Inter- and Intra-generational Dynamics of Multilingualism

25 Jun 2026, 00:00 → 27 Jun 2026, 18:30 Europe/Berlin

Berendsohn-Lesesaal (University of Hamburg (Von-Melle-Park 6))

Ludwig Paul (University of Hamburg), Manuela Vida-Mannl (TU Dortmund), Olga Lopopolo (University of Hamburg), Peter Siemund (University of Hamburg)

The research group “CODILAC - Convergence on Dominant Language Constellations: World Englishes in their multilingual ecologies” (DFG FOR 5728) invites proposals for papers and posters to be presented at the workshop on “Inter- and intra-generational Dynamics of Multilingualism” at the University of Hamburg (Germany) on 25-27 June 2026.

 

The workshop aims to explore the social dynamics of multilingualism as constantly negotiated and transformed phenomena across generations. Recognizing language as a social and local practice susceptible to change (Pennycook 2010), the workshop focuses on how speakers across and within different generations navigate, influence, and reshape their language practices.

Speakers possess the historical agency to influence the trajectory of future generations’ multilingual practices (Purkarthofer 2020; Suslak 2009). While inter- and intra-generational dynamics are usually investigated within specific age groups and generational identities (e.g. older vs younger speakers), speakers’ perceptions of what defines their belonging to a particular generation are closely linked to their social and local relationships, rather than being determined solely by a biological line (Eckert 2017; Giles, Makony and Dailey 2005). Consequently, members of the same generation may hold diverse perspectives on how their multilingualism is shaped by their historical and socioeconomic backgrounds, societal norms, individual experiences they have with their languages, as well as global language dynamics. These factors, in turn, influence their expectations regarding language use, their current language practices, and the language transmission to future generations. Therefore, and in the spirit of third wave sociolinguistics, we understand generational behavior as a social process shaped and negotiated through interactions with factors such as location, status, orientation, beliefs, ideologies, situation, and power (Eckert 2019). We are especially interested in the resulting multilingual bricolage of linguistic features.

The workshop aims to be an international platform for research on multilingualism from different social and geographical contexts, which are able to highlight the emergent and dynamic nature of multilingual practices potentially shifting across and within generations and domains. Frameworks that emphasize these aspects, such as Dominant Language Constellations (DLC) (Aronin 2006), Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) (Larsen-Freeman and Cameron 2008; Schneider 2025), third wave sociolinguistics (Eckert 2019), as well as speaker-centered approaches (Busch 2017), are particularly welcome.

More specifically, the workshop is envisioned as a critical space for fostering dialogue among early-career researchers, including doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and scholars at the beginning of their academic careers, working on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• generational transmission of multilingualism within institutional domains (e.g., educational sector)

• generational transmission of multilingualism within the private sphere (e.g., family language policies - FLP)

• multilingual language use in and between different generations (e.g., adolescents in comparison to adults)

• inter-generational challenges posed by official language policies (e.g., changes in standardization policies and official language use)

• ideologies surrounding language use within speech communities (e.g., national and local language ideologies)

• the status and use of World Englishes across different generations (e.g., the use of exonormative vs endonormative varieties)

• attitudes towards World Englishes across and within generations (e.g., individual or group perceptions of varieties of English)

• individual biographies and narratives of language change over life courses (e.g., turning points of language use, language shift, shifting DLCs)

• language maintenance in traditional minority context, migration and diaspora (e.g., heritage language maintenance and revitalization)

• the role of language to promote social cohesion across generations (e.g., community-driven efforts for social cohesion)

 

Invited Speakers

Larissa Aronin (VIZJA University, Warsaw - Poland)

Tobias Bernaisch (Justus Liebig University, Giessen - Germany)

Loy Lising (Macquarie University, Sydney - Australia)

Stefanie Pillai (University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia)

Edgar Schneider (University of Regensburg - Germany)

Daniel Schreier (University of Zurich - Switzerland)

Inter_Intra_gen_dyn_final-3.pdf

Thursday 25 June

Registration

Opening

Keynote: Keynote 1: Stefanie Pillai

1 Ah Ko, ae hiao gui ae bahaso ka liao total?: Multilingualism among Kelantan Hokkien Chinese

Malaysia is a multiethnic nation with an estimated population of 30.8 million population (Department of Statistics Malaysa, 2025a). While more than half (58.3%) of the population comprises Malays, 22.2% are Chinese. Chinese Malaysians are generally categorised according to dialect groups, e.g., Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka. However, in present day Malaysia, Mandarin is increasingly replacing these dialects (Pillai & Zainuddin, 2025; Vollmann & Soon, 2018; Xiaomei, 2016). The Hokkien community is the biggest Chinese dialect group in Malaysia. However, there are varieties of Hokkien depending on which part of Malaysia it is spoken. One of these varieties is the Hokkien spoken in Kelantan, which borders southern Thailand. Kelantan is a Malay-Muslim majority state comprising 95.5% Malays. The Chinese make up 2.4% of the estimated 1.9 million population (Department of Statistics Malaysa, 2025b) of whom the majority are Hokkien (Tan, 1997). The Kelantan variety of Hokkien (KH) is a localized variety of Hokkien that is influenced by the Kelantan Malay dialect (KM) and the local variety of Thai referred to as Siamese. Contact with the local Malay community in this state has resulted in most Hokkien people being fluent in KM (Pue, Ong, & Loo, 2019). The younger generation also tend to be more fluent in Mandarin (Pillai & Zainuddin, 2025; Xiaomei, 2016). It is posited that changing national language and education policies and socio-economic priorities, and language contact over the years would have influenced multilingual practices among the KH community. Yet these influences remain understudied. Thus, we were motivated to examine the following:
(1) The patterns of use that emerge in each generation of the KH Chinese.
(2) The extent to which the preservation of KH is related to the respondents sense of identity as Malaysian, KH and Chinese?
In this chapter, we discuss the findings in relation to intergenerational differences in patterns of language use and the attachment to KH as a heritage language across the three generations.

References
Department of Statistics Malaysia (2025b). Current population estimates, Malaysia, 2025. Retrieved from https://storage.dosm.gov.my/demography/population_2025.pdf
Department of Statistics Malaysia (2025a). Demographic statistics Malaysia, second quarter 2025. Retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my
Pillai, S., & Zainuddin, S. Z. (2025). Top-down policies and the language profiles of Malaysians in a multilingual language ecology. In P.Siemund, G. Stein & M. Vida-Mannl (Eds.), World Englishes in their local multilingual ecologies (pp. 116-142). John Benjamins.
Pue, G. H., Ong, P. L., & Loo, H. C. (2019). Kelantan Peranakan Chinese language and marker of group identity. Gema Online Journal of Language Studies, 19(2), 33-51. http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2019-1902-03
Tan, C.-B. (1997). Chinese identities in Malaysia. Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, 25(2), 103-116. https://doi.org/10.1163/030382497X00194
Vollmann, R., & Soon, T. W. (2018). Chinese identities in multilingual Malaysia. Grazer Linguistische Studien, 89, 35-61. https://doi.org/10.25364/04.45:2018.89.3
Xiaomei, W. (2016) The Chinese language in the Asian diaspora: A Malaysian experience. In G. Leitner, A. Hashim, H.-G. Wolf (Eds). Communicating with Asia: The future of English as a global language (pp. 205-215). Cambridge University Press.

