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.

Research update: Prismatic Jane Eyre and Scriptworlds

The Prismatic Translation strand is made up of three twined threads. ‘Prismatic Jane Eyre: Close-reading a global novel across languages’ looks at how that book has been transformed through translation into many languages across the globe.

Impressions from fieldwork: ‘I have never done these things with English!’

As part of our ongoing psycholinguistic research on figurative language processing, our Metaphor strand took three experiments on the road in November 2018 to test learners of English in Osijek, Croatia.

The first experiment (a priming study) looked at how non-native speakers process conventional English metaphorical expressions (such as open an account or expose the truth) and whether it differs from the way English native speakers process them.

Performing Languages: on multilingualism and language hierarchies

As a Warwickshire-based translator and creative writer in French and English, I’ve long been aware of the four-year research programme Creative Multilingualism. Due to professional commitments, I had however never been able to attend previous events.

Yoruba Sonnets performance Wolfson College

Yoruba Sonnets: creative multilingualism in action

Friday night’s (15/2/19) Yoruba Sonnets event at Wolfson College was part of a project initiated over 20 years ago by Birmingham-based Lekan Babalola, to explore the oral poetry associated with the ancient Nigerian philosophy and divination system Ifa, and to introduce it to other cultural contexts. This may sound like the outline for a dry-as-dust worthy academic lecture…

Yoruba Sonnets: audience feedback

On 15 February, Grammy award-winning Lekan Babalola brought his Sacred Funk Quartet and spoken word poet Dr Olu Taiwo to perform the Yoruba Sonnets at Wolfson College, Oxford. The performance pairs ancient verses from the Ifa divination with contemporary Western funk music.

Multilingualism and Language Learning: survey

The increasing voluntary and forced mobility of people resulting from globalisation and political instabilities in various regions is having a dramatic impact on the linguistic make up of many nation-states. New forms of linguistic diversity and multilingualism are emerging, involving different linguistic practices.

Poster from Refugee Writings, Creative Encounters workshop

Poetics of Exile: the “Ruins” of Homeland

In this blog post, Professor Wen-chin Ouyang shares an overview of the workshop Refugee Writings, Creative Encounters which took place at SOAS, University of London in 2018.

Remembering Vadim Levanov: playwright and producer of new Russian plays (1967-2011)

A journalist from Togliatti, Valera Trubin, recently contacted me and asked whether I would be willing to contribute to a book of testimonials about Vadim Levanov.

What are the Yoruba Sonnets? Interview with Lekan Babalola

Ahead of the Yoruba Sonnets concert at Wolfson College, Oxford on 15 February, we spoke to Grammy Award-winning Lekan Babalola about the upcoming performance and what inspired him to pair ancient Nigerian verse with the contemporary sound of Western Funk.

What are the Yoruba Sonnets?

Dance Ahead performing at the Performing Languages conference

What does it mean to perform language?

‘I don’t understand anything you’re saying when you say it, but even if you had no translator, I would follow you to a cult compound and never leave.’

Illustration of an Elegy written in a country churchyard

Gray's "Elegy" in translation: a multilingual digital humanities project

Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country-Churchyard" (1751) is, according to the Digital Miscellanies Index, the most anthologized poem of the eighteenth century and one of the most widely and frequently translated, paraphrased, and imitated poems in the English language. With to date at least 266 translations into at least 40 languages, the "Elegy" has inspired translators ever since the earliest translations into Latin appeared in the early 1760s.

Poetry in Translation, Poetics of Translation

How can translation make an ancient text speak to present day experiences? Bereavement is universal, but the expressions of loss differ widely, perhaps because loss itself is of various types.