This project (RES-046-25-0004) has been funded under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Researcher Development Initiative (RDI) scheme (Round 4). It is based in the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism, within the School of Education and its total funding is £99,996.99. It will run from May 2010 - April 2013. Information on the project may also be found on the ESRC RDI programme web pages.
Dr Deirdre Martin is project director and the co-investigators are Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones, Professor Adrian Blackledge, Professor Angela Creese and Dr Sheena Gardner.
Aims
The specific aims of the project are as follows:
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To provide, for researchers at different points in their career, advanced training and development activities which are related to the study of multilingualism and to multilingualism in research practice;
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To encourage the transfer and application of well-established research methods from contemporary sociolinguistic studies of multilingualism to other social science disciplines, particularly education;
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To develop dedicated research training materials and facilitate international dialogue among researchers involved in running research methodology courses for doctoral researchers conducting research in multilingual contexts.
Structure and content of the project
Over 3 years, the project will include the following activities:
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A five-day residential course for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers (UK-based and international): Researching multilingualism: key concepts, methods and issues (University of Birmingham, July 2010 and April 2011).
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5 follow-up support days at Birmingham
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1 two-day workshop: Transcribing bilingual discourse at the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism (Bangor University)
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5 one-day regional workshops on specific themes (at the Universities of Birkbeck, Dewi Sant Carmarthen, Goldsmiths, Leeds, Strathclyde)
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2 master-classes at Birmingham (Professor Monica Heller, University of Toronto and Professor Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology, Sydney)
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Ongoing development of specialist research training materials
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A final conference (venue to be negotiated): New times, new multilingualisms, new research methods.
Download the project timetable (PDF 18kb, opens new window)
To ensure long-term sustainability, project activities will be progressively embedded within those of the UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum www.ling-ethnog.org.uk (special interest group, British Association for Applied Linguistics) from 2010 to 2013.
For further details of the project, please contact Deirdre Martin
Events
The ESRC Researcher Development Initiative Researching multilingualism, multilingualism in research practice (RES 046-25-0004) has four major events planned for 2012.
25-26 March 2013: Responding to contemporary multilingual realities, recasting research methodologies
Over the last two decades, sociolinguistic research on multilingualism has been transformed. Two broad processes of change have been at work: firstly, there has been a broad epistemological shift to a critical and ethnographic approach, one that has reflected and contributed to the wider turn, across the social sciences, towards critical and poststructuralist perspectives on social life. Secondly, there has been increasing focus on the social, cultural and linguistic changes ushered in by globalisation, by transnational population flows, by the advent of new communication technologies and by the changes taking place in the political and economic landscape of different regions of the world. These changes have had major implications for the ways in which we conceptualise the relationship between language and society and the multilingual realities of the contemporary era. A new sociolinguistics of multilingualism is now being forged: one that takes account of the new communicative order and the particular cultural conditions of our times, while retaining a central concern with the processes involved in the construction of social difference and social inequality.
The purpose of this final conference of the ESRC RDI project on Researching multilingualism, multilingualism in research practice is to reflect on the nature of the changes that have been taking place in the ways in which we approach the teaching of research methodology courses in this field and to map out new directions, focusing on methodologies that are best attuned to research on linguistic diversity in the late modern era.
Download a flier for this conference (PDF, opens new window)
If you are interested in participating in this event, please contact Teresa Wendler t.wendler@bham.ac.uk.
For further information please get in touch with the conference organisers: Marilyn Martin-Jones m.martinjones@bham.ac.uk and Deirdre Martin d.m.martin@bham.ac.uk
Places are limited so early registration is advised.
10 September 2012: Researching language in education in diverse, twenty-first century classrooms
Research seminar jointly organised by the Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership, School of Education, University of Edinburgh and the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism, University of Birmingham.
The focus of this one-day seminar will be on the methodological challenges of research on language in education in contemporary classrooms. The speakers at this seminar will consider the particular challenges they have encountered in the specific contexts in which they have worked and they will describe the ways in which they have adjusted their research lenses to meet these challenges.
Seminar programme and speakers:
9.00-9.20 Coffee/Registration
9.20-9.30 Welcome and introductions
9.30-10.00 Dr. Sheena Gardner, Coventry University
10.00-10.30 Dr. Joanna McPake, University of Strathclyde
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-11.30 Prof. Geri Smyth, University of Strathclyde
11.30-11.45 Prof. Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow
11.45-12.00 Information session on Bilingualism Matters, the University of Edinburgh.
12.00 - 13.00 Lunch
13.00-14.00 Poster session
14.00-14.30 Dr. Andy Hancock, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh
14.30-15.15 Prof. Constant Leung, King’s College, University of London
15.15 - 16.00 Panel discussion
If you are interested in participating in this event, please contact the seminar organisers: Dr Eleni Mariou, eleni.mariou@ed.ac.uk or Dr Florence Bonacina-Pugh, fbonacina-pugh@ed.ac.uk at Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh.
Download the application form (Word 2003 Document)
2 - 3 May 2012: New times, new mobilities and communicative practices: challenges for minority language research
Cyfnod newydd, mudoleddau newydd ac arferion cyfathrebu newydd: heriau i ymchwil ym maes ieithoedd lleiafrifol
This two day research seminar at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, brought together researchers from Europe and North America who are engaged in sociolinguistic and ethnographic research with speakers of languages that have been historically positioned on the political and economic periphery e.g. Basque, Canadian French, Catalan, Galician, Irish, Sámi, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. The contributors include Monica Heller (University of Toronto), Alexandra Jaffe (University of California), Patricia Lamarre (University of Montreal), Bernadette O’Rourke (Heriot Watt University), Joanna McPake (University of Strathclyde), Sari Pietikäinen (University of Jyväskylä), Joan Pujolar Cos (Open University of Catalonia), Mark Sebba (Lancaster University) and Daniel Cunliffe (University of Glamorgan). The focus was on the conceptual and methodological challenges posed in the field of minority language research by the large-scale social changes ushered in by globalization, by the advent of new media and communication technology and by shifts in political economy. The study of the new sociolinguistic realities of the times in which we live requires new research lenses and new epistemologies.
Seminar programme:
May 2, 10:30 –11:00: Registration
11:00 - 13:00: First session
14:00 – 16:30: Master class by Monica Heller
17:00 – 19:00: Reception, poster session
May 3, 9:30 – 1:00: Second session
14:00 - 16:00: Third session
For further details, contact the seminar organisers: Deirdre Martin d.m.martin@bham.ac.uk; Marilyn Martin-Jones m.martinjones@bham.ac.uk or Kathryn Jones kathryn.jones@iaith.eu.
2 May 2012: Master class with Professor Monica Heller, University of Toronto, Canada
Mobility, multilingualism and methods: sociolinguistic ethnography in the globalized new economy
This Master Class was organised as part of an advanced research training project on Researching multilingualism, multilingualism in research practice.
The class was from 2 - 4.30pm and was followed by a reception and book launch from 5 - 7 pm.
Download a flier for the event with further details (PDF, opens new window)
Watch the Master class
Saturday 10 March 2012: Multilingualism in faith settings: research perspectives
Regional workshop jointly organised by MOSAIC, University of Birmingham and the Centre for Language, Culture and Learning: Goldsmiths, University of London and the BeLiFS research team at Goldsmiths, University of London.Goldsmiths, University of London 10.30 am – 4 pm