Speaker: Stefanie Pillai

Chapter_Abstract_Multilingualism_Kelantan_Hokkien_King_Pillai_260205.docx

2 Mothers say, Children say: Two views on language use of the younger generation of the Sso community (Cameroon)

Societal multilingualism typically involves the use of different languages in different domains and with varying levels of vitality. Several approaches aim to assess language vitality within a continuum or scale. In almost all of these frameworks, intergenerational transmission is considered crucial for a language’s prospects of maintenance. Intergenerational language transmission refers to the passing on of a language from one generation to the next (Fishman, 1991). While the focus is obviously placed on parental behavior, children’s agency should not be neglected (Luykx, 2005). Children’s language use cannot simply be deduced from parental input; rather, there is considerable dynamic interaction between the two generations.
Consequently, a vitality study conducted among the Sso community by SIL Cameroon surveyed both generations. The language community comprises about 10,000 people in the Centre region of Cameroon (Eberhard, Simons and Fennig, 2023). Other languages present in the community include the neighbouring languages Beti (also the language of wider communication), Makaa and Koonzime as well as French, one of Cameroon’s two official languages. The primary instrument used in the study was an individual sociolinguistic questionnaire, administered in several variants – one for each group of subjects. Regarding the parental generation, attention was given to mothers specifically. Although the scientific debate on gender roles in transmission continues (cf. De Houwer, 2007), research suggests a tendency toward greater maternal influence (e.g., Velázquez, 2018). Rather than distinguishing only two unrelated social groups (mothers and children), mothers and children were systematically paired: for each mother, two of her children were surveyed. This design allows the mother’s information to contextualize those of the children and the children’s answers to cross-check the mothers’ reports.
This contribution examines the congruence between mothers’ and their children’s responses. The questionnaires administered to both groups included some identical or similar questions, targeting the same aspects, such as language choices with each other, languages choices with siblings, and the children’s language proficiency. It will be shown that the views effectively diverge. It will be discussed on what aspects divergence is greater or smaller, what kinds of divergence can be observed (number of languages, languages, etc.) and how the divergence can be explained.

Speaker: Rahel Beyer (SIL Cameroon)

Inter_Intra_Gen_Dyn_Multiling_Abstract_II_rev.docx

3 Multilingualism in Filipino families in Italy: Family Language Policy and Language Portraits

This paper investigates multilingual repertoires and heritage language (HL) transmission among 60 Filipino speakers in Italy (32 first-generation and 28 second-generation). It draws on two complementary data sources: semi-structured sociolinguistic interviews and the Language Portrait task (Moro & Di Salvo 2026; Busch 2012). The Filipino community in Italy, one of the largest in the European Union, has existed since the 1970s. Despite their long-standing presence in Italian society, rates of intermarriage remain relatively low (ANPAL 2022). Children are typically exposed at home to Tagalog/Filipino, English, and one or more Philippine regional languages (e.g., Ilocano, Cebuano) before entering school (by age six at the latest). After school entry, exposure to and use of Italian increase sharply, often making Italian dominant in everyday interaction.
Four patterns emerge from the interview data: (1) regional Philippine languages are rarely transmitted to children and elicit mixed evaluations; when parents prioritize a HL, they tend to choose Tagalog rather than a regional language; (2) parent–child interaction is typically characterized by Tagalog–Italian mixing, indicating that Italian becomes salient while Tagalog is nonetheless maintained and generally positively valued; (3) English is not selected as the sole language of family communication, but appears mainly in combination with Italian and/or Tagalog; and (4) in the second generation, exclusive Italian use is most common with peers and younger interlocutors (e.g., siblings, children). Overall, these patterns point to limited intergenerational transmission, consistent with findings from other Filipino diaspora contexts (e.g., Canada, see Nagy 2021; the United States see Axel 2011; Australia see Lising 2022).
Triangulating interview results with Language Portraits reveals clear generational differences in embodied language representations. First-generation participants typically locate Tagalog in the upper body (head, chest), suggesting strong emotional attachment and identity affiliation; however, this embodied centrality does not necessarily align with active HL transmission in the family. For instance, participant FI1F16 (first generation; born in Batangas; resident in Italy for 33 years) places the Filipino flag on her chest and Italian flags on her hands (Figure on the side). She explains that Tagalog belongs “in the heart” because she deeply cares about it, while Italian is on the hands because living in Italy has “given her two hands”. Yet, despite this affective positioning of Tagalog, she reports using Italian with her children, illustrating the gap between emotional attachment and everyday transmission practices. Among second-generation speakers, the pattern is partially reversed. While many still place Tagalog in central positions, most locate Italian in the head or chest, identifying it as the most meaningful language in their repertoire. Interestingly, local Philippine languages are rarely included in the portraits. This may be partly due to uncertainty among speakers about how to represent them, but it may also point to an ongoing shift, as documented in sociolinguistic interviews.
Filipino families in Italy navigate competing pressures in language transmission: Italian as the majority language, English for socioeconomic mobility, and home languages for emotional attachment. Understanding these family language policies is crucial for helping migrants and second generations develop healthy multilingual identities.

Speaker: Francesca Moro (University of Naples L'Orientale)

abstract_Hamburg_Multilingualism in Filipino families in Italy.pdf

4 Dynamics in multilingual patterns and language attitudes among Kalmyk speakers

Kalmyk language (Oirat, Mongolic) is a minoritised language spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia. Over several generations, the linguistic situation has changed drastically due to shifting language and ethnic policies. In the twentieth century, there were periods of state support for Kalmyk and Kalmyk-medium education, as well as periods of repression, including the forced deportation of the Kalmyk population to Siberia in 1943–1956 (Guchinova 2005). These events led to disruptions in intergenerational language transmission within many families.
These socio-political changes significantly affected the multilingual repertoires of Kalmyk speakers, including the widespread acquisition of Russian, processes of language shift, and, in recent decades, partial revitalisation of Kalmyk. This has resulted in new configurations of L1 and L2, varying levels of proficiency in both languages, and diverse multilingual practices in public and private communication across generations.
The data consist of individual biographical narratives documenting language change across the lifespan of bilingual speakers in Kalmykia. The corpus was collected in both Kalmyk and Russian; for some speakers, narratives are available in both languages, while others chose to speak either Kalmyk or Russian. (The Kalmyk-language part was published within the INEL language documentation project in 2025.) This corpus makes it possible to analyse linguistic biographies, language choices, and language use among Kalmyks.
The paper addresses two main research questions: (1) What types of multilingual patterns have existed and continue to exist across different generations of Kalmyks? (2) How do language prestige and language attitudes influence language practices?
Drawing on the concept of the multilingual speaker’s repertoire (Busch 2017) and a dynamic understanding of language use, the linguistic biography approach reveals individual transition points in speakers’ trajectories. In ‘new speakers’ studies, these biographical junctures are referred to as mudes, which influence language acquisition and language practices (Pujolar 2019).
The results identify key linguistic transition points (mudes) across generations of Kalmyk speakers. One major finding is the strong individual agency of the younger generation in maintaining Kalmyk and expanding its domains of use. The linguistic analysis demonstrates generational changes in language use in both Kalmyk and Russian. The revitalising language community should therefore be understood as a continuum of speakers with varying levels of competence and diverse sources of language exposure.
References
Busch, B. (2017). Expanding the Notion of the Linguistic Repertoire: On the Concept of Spracherleben – T he Lived Experience of Language. Applied Linguistics 38/3: 340–358.
Guchinova, E.-B. (2005). “Pomnit' nel'zja zabyt'”: Antropologija deportacionnoj travmy kalmykov. [‘Remember or Forget’. An anthropology of the trauma of deportation among Kalmyks], Munich, Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag.
INEL 2025 - Baranova, V. (2025). INEL Kalmyk Corpus. Archived at Universität Hamburg. Version 1.0. Publication date 2025-07-17. https://hdl.handle.net/11022/0000-0007-FFB1-2. Archived at Universität Hamburg. In: The INEL Corpora of Indigenous Northern Eurasian.
Pujolar, J. (2019). Linguistic mudes: An exploration over the linguistic constitution of subjects. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 257, 165-189.

