BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Paradoxes of multilingualism in public policy in conjunction with 
 the launching of Cambridge Masterclass Series on Multilingualism\, Educati
 on and Language Policy   - Professor Lourdes Ortega\, Georgetown Universit
 y\, Washington\, USA
DTSTART:20190514T090000Z
DTEND:20190514T110000Z
UID:TALK113047@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ann Waterman
DESCRIPTION:It is no secret that humans are fully equipped to learn and fu
 nction in more than one language and that multilingualism is as pervasive 
 in the world today as it has always been. Historically\, however\, the pro
 ject of the nation state arising from the French and American revolutions 
 in the late 18th century made it important to unite each nation behind one
  single language (or two or a few official languages). The legacy of the n
 ation state project has carried over into a monoglossic ideology that has 
 mired research into multilingualism\, with deleterious consequences for th
 e policies that attempt to manage multilingualism in public life. In this 
 talk I examine three paradoxes. One is the privileging of an early timing 
 for language instruction in educational settings\, which flies in the face
  of new accumulated findings that clearly show the best predictor of learn
 ing outcomes is experience with each language. Another paradox involves th
 e commodification versus demonization of language learning depending on wh
 o is undertaking it: majority-language speakers\, whose multilingualism is
  accepted and praised and supported\, or members of minoritized communitie
 s\, whose multilingualism is either feared as a problem or made invisible.
  The third paradox I examine is the simultaneous construction of bilingual
 ism as a cognitive advantage and a zero-sum game in which one language win
 s and one loses\, which has supported collective discourses and research m
 etaphors that romanticize bilinguals as smarter\, all while imagining that
  ‘true’ bilingualism is never possible. I suggest ways in which the tr
 ansformations in knowledge production about multilingualism might eventual
 ly lead to improved public policy.\n\nLourdes Ortega is a Professor at Geo
 rgetown University. She investigates how adults learn new languages\, part
 icularly in higher education settings. Lourdes was born\, raised\, and col
 lege-educated in southern Spain\, spent a year abroad at the University of
  Munich in the early 1980s\, worked as a teacher of Spanish for almost a d
 ecade in Greece\, and obtained her doctorate in the United States\, the co
 untry where she has lived for over 25 years now. These choices have afford
 ed her a different dominant language at different periods in her life (so 
 far): Spanish\, German\, Modern Greek\, and English. This trajectory has s
 haped her professional identities as an educator and a researcher. She is 
 committed to investigating what it means to become bilingual or multilingu
 al later in life and across elite and marginalized contexts for language l
 earning. In her work she seeks to encourage connections between research a
 nd teaching and to support harmonious bilingualism and the well-being of a
 ll multilinguals.\n\n\n
LOCATION: Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PQ\, Ro
 om 1S3
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR