Modern Approaches to Researching Multilingualism

The volume offers a collection of the most recent research coming from scholars and practitioners in the field of multilingualism research in various contexts of natural/immersion environments, school/formal instruction, grounded in multilingual societies and individual multilinguality of semi-monolingual countries. The studies included in the book constitute an exemplification of new methods of research used (e.g., narratives, visualizations, metaphors) as well as new approaches to multilingualism (affordances, dominant language constellations). The volume is divided into four parts:Part One focuses on different dimensions of multilingualism,Part Two zooms in on the concept of affordances and their role in the development of multilingual competence,Part Three concentrates on dominant language constellations in different contexts and, finally,Part Four shifts the focus to instructional practices in teaching multiple languages. 

Danuta Gabryś-Barker is Professor Emeritus at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, where she lectured in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and multilingualism. She has published a couple of books, edited over twenty monographic volumes and approximately two hundred articles nationally as well as internationally. Prof. Gabryś-Barker has been the co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Multilingualism (Taylor & Francis/Routledge) since 2010 and the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition (University of Silesia Press) since 2015 till 2023. She is also Area Editor of the Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 2nd ed. (Wiley). She has been an active member of several scholarly associations, among them the International Association of Multilingualism (IAM) since its foundation and the member of the Board from 2010 to 2018. She received the award Distinguished Scholar of Multilingualism from IAM in 2022Eva Vetter is an applied linguist and has been a Professor of Language Teaching and Learning Research at the University of Vienna, Austria, since 2011. She was previously a teacher of French and geography. Her research addresses the relationship between language and power and she is interested in the multiple facets of societal and individual multilingualism. She researches topics such as language policy, heteroglossic language use, minoritized languages or political and public discourses of inclusion and exclusion. Since 2010 she has been focussing more on educational aspects of multilingualism, i.e. language education policy and multilingual approaches to teaching. She sees her academic work as a contribution to peaceful coexistence in a sustainable society.