Speaker: Vlada Baranova (University of Hamburg)

Dynamics in multilingual patterns and language attitudes among Kalmyk speakers.pdf

15:30 Coffee break

5 Between Assimilation and Resistance: Mosaic Hybridity and the Intergenerational Language Shift of Bengali(s) in Assam

Bengali, an official language of West Bengal and Tripura, has a significant presence in the north-eastern states of India. However, Bengali speakers constitute a linguistic minority in these states. To lay out a demographic context and language policy of the Union, English is recognized as the Associate Official language of India, and each state (29) recognizes its official language(s). This study focuses on the north-eastern state of Assam, a mini linguistic area and home to languages from several groups, including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Karbi, Hajong, Dimasa, Nepali, etc. Situated at the periphery of the Indo-Aryan belt, the region represents a microcosm of linguistic diversity. While English (constituting ~8%), Assamese (constituting 48.4% of the population), and Bodo (constituting 4.51%) are the three official languages of the state, Meitei (0.54%) and Bengali (28.9%) are the two additional languages officially recognized in the Barak Valley and Hojai districts, respectively. This paper examines the dynamic multilingual ecology of the Bengali minority in Assam, examining how politically marginalized communities restructure their linguistic repertoires under the pressure of modern citizenship regimes (Baruah, 2020). Language shift, from “varieties” such as Sylheti, Comilla and Mymensinghia to Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB) and Assamese in this case, is not a simple linear loss, but a process beginning with strategic biopolitical negotiation leading to hybrid forms due to a shift in inter-generational transmission. These hybrid forms represent complex mosaic forms (Piplai, 2025), especially in the younger generations. Adopting sociolinguistic approaches (Simard et al., 2020), this study explores the psychosocial motivations which result in parents altering children's multilingual development by engineering the home-based transmission of native tongues. through. Following a Mixed-Methods Sociolinguistic Design, integrating Ethnographic Qualitative Research with Descriptive Linguistic Analysis, this study examines data collected from 74 participants across 3 generations in two zones: Brahmaputra and Barak Valley. Barak Valley's (constituting 78% of the total Bengali population) maintenance of Sylheti as a lingua franca has been seen as an active resistance against the “internal colonization” by both Assamese linguistic nationalism and Kolkata-centric SCB hegemony; the findings of this study reveal the presence of hybrid language forms which vary across generations in urban areas. Community learning of the native language in these cases reveals lexical, morpho-syntactic and phonological mixing of features from Sylheti, SCB, Hindi, English, etc. These hybrid mosaic forms represent a type of multilingualism that is not always additive in nature, but a defensive strategy in conflict zones that acts as a requirement for the minorities. This study, through the two contact zones, highlights the importance of population dynamics in the maintenance and intergenerational transmission of all languages independently in the multilingual ecosystem.

Keywords: Bengali, language shift, hybrid mosaic, intergenerational transmission, multilingualism.

Speaker: Anindita Choudhury (IIT Kharagput)

Between Assimilation and Resistance.docx

6 Tohar maa/ baap ke galti ha! – ‘it’s your parents’ fault!’ A Multigenerational Approach to the Transmission and Maintenance of Mauritian Bhojpuri.

This paper explores the social dynamics of language maintenance and shift within the private sphere, focusing specifically on the endangered language of Mauritian Bhojpuri. Family Language Policy (FLP) has established the family as playing a crucial role in the transmission of multilingual practices, more so in contexts of language endangerment and language shift where, as Noori (2009: 13) argues “the language must be returned to the children and the home.” However, the field has also been criticised for its Western-centric reliance on the nuclear family model (Lomeu Gomes & Lanza, 2022). Drawing on the above perspectives, this ongoing study adopts an approach to FLP rooted in multigenerational Mauritian families to investigate how they negotiate ideologies, manage practices, and influence the linguistic trajectory of future generations.

Data from successive censuses indicate a gradual decline in the number of speakers using Mauritian Bhojpuri in the home domain, falling from 19.1% in 1990 to 5.1% in 2022 (Central Statistical Office, 1990; Statistics Mauritius, 2022). Despite Mauritian Bhojpuri folk songs being inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO) and a small number of local publications focusing on the traditions and customs of the Bhojpuri-speaking community (cf. Boodhoo, 1999), minimal attention has been paid to the language itself and documentation remains limited.

This project addresses the above-mentioned gap by shifting the methodological focus toward ethnographic observations and naturalistic conversations of family units, complemented by semi-structured interviews. We argue that to truly understand family linguistic practices in endangered language contexts, research must look beyond the nuclear unit to focus on both parents and grandparents, whose role as custodians is pivotal in the transmission of heritage languages (Said, 2024). In our pilot study of two multigenerational Mauritian families, we focus on the close connection between positive language ideology and successful transmission of the Bhojpuri language to the next generation. We pay specific attention to how participants consistently frame Bhojpuri as a “dharohar [legacy]”, and how this informs their choice to invest in the intergenerational transmission of the language.

In addition, we observe the maintenance of culture-specific practices, notably the use of kinship terms instead of or together with personal names when addressing elders, reflecting broader norms of respect and family hierarchy. Among the grandparents’ generation, this practice often involves combining the husband’s or eldest child’s name with a kinship term, as in the use of “Nirmal bhauji [Nirmal sister-in-law]”, where an older relative is addressed using the name of her first-born child. We also note the complex "multilingual bricolage" of daily life (Eckert, 2019), with our informants fluidly drawing upon linguistic resources in Creole, Bhojpuri, English and French to differing degrees and for varying reasons.

With Bhojpuri confined mainly to the home domain, the responsibility for the successful transmission of the language and its associated culturally-specific practices falls to family. While declining speaker numbers paint a bleak picture about the long-term survival of Bhojpuri, we argue that positive language ideology, particularly in multigenerational families, can still contribute to its maintenance by promoting its use across different generations.

Speakers: Hannah Davidson (Newnham College, University of Cambridge), Tejshree Auckle (University of Mauritius)

Abstract_Inter-_and_Intra-genational_dynamics_of_multilingualism_submit.docx

7 Phonetic Variation in Singapore English in a Changing Multilingual Ecology

It has been suggested in evolutionary models of World Englishes that one of the key features that mark Singapore English as one of the most developed of Englishes in the world is the presence of ethnic variation. Ethnic variation in language, in turn, is also a hallmark of multilingual ecologies. When it comes to ethnic subvarieties in Singapore English, phonetic variation is the one area that has received the most attention, given that it is not only the most salient feature, it is also tied most closely to the construction of identities. One of the first observations on ethnic variation in the sound system of Singapore English dated as early as 1968, and thus far, there have been differing perspectives offered on the topic – be it in terms of its segmental or suprasegmental properties, or in terms of phonetic production and perception. Does ethnicity matter? Is there ethnic variation in the sound system of Singapore English? Research on this topic have pointed in opposite directions when it comes to these questions. In this talk, I aim to provide an overview of the research of the topic, tracing the differing (and contesting) perspectives on the question of ethnic variation in the sound system of Singapore English as Singapore’s multilingual ecology changes across the past few decades. The goal is to be able to offer an explanation for the differing accounts by looking carefully at the nature of Singapore’s multilingual ecology and also the theoretical frameworks scholars have believed in when drawing their conclusions. This talk therefore aims to offer a perspective that may provide some clarity to some of the existing questions on ethnic variation in Singapore English, and at the same time, challenge some assumptions that have been made in the various fields in Linguistics.

Speaker: Ying Ying Tan (NTU2025)

Does Ethnicity Matter_hamburg.docx

Closing

20:00 Social event

Friday 26 June

Opening

Keynote: Keynote 2: Larissa Aronin

8 Dominant Language Constellations in Inter - and Intra- generational perspective

The dynamics of multilingualism is one of the most important and at the same time most challenging enquiry for researchers. The Dominant Language Constellation Approach (DLC) works as a lens to gain more situated and deep understanding of what happens between and within generations of multilinguals. The contribution will demonstrate how the Dominant Language Constellation Approach (DLC) is instrumental in revealing causal factors and patterns of change that may lead to malleability or stability of sociolinguistic arrangements across generations. At present, the studies on Dominant Language Constellations deal with teaching and learning, social linguistic arrangements and language interactions within a DLC (Hufeisen, 2018; Lo Bianco 2020; Moccozet & Böckh, 2023; Aronin 2025; Vetter 2025). Studies on DLC in a family are pioneered by Limacher-Riebold (2026). The unique so far stance with the focus on inter- and intra-generational dynamics taken by the CODILAC group – Convergence on Dominant Language Constellations: World Englishes in their multilingual ecologies” is outstandingly topical. In this contribution, I will discuss the current multilingual language practices and linguistic futures through the lens of DLC and outline the possible routes of DLC research in Inter - and Intra- generational perspective.
References
Aronin, L. (2025). Dominant Language Constellation (DLC). In Carol A. Chapelle (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics Second edition. Wiley-Blackwell. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal20226
Hufeisen, B. (2018). Models of multilingual competence. In A. Bonnet & P. Siemund (Eds.), Foreign language education in multilingual classroom (pp. 173–189). John Benjamins.
Limacher-Riebold, Ute (2026). DLC practices in multilingual families and school activities. The dynamic DLC of mobile multilingual families. In Aronin Larissa and Eva Vetter (Eds.) Dominant Language Constellations for Teachers: A practical dimension. (pp. TBA) Springer.
Lo Bianco, J. (2020). A meeting of concepts and praxis: Multilingualism, language policy and the Dominant Language Constellation. In J. Lo Bianco & L. Aronin (Eds.), Dominant Language Constellations: A new perspective on multilingualism (pp. 35–56). Springer.
Moccozet, L., & Böckh, M. (2023). Digital DLC models as instruments for raising awareness and better understanding of current multilingualism in HEI. In L. Aronin & S. Melo-Pfeifer (Eds.), Language awareness and identity: Insights via Dominant Language Constellation approach (pp. 45–65). Springer.
Vetter, E. (2025). Constellation Linguistique Dominante. In Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer & Christian Ollivier (Eds.) Encyclopédie de l'éducation plurilingue / Encyclopedia of plurilingual education. (pp.123-125). Peter Lang (collection Champs Didactiques Plurilingues).

