discourses are e.g. ideologies, opinions, stories, literature and sciences • discourses flow from language to language via translation and other forms of transformation, they are translingual • ’the rest of culture’, e.g. music, pictures, food and drink, architecture, clothing, etc. etc. risager

9. Implications for intercultural education • both the target language and learners’ languages are world languages • global studies, cosmopolitanism, world citizenship • the target language is part of complex linguascapes: • studies of language encounters • comparative linguistic studies risager

10. Implications for intercultural education • the target language contains a varied linguaculture • studies of social and personal linguacultures • the target language is not an exclusive discursive universe • the choice of topics and texts is never natural, but has to have an independent, pedagogical justification risager