Exploring Multilingualism

Linguistic diversity is a fact of human life – as is the imbalance in status between languages.

In the current context of globalisation, this imbalance is manifesting itself most strikingly in the rise of ‘global’ English as the universally recognised lingua franca, and the pressure this in turn puts on other less globally ‘useful’ languages.

The features in this section will present findings from our evolving research on the interaction between multilingualism and creativity, but also address aspects of the context in which our research is taking place. From the difficulties and opportunities of Modern Languages in schools to insights into the impact Brexit will have on languages and their status in the UK, we will be looking at social and political issues to better understand how we can make linguistic diversity more visible, valued, and vibrant.

EBacc – passport to success in the global economy?

According to School Standards Minister Nick Gibb, the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is designed to “ensure our pupils are able to compete with educational high performers in a global economy”. Inclusion of a language in the EBacc indicates the government’s commitment to giving young people the language skills they will need if they are to operate successfully in a global environment. But the reality is that language learning in UK schools continues to decline.

Celebrating linguistic diversity through multilingual poetry

Earlier this year, Prof. Jane Hiddleston and Dr Laura Lonsdale ran three workshops for Year 10 pupils from two East London schools, Haggerston School in Hackney and St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets, where a very high proportion of students speak more than one language.

A poetry of disorder and mayhem: M. NourbeSe Philip

On 26 June the Tobago-born Canadian writer M. NourbeSe Philip read from her work and joined in discussion at TORCH as part of the Great Writers Inspire at Home series. NourbeSe’s great, fractured, multilingual poem Zong! commemorates 133 slaves murdered by the crew of the ship Zong in 1781, and the court case which ensued when the ship-owners tried to make an insurance claim for the loss of their ‘property’.

Creative Multilingualism in opera and song: Roderick Williams visits Oxford

Earlier this year, Oxford was lucky enough to host a visit by Roderick Williams, the leading British baritone.

Ackley Bridge: English, Hindi-Urdu and Bollywood languages on the telly

Ackley Bridge, Channel 4’s new TV drama set in a fictional town in Yorkshire, follows the lives of school pupils, teachers and their families, as two previously segregated schools – one largely white British and the other British Asian – are merged together under one new academy in an attempt at social integration. The programme has opened to mostly favourable reviews, especially on social media, as it enters its fifth episode this week.

Helping to balance the European argument – John le Carré speaks out for language learning

On the occasion of an award ceremony for German teachers, bestselling espionage writer John le Carré highlighted the role that language learning plays in fostering an appreciation of clear language – and truth. Teachers help “to balance the European argument, to make it decent, to keep it civilised”.

LinguaMania Highly Commended in Public Engagement Awards

The Creative Multilingualism research team was delighted to be Highly Commended in the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor's Public Engagement with Research Awards last night for LinguaMania, an event held in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum earlier this year.

Life in a multilingual community

When I was working as an English language assistant as part of my year abroad in South Tyrol in northern Italy, I naively thought that talking about nationalities to a class of 11- and 12-year-olds would be a fairly harmless topic. Everything started off normally enough. I had pictures of everyone from Welsh footballer Gareth Bale to Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber and all was well with the world. Then I asked the pupils about where they were from and things got a bit more complicated.

New MHRA-funded Research Associateship

We’re delighted to announce that Creative Multilingualism’s third strand (Intelligibility: Creating Intelligibility across Languages and Communities) has won its funding bid for an MHRA Research Associateship. The role was awarded by the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) and is ‘designed to hasten the completion of research projects of special importance’.

INFOGRAPHIC: Which 3 words do you associate with languages?

Crossing linguistic borders: Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande

Although my academic involvement in Creative Multilingualism focuses primarily on a collaboration with the Oxford Lieder Festival, this year has seen a couple of operatic adventures too, and these have helped me to reflect both on my identity as a linguist, and on the relationship between language learning and creativity.

Creative translation: bending the rules to keep it personal

Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at the Stuttgart Opera house as part of a weekend of events designed to illuminate the life and work of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. When I was first contacted, it was clear that I would be expected to give my talk in German. Although I studied German at school and university, I had rather left it behind, other than for reading purposes and the occasional holiday. My command of German is functional, but not elegant, and definitely not fluent.