Speaker: Larissa Aronin

Aronin_Dominant Language Constellations in Inter - and Intra- generational perspective.docx

10:00 Coffee break

9 Language Attitudes Towards Multilingualism on the Divided Island of Cyprus – An inter-/ intragenerational overview

Cyprus is an inherently multilingual island. Its multilingualism includes two official languages, Greek and Turkish, their local varieties, Cypriot Greek and Cypriot Turkish, English, which was introduced under British rule, and many other migrant languages. Despite this multitude of used languages, research has so far predominantly focused on speaker attitudes towards both varieties of Greek and Turkish as well as English (see Evripidou & Cavusoglu 2015; McEntee-Atalianis & Pouloukas 2001). For the local languages, Greek and Turkish, it has been found that the standard variety is of higher prestige than the local one, although the difference is decreasing (see Cavusoglu & Evripidou 2018). Attitudes towards the Cypriot Turkish variety even changed from negative into positive while the high value of Cypriot Greek remained constant (Buschfeld 2013: 40-41; Vida-Mannl 2021: 74). For English, a shift from negative to positive attitudes has been reported. While, during the British rule, English used to be perceived as a threat to the use of Greek by Greek Cypriots, the biggest ethnic group of the island, nowadays, especially younger generations demonstrate more positive attitudes towards English in the southern part of the separated island. In the North, Turkish Cypriots, the other main ethnic group, have continued their positive attitudes, while descendants from Turkish settlers exhibit negative attitudes towards English and the general no-use of Turkish especially among older generations (Vida-Mannl, Buschfeld & Grohmann 2025: 179-180). Attitudes towards other languages or multilingualism in general have not yet been investigated.
This paper investigates attitudes towards multilingualism among residents of Cyprus, more particularly in the cities of Paphos, Kyrenia, and Nicosia. Specifically, it focuses on inter- and intragenerational differences to find out to what extent different generations and generations among themselves might have and express different attitudes towards multilingualism. Furthermore, we analyse how the influence of other variables such as city of residence, level of education, and composition of language repertoire influence attitudes towards multilingualism to go beyond the factor of age alone. We analyse the language use and attitudes section of 106 extensive, audio-recorded assisted questionnaires using a mixed-methods approach. An intergenerational comparison of attitudes will indicate that older age groups express more negative attitudes than younger age groups across all cities. In addition, the intragenerational comparison will indicate a strong influence of internationality and the multilingualism in the respective cities on the attitudes across generations. A general intergenerational difference is noticeable between younger and older generations while the intragenerational comparison is highly influenced by location.

Speakers: Erna Selmanovic (TU-Dortmund), Manuela Vida-Mannl (TU Dortmund), Sarah Buschfeld (TU Dortmund)

inter- and intragenerational dynamics of multilinguaism - abstract_.docx

10 Generational Predictors of English Proficiency: Investigating Undergraduate Students in Cebu City

English is widely used in the Philippines as an additional and co‑official language alongside the official language Filipino and more than 150 indigenous languages. People across the Philippines are typically bilingual in Filipino and English in northern Luzon, or trilingual in Filipino, English, and Cebuano in the central and southern parts of the country (Visayas, Mindanao). Moreover, English plays a central role in education making English proficiency critical for academic success. Despite this, little is known about how generational and home‑based language practices shape English proficiency, especially among young adults. This study examines the English proficiency of 624 undergraduates from four universities in Cebu City to identify which generational factors best predict English proficiency. The port town of Cebu City is the most important municipality in the Visayas.

Data were collected through a large sociolinguistic survey measuring listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, each captured on six-point Likert scales. Predictor variables include demographic factors (age and gender), educational background (pri-vate vs. public), university affiliation, medium of instruction, home language, parental level of education, and English use with family members (parents, grandparents, sib-lings) and peers. Bayesian modelling was applied to both complete cases (n = 502) and to multiply imputed datasets using predictive mean matching (n = 624), with imputation improving estimate reliability.

Results show that English use within the family strongly predicts proficiency across all four skill domains. Interacting in English with parents, siblings, and grandpar-ents, as well as having English as a home language, substantially increases proficiency. English home language use had the biggest impact on speaking abilities. In contrast, age, gender, school background, university affiliation, medium of instruction, and Eng-lish use with best friends exert little influence. These findings highlight the central role of family language practices in fostering English proficiency, suggesting that home‑based exposure may be more influential than institutional factors in this student population.

Speakers: Peter Siemund (University of Hamburg), Jannah Flores Alcantara (Universitaet Hamburg), Loy Lising (Macquarie University), Aurelio Vilbar (University of the Philippines Cebu)

Generational Predictors of English Proficiency.docx

11 Intergenerational constellations and linguistic adaptation in micro ecologies of Lagos

Nigeria is a country of considerable linguistic complexity, with approximately 500 languages from three African language phyla. The linguistic landscape is dominated by Hausa in the North, Yoruba in the Southwest, and Igbo in the Southeast, while convergence zones with high rates of contact and multilingualism are situated in between (Jegede, 2024). Although the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria recognises regional languages such as Yorùbá, Igbo, and Hausa as official languages, English enjoys greater prominence and, as in other countries, has continued to expand its spheres of influence. English in Nigeria can be traced back to the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade, which also influenced settlement patterns in the region. The first ‘Nigerian’ English variety is a creole language related to Krio, known as Nigerian Pidgin English. Since English was (re-)introduced in colonial times, Nigerian Standard English owes its status in present-day Nigeria to its mass diffusion through education after independence (van Rooy 2019, p. 219). In modern Nigeria, Nigerian Standard English is the ‘in-official official’ language, the language of the media and the dominant language of instruction at all levels in many institutions. Nevertheless, the status and functions of English varieties and their fluid transitional variations in Nigeria are highly diverse, and the dynamics depend overall on the respective multilingual ecology (Jowitt, 2019). Also, while the dominant roles of English and its bidirectional impact on indigenous languages have continued to draw scholarly attention, to say the least, more still needs to be done in multigenerational analysis to achieve a nuanced understanding of the rapidly shifting multilingual dynamics in the country. In this presentation, using interviews and participant observation involving 180 participants from three demographic groups, we draw on the Dominant Language Constellations (DLC) framework and analyse communicative practices and discrepant language repertoires in nine micro-ecologies within the Egbe-Idimu and Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of Lagos, focusing on how linguistic diversity is navigated across diverse conversational contexts. The findings point to intergenerational convergence and divergence and, to a great degree, high preferences for English across all groups. However, the dominant use of English, like Pidgin, is not without an active restructuring of the language to accommodate social values and local cognitive frameworks or thought patterns. Also, the additive bilingualism characteristic of older generations is being eroded and replaced, instead with English and Pidgin-centric linguistic frameworks or constellations, which are largely shaped by fluid adaptation and social-pragmatic transfer. Overall, speakers’ repertoires range from 2 - 7 languages but stratified constellations are formed by 2 - 4 languages, and these constellations not only enable communication with individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds but also reflect substrate-superstrate dynamism, where the grammatical structure is occasionally derived from indigenous languages, and the lexical component originates from the English superstrate

