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Bilingualism with English As a “Second Language” and/or Broad Plurilingual Repertoires: A Swiss Point of View

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Current Research in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 26))

Abstract

Based on puristical ideologies the roots of which can be traced back to the dawn of human metalinguistic discourse, many people continue to consider mixing languages as a threat to the integrity of a language, a betrayal of linguistic loyalty or even as a risk to the development of a child’s personality. In contrast to these prejudices—and from the perspective of a language education policy—it is argued that there are intrinsic cognitive and social values of plurilingual repertoires and that schools should foster their construction in the official language of education, in students’ home languages as well as in foreign languages. The underlying concept of bi-/plurilingualism is not that of a kind of addition of two or more monolingual competences, but rather that of a set of skills in different languages, from perfect to very partial, seen as an integrated whole, i.e. a set of resources that are shared and jointly mobilised by the actors. Empirical research on the usage of languages in everyday life reveals the creativity of mixed teams that rely on a myriad of different communicative strategies, dictating for example accommodation to speakers of other languages in a concern for efficiency, and not just fairness. Of course, such behaviour is grounded in the prerequisite of plurilingual repertoires. Therefore we will make a plea for teaching and learning several foreign languages before, at, outside and after school.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See also Halliday et al. (1970) concept of “ambilingualism.”

  2. 2.

    See Hugo Schuchardt: Slawodeutsches und Slawoitalienisches. Dem Herrn Franz von Miklisich zum 20. November 1883, Graz (1884), S. 6.

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  1. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Georges Lüdi

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  1. Georges Lüdi
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  1. Faculty of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Piotr Romanowski

  2. Institute of English, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland

    Małgorzata Jedynak

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Lüdi, G. (2018). Bilingualism with English As a “Second Language” and/or Broad Plurilingual Repertoires: A Swiss Point of View. In: Romanowski, P., Jedynak, M. (eds) Current Research in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Multilingual Education, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92396-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92396-3_9

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