Intercultural education in a transnational perspective Leeuwarden/Ljowert, Fryslân, May 2011 Karen Risager Roskilde University
risager2 Contents Local and transnational linguistic flows Linguistic landscapes Rethinking the language-culture relation Linguaculture – culture in language Discourse – culture across languages Implications for intercultural education
risager3 Local and transnational linguistic flows languages are not territorially bound a language spreads through two processes: the mobility of language users language learning the global means of communication strengthen relations between users of a language we see local and transnational linguistic flows in social networks all over the world
risager4 Linguistic landscapes flows of different languages form complex linguistic landscapes (linguascapes), e.g. in a state or a city language encounters of different types, incl. language hierarchisations and language alternation (code-switching) language policy becomes more visible: language, identity, power and recognition
risager5 Rethinking the language-culture relation two extremes concerning the relationship between language and culture: a (national) language and its (national) culture are inseparable, or a language is or can be used in a culturally neutral way a third position: a language always carries linguaculture, but can be separated from other cultural phenomena
risager6 Linguaculture – culture in language three dimensions of linguaculture: the semantic-pragmatic dimension the poetic dimension the identity dimension we all have our personal linguaculture we carry linguaculture with us when we migrate, move when we learn new languages
risager7 Discourse – culture across languages discourse has linguistic form, but is not bound to a specific language discourses are content-based, e.g. ideologies, narratives, literature and sciences discourses flow from language to language via translation and other forms of transformation, they are translingual ’the rest of culture’, e.g. music, pictures, food and drink, architecture, clothing, etc. etc.
risager8 Implications for intercultural education all languages are world languages and are situated in complex linguascapes all languages contain socially and personally variable linguacultures a language can be used for studying any discourse or topic intercultural education must include this transnational perspective, in which language and culture flow partially independently of each other
risager9 References K. Risager: Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity (Multilingual Matters 2006) K. Risager: Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Paradigm (Multilingual Matters 2007) K. Risager: Linguaculture. In Jane Jackson (ed.), Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (Routledge, forthcoming)