Speakers: Henning Schreiber (Universität Hamburg), Ismail Olaitan Afolabi (Universität Hamburg)

31 - Intergenerational constellations and linguistic adaptation in micro ecologies of Lagos.docx

12 Intergenerational transmission of ethnic languages in Kahama

Family plays the most significant role in intergenerational transmission of ethnic or local languages in multilingual contexts, even in contexts where community attitudes happen to be in favor of the regionally or nationally dominant languages (Fang & Yao 2025). This contribution looks into intergenerational multilingual transmission in Kahama, Tanzania, where English and Swahili are official languages co-existing with several ethnic languages. It investigates how multilinguals pick up their individual languages and to which degree their multilingual language skills are a result of language socialization in the home domain (traditional transmission) rather than an outcome of formal education in school. With respect to the role of English, which has been claimed to be gaining influence in Tanzania(Mohr 2018) after years of being confined to only a few domains (Mohr & Ochieng 2017), we will explore whether this is actually reflected in acquisition practices to ascertain if it has gained any space in the family domain to the extent that children can be informally exposed to it right within the home context. The work is based on data collected using the CODILAC questionnaire and interview protocol. A total of 58 online questionnaires were administered and 12 interviews conducted from the 11th September to the 10th of November 2025 in Kahama.
Preliminary findings from the questionnaire indicate that the Kahama micro-ecology is characterized by up 15 languages, namely Swahili, English, Sukuma, Giha, Haya, Hangaza, Sumva, Kurya, Jita, Chagga, Nyakyusa, Luo, Ndali, Maasai and Kimalila. The number of languages in the repertoire of individuals ranges from 2 to 7. On average, an individual has 3 languages in their repertoire. All respondents reported to be speaking Swahili, which qualifies as the most dominant, followed by Sukuma (46), and English (37). A total of 29 respondents reported to be speaking an ethnic community language other than Sukuma, where some were born of intermarried parents but had at least acquaintance with the ethnic languages of both. On language acquisition, the quantitative findings indicate that most respondents (30) learnt Swahili at home and at school while the rest learnt it in school only (23) and in the neighborhoods (4). Of the 37 respondents speaking English,36 reported to have learnt it in school, including those having parents who speak it. Respondents with English-speaking parents did not pick it from home since it was not used for home conversations. The findings suggest that most residents of Kahama acquire Swahili and ethnic languages in the family. Meanwhile, English is not at all transmitted by the family, thus education remains the only path of its transmission.

References
Fang, F & Yao, X. (2025). Intergenerational transmission and multilingual dynamics: exploring language policies in Chaoshan families through a contextual lens, Current Issues in Language Planning, 26 (2), 234-253, DOI:10.1080/14664208.2024.2410517
Mohr, S. (2018). The changing dynamics of language attitudes in Tanzania. Language matters -studies in Languages of Africa 49 (3),105-127

Mohr, S & Ochieng, D. (2017). Language use in everyday life and in education: current attitudes towards English in Tanzania

Speakers: Mpologo Kapingu (Universität Hamburg), Roland Kiessling (University of Hamburg)

Intergenerational transmission of ethnic languages in Kahama .docx

12:30 Lunch break

Keynote: Roundtable: Facets of intergenerational change in multilingualism involving English

Conveners: Daniel Schreier, Edgar Schneider, Loy Lising

16:00 Coffee break

Poster session

13 Quantifying multilingualism and ethnic identity: Intra-generational differences in Singapore

Unlike many communities where first language (L1) speakers are often treated as a relatively homogeneous baseline, contact settings such as Singapore demonstrate that L1 status does not guarantee uniformity. Even among native speakers, substantial variation arises from differences in language experience, ethnic orientation, and multilingual exposure, resulting in considerable between speaker variation (e.g., Kalaivanan et al., 2020; Kwek & Low, 2021; Sim, 2019, 2024; Starr & Balasubramaniam, 2019), among children (e.g., Buschfeld, 2020; En et al., 2014; Sim, 2023; Sim & Post, 2021), and within adults in terms of their (ethno)linguistic repertoires (e.g., Sim, 2021). Yet, the language backgrounds of speakers in diverse contexts, and the complex interplay of experience, identity, and linguistic outcomes, remain poorly understood. Simple or inconsistent measures across studies often fail to capture this complexity, and tools designed to assess bilingualism frequently tap into different constructs (Dass et al., 2024).

In this paper, we report the development of a comprehensive tool designed to measure language experience and ethnic identity in contexts like Singapore. The questionnaire was constructed by synthesising key constructs from eight established bilingualism questionnaires and five ethnic orientation and identity measures. Seven bilingualism researchers in Singapore collaboratively refined these constructs into a concise yet comprehensive 101-item instrument spanning seven domains: (i) ethnic identity and orientation, (ii) language history and acquisition, (iii) language exposure, (iv) language use, (v) language identity, attitudes and perceptions, (vi) language proficiency, and (vii) language switching. The tool was originally designed for research on language variation and change, but it also has strong potential for applied contexts, for example in education, where it can inform classroom practice and language policy.

To evaluate its effectiveness in capturing variation in language background and identity, we administered the tool to 109 linguistics undergraduates (Mage = 21.5 years; 15 non-Singaporeans) at a local university. While the initial findings align with broader reports of increasing English dominance in Singapore, the instrument uncovers domain-specific patterns of multilingual maintenance and individual differences that would otherwise be obscured by aggregate trends. For instance, although many participants are highly English-dominant overall, Jaccard similarity coefficients computed from their reported language choices reveal systematic variation across interlocutor types, including generational differences (e.g., with parents versus siblings) and distinctions between interactions with family members and peers. The data further indicate that languages outside an individual’s dominant repertoire may be selectively mobilised for affective functions; for instance, Malay participants reporting the use of Mandarin to express negative emotions. Responses in the ethnic orientation section suggest tensions between specific ethnic affiliations and a broader sense of ‘Singaporean-ness,’ pointing to layered and negotiated identities in a multicultural society. Social network responses also indicate that while close friendships may become much less ethnically diverse over time, institutional settings such as schools and workplaces continue to promote cross-ethnic interaction.

We conclude by presenting user-testing feedback on the questionnaire’s strengths and limitations, and preliminary results from an ongoing paired speech production study examining whether measures derived from the instrument can predict variation in the use of ethnolinguistic features.

Speaker: Jasper Sim (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Abstract.docx

14 Accent discrimination and attitudes to World Englishes among high school students from four different European countries

Discrimination manifests in various forms, including prejudice based on accent (Barrett et al., 2022). To counter such biases in the context of the English language, English-language curricula typically emphasize intercultural communicative competence (Freitag-Hild, 2018). However, this curricular goal often contrasts with a classroom reality in Expanding Circle contexts, in which only Standard Southern British (StSBrE) and Standard American English (StAmE) are held in high esteem, while other accents are perceived as less ‘educated’ or even associated with strong negative stereotypes (e.g., Davydova, 2015; McKenzie, 2010; McKenzie & Gilmore, 2017; Meer et al., 2022). Understanding attitudes towards different varieties of English is key to addressing accent discrimination, and examining these attitudes among high school students is particularly relevant because they are members of a generation with the potential to shape future language ideologies surrounding World Englishes.
In the present study, a contextualized verbal-guise accent rating test was administered to high school students between 15 and 20 years of age (n = 1,342) in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, and Portugal. Participants were asked to rate speakers of StSBrE, StAmE, Multicultural London English, African American English, Nigerian English, Indian English, two locally salient Expanding Circle varieties (e.g., Turkish Learner English and Russian Learner English in Germany) and their respective own variety, namely Bosnian, German, Italian, or Portuguese Learner English.
Data analysis employed principal component analysis (PCA) to determine underlying dimensions of the ratings in the VGT items. The PCA showed two dimensions, social status and social attractiveness, which were subsequently modeled as dependent variables in two mixed-effects regression models. The analyses additionally accounted for familiarity with different accents, guessed origin, and participants’ international background. The study is based on a substantially broader empirical basis than comparable previous research and systematically examines a range of factors central to the formation of accent attitudes which were not investigated in previous accent-discrimination research. The results demonstrate how accent bias manifests across Inner Circle standard, Inner Circle non-standard, Outer Circle, and Expanding Circle varieties of English, showcasing persistent hierarchies as well as cross-contextual variation in adolescents’ evaluations within multilingual educational settings.

