Multiculturalism, Multilingualism and the Self: Studies in Linguistics and Language Learning [Paperback]

This book offers several insights into cross-cultural and multilingual learning, drawing upon recent research within two main areas: Language Studies and Multilingual Language Learning/Teaching. It places particular emphasis on the Polish learning environment and Poles abroad.

Todays world is an increasingly complex network of cross-cultural and multilingual influences, forcing us to redefine our Selves to include a much broader perspective than ever before. The first part of the book explores attitudes toward multiculturalism in British political speeches, joking behaviour in multicultural working settings, culture-dependent aspects of taboos and swearing, and expressive language of the imprisoned, adding a diachronic perspective by means of a linguistic study of The Canterbury Tales. In turn, the studies in the second part focus on visible shifts in contemporary multilingualism research, learners attitudes towards multiple languages they acquire, teachers perspectiveson the changing requirements related to multiculturalism, and immigrant brokers professional experience in the UK.

Changing Perceptions of Multiculturalism in the British Public Sphere.- The Use of Humor in the Multicultural Working Environment.- Taboos and Swearing: Cross-linguistic Universalities and Peculiarities.- Expressing the Prison Self.- New Approaches to Multilingualism Research: Focus on Metaphors and Similes.- L2 or L3? Foreign Language Enjoyment and Proficiency. 

Danuta Gabry[-Barker is a Professor of English at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, where she lectures and supervises M.A. and Ph.D. theses in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and especially in second language acquisition and multilingualism. She has published approximately one hundred and fifty articles and the books Aspects of multilingual storage, processing and retrieval (2005) and Reflectivity in pre-service teacher education (2012lS>