Master 2024/2025

Bilingualism and multilingualism in the context of ethnocultural diversity

Type: Compulsory course (Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity)

Area of studies: Linguistics

Delivered by: School of Philological Studies

Where: Faculty of Humanities

When: 1 year, 3 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Instructors: Denis Zubalov

Master’s programme: Языковая политика в условиях этнокультурного разнообразия

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course objective is to introduce students to the multifaceted field of bilingualism and multilingualism in light of the growing influence of processes of globalization and super-diversity. Super-diversity refers to the remarkable increase in the number of languages spoken in urban contexts as a result of globalization. In this course will highlight and analyze multilingual speech communities and examine language choice patterns in these communities in light of current language policies and ideologies. Likewise, in this course, we will look at the phenomenon of bilingualism/multilingualism from different angles: education, family, society. In addition, we will examine how children hearing two (or more) languages from birth turn into bilingual/multilingual speakers, tracing their overall development. In addition, such phenomena that often accompany multilingual speech communities such as code-switching and code-mixing will be examined. Finally, we will highlight what socio-economic, cognitive and linguistic advantages may stem from the phenomenon of bilingualism in multilingual global and super-diverse contexts.