Funded by the European Union through Erasmus+ grant 2022-1-IT02-KA220-SCH-000087602.

Speakers: Tjorven Halves (Universität Bonn), Robert Fuchs, Philipp Meer, Lisa-Christine Altendorf, Jean Antunes, Amna Brdarević-Čeljo, Silvia Calamai, Lili Cavalheiro, Vildana Dubravac, Luís Guerra, Phillip Köhler, Frauke Matz, Laura Melgão, Rosalba Nodari, Ricardo Pereira, Julia Schilling, Claudia Soria, Bethany Stoddard, Karoline Wirbatz

Abstract_CIRCE_for_CODILAC_workshop.docx

15 Program-linked enclaves and the pursuit of English: Language learning in later life among older Chinese immigrants

This ethnographic study examines why and how older Chinese immigrants pursue English as a Second Language (ESL) in later life, foregrounding the role of generational biography, language ideologies, and diaspora context in shaping late-life multilingual trajectories. Drawing on mixed-methods data collected across three institutional sites in Central Massachusetts from October 2022 to December 2023, the study centers a generation whose schooling was disrupted by war, revolution, and the Cultural Revolution—producing interrupted and ideologically charged relationships with formal education and foreign language learning. For these learners, motivation was not economic but relational: participants enrolled to avoid being a "burden on my children," to navigate healthcare independently, and to sustain belonging within their communities. Two distinct learning cultures emerged, shaped by educational biography rather than chronological age. Intermediate learners treated English as an intellectual pursuit, drawing on disciplined self-study habits formed across their life course—in one case, secretly learning English during a period of political restriction. Novice learners, whose schooling had been more severely interrupted, oriented toward English as a communal practice, sustaining one another's participation through WeChat coordination and shared social rituals. These divergent orientations reflect broader ideological trajectories shaped by China's shifting language policies across generations. The study contributes to understandings of heritage language maintenance, diaspora language ideologies, and the institutional conditions—here, "program-linked enclaves" of senior care and community services—that make late-life language learning possible.

Speaker: Yu-Jung Lin (College of the Holy Cross)

16 Beyond Switching: Multilingual Speech Behaviour in L1-Dominant Context

The last four decades saw a theoretical shift from a monolingual view of bilingualism to a multilingual one (Grosjean, 1985; Cook, 2002); however, most structure-focused investigations of multilingual speech behaviours are still rooted in monolingual view. The present study aims to explore the pragmatic and structural features of cross-linguistic influences (CLI)—code-switching and transfer—in natural multilingual discourse and consider how well the most prominent structural and sociolinguistic approaches to CS align with naturalistic data. The material was gathered via participant observation of a spontaneous informal dialogue (135 minutes) between four linguistics students aged 21-24 with overlapping yet distinct language constellations. All participants are multilingual and proficient in at least three languages, with their L1 being Russian and their oldest and dominant LX being English. The primary language of communication was Russian, yet participants exhibited 75 instances of CLI, primarily in the form of one-word inclusions from English. Conversation analysis of the dialogue allowed us to isolate several contexts which induce CLI. Some, like maintaining group cohesion (primarily through humour) and quoting, have already been described elsewhere (e.g. Gumperz, 1982). Our participants also employed CLI for metalinguistic discussions, such as clarifications and cross-linguistic comparisons, which can be attributed to their close relationship with languages. The participants' overall linguistic behaviour demonstrates a situation where they can use their idiolect without feeling the need to monitor their speech for adherence to any single “named” language (cf. Li Wei, 2015). Our results also showcase the viability of studying multilinguals who learned their L2 in L1 environment: their linguistic behaviour exhibits robust CLI and can provide a clearer insight into the personal psycho-social factors that instigate CLI, as they have no environmental necessity to employ more than one language in their daily life. Furthermore, the unmarked nature of most CLIs provides evidence towards the growing movement of re-evaluating of the nature and structure of multilingual language competence (cf. Cook, 2016).

Speaker: Ekaterina Nasyrova (University of Pannonia)

Beyond Switching.docx

Closing

Saturday 27 June

Opening

Keynote: Keynote 3: Tobias Bernaisch

17 Dynamics of Multilingualism in the Maldives: Empirical Insights into the Interplay between Dhivehi and English

South Asia is home to hundreds of indigenous languages, but English has been integrated into the linguistic ecologies of all South Asian countries independent of whether they were directly administrated by the British like India or Sri Lanka or whether they remained self-governing nations like the Maldives or Nepal. While one might expect to find English more firmly rooted in countries with British colonial legacies due to institutional promotion of English there (Mukherjee 2007; Bernaisch 2015), the Maldives serve as a counter-example.
In 1887, the Maldives became a British protectorate retaining most of its administrative authority (cf. Meierkord 2018: 3). When the Maldives were formally recognised as a republic in 1953 (before their independence in 1965), estimates suggest that 3% of the Maldivian population were proficient in English at that point in time (cf. Mohamed 2020: 748) – with Dhivehi being the dominant choice across all communicative domains. Since then, the balance between Dhivehi and the non-postcolonial Maldivian English (cf. Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2017; Buschfeld 2020) has changed so radically that researchers anticipate a first-language shift from Dhivehi to the local form of English (cf. Mohamed 2020: 762–763). Against this background, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:
 To what degree are Dhivehi and English currently used across different settings in spoken, written and online communication in the Maldives?
 To what extent do Maldivians consider English a fit vehicle to represent their identities – particularly in the light of a potential first-language shift from Dhivehi to English?
Methodologically, the study works with 193 sociolinguistic surveys completed predominantly by younger members of the Maldivian speech community to evaluate the potentiality of an L1 shift to English. Informants self-report their language choices in different communicative set-ups in speech, writing and online media and share their attitudes towards Maldivian English.
The results underline the prominence of English in the multilingual repertoires of young Maldivians. While Dhivehi continues to play a dominant role particularly when interacting with family, English has become ubiquitous in most other communicative contexts. With a view to Maldivian English as a potential identity carrier, the informants overall accept the Maldivian way of using English and generally display a positive attitude towards it, but the majority uses English for functional reasons with only a minority projecting their identity through Maldivian English.

References

Bernaisch, T. (2015). The lexis and lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g54
Buschfeld, S. (2020). Synopsis: Fine-tuning the EIF model. In S. Buschfeld & A. Kautzsch (Eds.), Modelling World Englishes: A joint approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial varieties (pp. 397–415). Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-modelling-world-englishes.html
Buschfeld, S., & Kautzsch, A. (2017). Towards an integrated approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes, 36(1), 104–126. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12203
Meierkord, C. (2018). English in paradise: The Maldives. English Today, 34, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078417000475
Mohamed, N. (2020). First language loss and negative attitudes towards Dhivehi among young Maldivians: Is the English-first educational policy to blame? TESOL Quarterly, 54, 743–772. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.591
Mukherjee, J. (2007). Steady states in the evolution of New Englishes: Present-day Indian English as an equilibrium. Journal of English Linguistics, 35(2), 157–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424207301888

Speaker: Tobias Bernaisch

Bernaisch_Dynamics of Multilingualism in the Maldives - Empirical Insights into the Interplay between Dhivehi and English.pdf

10:00 Coffee break

18 Institutional Multilingualism and Migrant Heritage Languages: Ideological Negotiations in South Tyrol

South Tyrol represents an interesting case of institutionalised multilingualism, structured around the coexistence of German, Italian, and Ladin as minority and official languages. In recent decades, this minority context has increasingly intersected with new dynamics of migration, transforming the region into a multilingual migration society. The presence of additional heritage languages in families and schools, raises new questions about language maintenance and the negotiation of linguistic hierarchies.
This paper explores how families and educational institutions orient to heritage languages and which language ideologies guide these orientations by drawing on a year-long multi-sited ethnographic study (Marcus, 1995) conducted with families and a local primary school. The ethnography focuses on the transition period from kindergarten to primary school as a critical institutional moment in which expectations about language and future trajectories of multilingualism are articulated and negotiated. This transition constitutes a key site where families’ linguistic resources encounter school-based norms (Gogolin, 2008) and ideologies, with concrete consequence for everyday language practices.
Theoretically, the study is grounded in third-wave sociolinguistics and speaker-centred approaches (Eckert, 2019; Busch, 2017), conceptualising multilingualism as dynamic and socially situated (Schnitzer, 2018). Raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015) are shown to play a central role in shaping which linguistic resources are perceived as legitimate, desirable, or “problematic” within educational settings, influencing how children’s repertoires are evaluated, how parents assess the risks and benefits of heritage language maintenance, and  how schools position linguistic diversity.
By foregrounding heritage language maintenance in a migratory minority context, this paper contributes to debates on multilingualism and linguistic hierarchies in border regions. The guiding research question is: How do language ideologies shape the positioning and maintenance of migrant heritage languages in South Tyrol’s multilingual context?

