Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union From New Speaker to Speaker Outcomes, reflections and policy recommendations from COST Action IS1306 on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: From New Speaker to New From Opportunities and Challenges Outcomes, reflections and policy recommendations from COST Action Edited by IS1306 on New Speakers in a Multilingual Bernadette O’Rourke Europe: Opportunities and Challenges and Joan Pujolar This publication is based upon work from COST Action IS1306 “New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges” and is supported by the COST www.cost.eu COST(European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency aimed at facilitating the collaboration and networking of scientists and researchers at European level. COST funds pan-European, bottom-up networks of scientists and researchers across all science and technology fields. These networks, called ‘COST Actions’, promote international coordination of nationally-funded research. By fostering the networking of researchers at an international level, COST enables breakthrough scientific developments leading to new concepts and products, thereby contributing to strengthening Europe’s research and innovation capacities. COST’s mission focuses in particular on: • Building capacity by connecting high quality scientific communities throughout Europe and worldwide; • Providing networking opportunities for early career investigators; • Increasing the impact of research on policy makers, regulatory bodies and national decision makers as well as the private sector. Through its inclusiveness policy, COST supports the integration of research communities in less research-intensive countries across Europe, leverages national research investments and addresses societal issues. From New Speaker to Speaker Outcomes, reflections and policy recommendations from COST Action IS1306 on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union Edited by Bernadette O’Rourke and Joan Pujolar First published 2019 by IAITH: Welsh Centre for Language Planning Editors: Bernadette O’Rourke and Joan Pujolar Authors of Chapters Chapter 1: Bernadette O’Rourke, Joan Pujolar and Susan Frekko Chapter 2: Bernadette O’Rourke, Joan Pujolar and Susan Frekko Chapter 3: Bernadette O’Rourke, Joan Pujolar and Susan Frekko Chapter 4: Colin Williams Executive Summary Appendix: List of key publications on New Speakers Graphic Design and Artworks: DylunioGraffEG This publication should be cited as: O’Rourke, B and Pujolar, J. (eds.) 2019. From New Speaker to Speaker: Outcomes, reflections and policy recommentations from COST Action IS1306 on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges. IAITH: Welsh Centre for Language Planning. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 9781900563123 COST Action IS1306 New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges Prologue This COST Action focused on the dynamics From the outset in the Action, we have strived to involved in becoming a ‘new speaker’ of a position ourselves at the international forefront language in a multilingual Europe. The Action of language research, generating research on ran for four years between 2013-2017. We are multilingual competence, linguistic practices delighted to present this report, which highlights across the lifespan, and language policies, that some of the major accomplishments of our COST has been published in key international outlets Action on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: in the field. Some of our results are summarised Opportunities and Challenges, since its initiation in this report. Our research over the life of the in 2013. Action has demonstrated that multilingualism is a resource that can be utilized much more The work of this network was supported by the by individuals and institutions than is the case European COST Association (Co-operation in today. However, as a resource it also needs to Science and Technology) and funded within the be sustainable and equitable. In our Action we European Commission’s research programme have reflected critically on what multilingualism Horizon 2020. COST Actions are designed to means to different people. Access to different build new knowledge by bringing together languages and ways of speaking are not always researchers to cooperate and coordinate nation- equally distributed or equally accessible to ally-funded research activities, and to build up everyone in the same way. In the four-year new transnational and international research co- period of our Action we have brought together operation. The funding provides an opportunity researchers from a range of disciplines to for researchers to develop their competences, collaborate on issues around new speakerness share experience and expertise with colleagues and what it means to people to become speakers in other countries, and improve their research of new languages in the context of a multilingual career through workshops, training and exchange Europe. programmes. Language as we know is a key component in accessing education, employment, social services and for community participation. In Europe, languages have also been seen historically as defining individual and collective identities. The processes whereby people learn new languages and become legitimate speakers of these languages are complex. Through the Action our aim has been to better understand the potential social tensions that emerge from unequal access to participation of new speakers in Europe’s multilingual project. These inequalities pose a potential challenge to both European integration, social cohesion and economic collaboration, as well as to the full participation of territorial and immigrant minorities. A shared understand- ing of these complexities across the different multilingual scenarios (including education, healthcare, youth culture, the workplace and NGOs) in which the participants of the network have been working, has helped sharpen our knowledge of how to tackle the challenges that language communities, for example, we have new speakers of different linguistic varieties face increased awareness amongst language activists in the context of a multilingual Europe. and administrators about the opportunities and the challenges which new speakers face in This is particularly important in a world in which their respective communities. Overall, we would diversity and inclusion is being challenged. It is contend that the processes that characterise important so as to better contribute to how society language learning and the use of a particular can deal with the challenges of multilingualism language or variety in social life have important through increased knowledge, promoting agency implications for social and political participation for individuals in society, and a better quality of which, if not addressed, may lead to inequalities life, no matter what their linguistic and social in the context of increasing mobility. background is. Over the life of our Action we hope to have It became clear to us over the course of the created a platform for further research ventures Action that while much research in the field is on what is a highly relevant topic and one which is devoted to language teaching, new speakers critical to our understanding of the contemporary encounter many social and political barriers to globalised society in which we live. language learning. However, these barriers are rarely tackled. Through the work of our Action BERNADETTE O’ROURKE AND JOAN PUJOLAR we have identified the need for specific social ACTION CHAIRS spaces to be created so as to provide access to different types of speakers. In the Action we have also uncovered the important emotional investment involved in learning and using new languages. Research emerging from the Action has amply documented how new speakers can experience anxieties around questions of language ownership and authenticity. Through the work of the Action, we have attempted to increase awareness of these issues amongst policy makers and government. In minoritised Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Researching New Speakers and debating the concept Chapter 2 Legitimacy, belonging, and capital Chapter 3 New Speakers – Umbrella term, analytical concept or lens? Chapter 4 The Policy Community and Recommendations on New Speakers Executive Summary Appendix List of key publications linked to research on New Speakers Introduction Who or what is a The new speaker project was conceived as a way of understanding how globalisation, “new speaker”? increased mobility and transnational networking is transforming the linguistic ecologies of In our Memorandum of Understanding for COST contemporary societies. By focusing on speakers, Action on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe, the idea was to engage centrally on how these we set out a broad definition of the new speaker processes affect people’s lives. As such this concept applying the term to all multilingual Action brought multilinguals into the focus by citizens who engage in languages other than investigating the opportunities and challenges their ‘native’ or ‘national’ language(s). By doing involved