Multilingualism

The “multilingualism” partnership project headed by Professor Ingrid Gogolin (Hamburg) and Professor Ingrid Piller (Macquarie) engages with the social and cultural challenges resulting from linguistic diversity.

Migration and globalization have led to high levels of linguistic diversity but systematic efforts to bridge institutional language barriers to full and equal participation for those from non-dominant language backgrounds have been slow to develop. The negative impacts of language barriers contribute to group segregation and are connected to exclusion from full and equal participation in education, employment and other spheres of social life.

The project examines the nature and consequences of language barriers particularly in educational institutional contexts, and at the intersection of formal and informal participation. It aims to highlight positive experiences and practices that serve to mitigate linguistic barriers to full and equitable formal and informal participation.