Literature
Busch, B. (2017). Expanding the notion of the linguistic repertoire: On the concept of Spracherleben – the lived experience of language. Applied Linguistics, 38(3), 340–358. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amv030
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149
Gogolin, I. (2008). Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule. Waxmann.
Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117.
Schnitzer, A. (2017). Mehrsprachigkeit als soziale Praxis: (Re-)Konstruktionen von Differenz und Zugehörigkeit unter Jugendlichen im mehrsprachigen Kontext.Beltz Juventa.

Speakers: Safà El Koura (Universität Innsbruck), Kristina Savic (Universität Innsbruck)

Institutional Multilingualism and Migrant Heritage Languages Ideological Negotiations in South Tyrol.docx

19 The role of English within two multilingual contexts: A comparison of speakers residing in the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives

The current study zooms into two locations, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Republic of Maldives, that share several linguistically relevant developmental similarities (Meierkord 2018) and investigates the status and role of English within the countries’ multilingual ecologies. Historically, the English used in the UAE and the Maldives differs from other prototypical postcolonial Englishes, because the two countries were not directly under British rule but had established international relations as British protectorates (Bernaisch et al. 2025; Siemund et al. 2021). Both rely heavily on the tourism industry, have undergone societal changes with high influxes of labor migrants, and English has been introduced through education and established as the main medium of instruction (Meierkord 2018; Siemund et al. 2021). While there is hardly any research on English or multilingualism in the Maldives (Meiekord 2018; but see Bernaisch et al. 2025), there has been an increasing interest in investigating English and other languages in the Gulf region in recent years (e.g., Boyle 2011; Parra-Guinaldo & Lanteigne 2021; Randall & Samimi 2010; Siemund et al. 2021).

The study relies on different yet comparable online survey data. The surveys were conducted in 2019 (UAE, n = 692) and 2024 (Maldives, n = 94) in two densely populated regions, Sharjah, one of UAE’s seven sovereign emirates, and Malé, the capital of the Maldives. The respondents were exclusively (UAE) or largely (Maldives) university students in their early twenties. With this, the data are not representative of the societies at large, yet one can argue that these speakers are the drivers of newly developing norms (Bernaisch et al. 2025; Sankoff 2018) which makes an investigation of them the most interesting, when aiming to make future developmental predictions. In addition, recorded sociolinguistic interviews (UAE, n =115) and pair conversations (Maldives, n = 47) provide insights into language use patterns.

The study investigates (1) language use patterns in different domains (e.g., spoken, written, private, public) with a focus on the local languages (Dhivehi, Arabic) versus English and possibly other languages, (3) the level of self-reported multilingualism, and (2) it considers attitudes towards English spoken in the respective locations. It tries to establish whether the historical similarities shared by the two regions also manifest in similarities with respect to language profiles, usage patterns, and attitudes.

It has been shown that English is indeed the lingua franca in the UAE, albeit Arabic is the official language (Lorenz 2023). This is especially apparent in the public domain, but increasingly so in the private sector, with differences between Emirati and other Arab expatriates, on the one hand, and South Asian and other citizenship groups, on the other. The differences, however, largely relate to the absence or presence of Arabic (Lorenz 2023). It is hypothesized that similarities can be found in the Maldives, with English, the main lingua franca, gaining in importance, and restricting the use of Dhivehi (Meierkord 2018; Bernaisch et al. 2025). Citizenship differences, however, will not be relevant, because all participants in the data collected in the Maldives are Maldivians.

Speaker: Eliane Lorenz (Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany)

Abstract_anonym.docx

20 Inter-Generational Multilingualism and Language Shift in a Rural Botswana Village

Patterns of language choice (or “language shift”) across global multilingual communities demonstrate the importance of community-specific understandings of language use. This is especially important for rural African communities, which have received less attention than, for instance, African urban centers. In this talk we present the results from a language use and attitudes survey in a rural, multilingual village in Botswana and show that, while self-reported language ideologies remain constant across generations, both younger and older speakers perceive a language shift in progress that is marked by younger speakers mixing words and phrases from the national language, Setswana, when speaking local languages. Previous work on multilingualism in rural Africa has focused on diagnosing the “prestige” hierarchy of languages in these contexts (e.g. Moore 2004, Lüpke 2016, Di Carlo et al. 2019). From self-reported language ideologies, speakers don’t (overtly) categorize the languages they speak into such a hierarchy, but when asked about perceived generational differences, they reveal more diglossic (Ferguson 1959, Fishman 1967) attitudes, with younger speakers ranking Setswana above local languages.

The name “Tjhauba” refers to the name of a tribe of Bakgalagadi people and their variety of the Shekgalagadi language (Bantu). Tjhauba is spoken by ~1000 people and is considered endangered (Gunnink 2022, Monaka 2013). We (a linguist from the USA and a Tjhauba community member) conducted 34 sociolinguistic interviews with Tjhauba speakers, ranging from 19 to 91, in Nxamasere. The interview structure largely follows Di Carlo et al.’s (2021). We interviewed participants individually about their linguistic backgrounds, including how many languages they speak. On average, participants report speaking 3.74 languages. For each language, we asked participants to answer questions like “What are the advantages of speaking this language?” We also interviewed participants in small groups to elicit targeted metalinguistic commentary on Tjhauba, such as perceived gender and generational differences in speech.

Cultural affiliation and familial connection to the language are uniformly reported as the reasons why people feel it is advantageous to speak Tjhauba, while performance in school, accessibility to government services, and ability to communicate with people from other regions are the most widely reported benefits of knowing Setswana. For other languages, answers ranged from feeling connected within the community to being able to understand when someone is gossiping about them. Taken at face value, these attitude reports may suggest egalitarian multilingualism (François 2012). Answers to the question, “What do you want people to think or say about you when you speak Setswana?” reveal that younger speakers consider Setswana to mark them as “true citizens” of Botswana, while older speakers either didn’t answer or said they hope people notice that they are fluent in more languages. This difference in language ideologies is further supported by the metalinguistic commentary on generational differences in Tjhauba speech that is marked by younger speakers injecting more Setswana into their Tjhauba speech. We use these results and others to describe a language shift in progress, and highlight the advantages and limitations of self-reported language attitudes to investigate language shift.

