This lecture explores visual representations of multilingualism among Filipino migrants to New Zealand and Anglophone migrants to Luxembourg. The first group have migrated from a multilingual to a dominantly monolingual society, and the second group from more monolingual societies to a highly multilingual society. The Filipino participants´ drawings reveal ease and fluidity in using their multiple language resources in New Zealand, while those of the Anglophone participants paint a very different picture of multilingualism, where languages are strictly separated and anxiety runs high. The lecture considers the potential relationship of these results to contrasting Western and Asian language ideologies, and asks how much of our metalinguistic perspectives we bring with us when we leave, and how much we absorb when we arrive. The lecture will be interactive and involve participant discussion of relevant data.
Julia de Bres is Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the Institute of English Studies, University of Luxembourg. Her research takes a critical approach to language practices, policies and ideologies relating to multilingualism, in Europe and New Zealand, with a focus on minority languages.
Contact : peter.voss@uni.lu | http://dtucalidie.uni.lu