Speakers: Kamogelo "Blade" Mokgosi (Independent), Rebecca Everson (University of California, Berkeley)

tjhauba_generational_multilingualism_abstract.docx

21 English in a Multilingual Ecology: Phonetic Variation among Speakers from Northeast India

Northeast India is one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world, where English plays a very important role in communication, education, and administration. Hundreds of languages belonging to three different language families, viz. Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, and Austro-Asiatic coexist within a dense multilingual environment (Fuchs et al., 2025). Although English is widely used as a lingua franca in this region, systematic phonetic studies of second-language English produced by speakers from various linguistic backgrounds in Northeast India remain limited. As noted by Flege (1995), variation in second-language pronunciation is often influenced by speakers’ first language (L1) phonological systems, and similar L1 transfer effects have been documented in studies of English spoken by speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages in Northeast India. This study, therefore, asks the following research question: To what extent does English speech produced by multilingual speakers from distinct linguistic backgrounds in Northeast India exhibit systematic phonetic variation within a shared multilingual environment? Tackling this question provides new empirical evidence on the phonetic realisation of English in Northeast India and offers a sociophonetic perspective on the use of English in multilingual settings.
This study focuses on English speech produced by young adult speakers from Northeast India whose first languages belong to Assamese, Angami, Khasi, Meiteilon, and Mizo, representing the three major language families. The speakers belong to a comparable age cohort (approx. 18-35 years), enabling the study to examine variation within a broadly similar generation while also considering possible variation across younger and older speakers within this group. The dataset comprises controlled read-speech recordings of the same passage; lexical content is controlled, enabling direct comparison of phonetic patterns across speakers. Acoustic analysis of the recordings is performed with Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2024) to investigate temporal organisation and phonetic realisation in connected speech. The analysis focuses on speech rhythm, the structure of vowel and consonant intervals, and patterns of vowel realisation in stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythm metrics used in this study are based on the proportion of vocalic intervals in the utterance (%V), the standard deviation of vocalic interval durations (ΔV) and the standard deviation of consonantal interval durations (ΔC) (Ramus et al., 1999), pairwise variability indices (nPVI, rPVI) to capture durational variability between successive interval (Grabe et al., 2002), rate-normalised interval measures (VarcoC and VarcoV) which allow rhythmic variation to be assessed independently of speech rate (Dellwo, 2006; White & Mattys, 2007). In addition, vowel reduction and durational differences between stressed and unstressed syllables are examined to explore possible influences of speakers’ first languages on English speech production.
By examining phonetic patterns in English speech within a shared multilingual environment, this study highlights the possibility of internal phonetic variation shaped by speakers’ linguistic backgrounds and the broader multilingual ecology of the region. The findings will contribute to further research on multilingual language use and World Englishes by providing empirical evidence on how multilingual linguistic environments may influence the phonetic realisation of English within a single generation of speakers.

Speaker: John Aheibam (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati)

English in a Multilingual Ecology.docx

12:30 Lunch break

22 Reshaping family language policy: Paternal absence and the role of domestic caregivers in Botswana

This study investigates the impact of contemporary family structures on Family Language Policy (FLP) and Heritage Language Maintenance (HLM) in Botswana. It addresses two distinct but intersecting phenomena: 1) the linguistic consequences of paternal absence in single-parent households and 2) the role of domestic childcare workers as significant agents of language input in child language acquisition.
In Botswana, traditional family structures have been reshaped by high HIV/AIDS prevalence, labour migration, and declining marriage rates (Dintwat, 2010). Data from the 2022 census indicates that 44% of households are female-headed, while 55% of household heads have never married or cohabited (Statistics Botswana, 2025). When fathers are absent, children are often deprived of consistent exposure to the father’s linguistic variety. This is particularly critical in the Botswanan context, where minority language speakers are increasingly shifting towards dominant regional languages or the national language, Setswana (Shah, 2025).
Furthermore, the study explores the influence of domestic caregivers on children’s linguistic trajectories. While previous research in the Gulf States and Hong Kong has examined how domestic workers influence children’s language practices and proficiencies (Al-Jarf, 2005; Said & Jaafarawi, 2025; Taha-Thomure, 2022 for the Gulf countries and Wolfaardt, 2021, 2022 for Hong Kong), few studies treat childcare workers as agents of language input in the Global South. In Botswana, domestic workers – frequently Zimbabwean nationals who may not speak Setswana – often use English with their wards, providing them with early, extended exposure to English within the home domain.
Data were collected as part of the project “English in the multilingual ecologies of Botswana” (DFG FOR 5728). 180 participants completed a researcher-administered sociolinguistic questionnaire covering socio-demographics, language repertoire, proficiency, use, and attitudes; 60 of these participants subsequently took part in semi-structured interviews. The analysis focuses specifically on participants whose fathers were absent or who had domestic caregivers for extended periods during their childhood.
Part 1 provides descriptive statistics of the Dominant Language Constellations, ethnic identities, and language proficiencies of participants whose fathers were absent during their childhood, supplemented by qualitative interview data elucidating strategies that single mothers employ to maintain the paternal heritage language. Part 2 analyses how exposure to English in the home domain via domestic workers impacts participants’ proficiency in English and their confidence in speaking it. By examining these two features of contemporary family life, the study provides a multifaceted account of the variables currently shaping FLP and impacting HLM in the Botswana context.

Speakers: Erika Herrmann (University of Hamburg), Sheena Shah (University of Hamburg)

Herrmann_Shah_ReshapingFamilyLanguagePolicy_Abstract.pdf

23 Ideologies surrounding language use within speech communities

Abstract
In this paper, I examine the relationship between age and English proficiency in the Kurdistan Region. I challenge the common belief that younger generations are naturally better at English than older ones. Drawing on a World Englishes and language ecology perspective, I argue that English proficiency in Kurdistan is shaped mainly by access to education, professional use, technological exposure, and language ideologies, rather than by age itself.
My analysis is based on qualitative data from Kurdish speakers of different age groups. I focus on how English is used in academic, professional, and everyday contexts. The findings show that age only becomes relevant when it reflects differences in opportunity and exposure. While some younger speakers show limited functional proficiency, older speakers demonstrate strong and confident use of English in specific domains.
I also suggest that “generation” in Kurdistan should be understood as an educational, technological, and political–historical category rather than a purely biological one. By questioning the idea of English as a “young person’s language,” this paper highlights the importance of language ecology in understanding English use in non-Inner-Circle contexts.

Speaker: Shabang Sardar Salih (Universität Hamburg)

Abstract.docx

24 Sociolinguistic dimensions as predictors of variation in spoken Northeast Indian English

World Englishes as a field of research has gained considerable traction; however, several gaps remain. First, most studies on variation in different English varieties use either qualitative methods with limited generalizability or quantitative, corpus-based methods lacking extensive speaker metadata (e.g., Botha & Bernaisch, 2024). Second, postcolonial English varieties are often examined in isolation, an approach which neglects their multilingual contexts (e.g., Vida-Mannl et al., 2025). Integrating detailed sociodemographic data with corpuslinguistic methods and the context of local dominant language constellations (e.g., Aronin, 2019) is a powerful approach to addressing these gaps.
Northeast India is significantly more linguistically diverse than mainland India, home to around 220 languages from the Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic families (Fuchs et al., 2025; Moral, 1994). English plays an important role in the region as a medium of instruction and lingua franca, partly also due to resistance to the central government’s promotion of Hindi (Fuchs et al., 2025). Investigating the role of English within Northeast Indian multilingualism and its interactions with social dynamics provides a replicable, integral approach to examining variation in this English variety.
To this end, my PhD project statistically models sociolinguistic variation and dominant language constellations in Northeast India and analyzes their influence on the region’s spoken English variety. Data was collected as part of the project “English as a local lingua franca in the multilingual ecology of Northeast India”, funded by the German Research Foundation (research unit FOR 5728). A stratified random sample of Northeast Indian participants (n = 180) completed a researcher-administered questionnaire, which covered sociodemographics, education, language repertoire, proficiency, use, and attitudes. A subset of the informants (n = 60) additionally completed semi-structured interviews of approximately two hours duration each, forming a corpus of spoken English.
This poster presents the first phase of the project: Identifying underlying dimensions of sociodemographic variation in Northeast India using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). MCA models relationships between individuals and variables to identify underlying dimensions of variation in the data (e.g., Clarke et al., 2021). In this study, dimensions resulting from the MCA computed on the questionnaire data are expected to reveal several components of social dynamics, such as core sociodemographics (e.g., gender), generational dynamics (e.g., age), and educational trajectory (e.g., schooling, occupation). In the future, the project will examine interactions of the resulting dimensions with dominant language constellations and their effects on variation in spoken Northeast Indian English. The poster will thus shed light on the social dynamics of Northeast India and provide a replicable approach for modeling sociolinguistic variation in world Englishes. The proposed approach contributes to bridging the gap between sociolinguistics in world Englishes, multilingualism, and corpuslinguistic methods.

Speaker: Tjorven Halves (Universität Bonn)

Abstract_CODILAC_workshop_June26 v6.docx

Closing

15:15 Coffee break

Codilac