Call for papers
Neofilolog 61/2 (2023)
“Specialised language teaching in the era of globalisation”
Editors:
Florence Mourlhon-Dallies, GRIP, Université de Paris, France
Magdalena Sowa, Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Lublin, Pologne
Globalisation, as posited by Sassen (2009), is driven by a network of major world metropolises which are driving financial dynamics, concentrating a large proportion of migratory flows and seeing the construction of hybrid social practices, particularly in terms of consumption of goods and educational models. The combination of these major global trends and local contextual characteristics has not yet been extensively explored in language teaching, despite the growing need to diversify approaches and methods in language teaching. Few studies have so far chosen to place the question of curriculum and course design in the current globalised context, which means that even today it is often assumed that the ways of speaking, writing and exchanging are almost uniform, as long as one is working in a given field using the "same" language of communication.
While the forms of action in one field or another may be more or less universal, communicative practices are not always identical. This is because discursive genres form a certain ritualised 'collective style' that favours and treats as legitimate certain formulations and modes of exchange found in a given language and culture. This also applies to communities whose communicative practices are relatively homogeneous (e.g. tourism), and which Beacco (1992: 15) calls 'communautés de communication translangagières'. Revisiting this notion is not pointless, as it is closely related to what is relevant in a time of globalisation. According to Beacco, translingual communicative communities are those which have a strong foothold in a particular institution (a multinational company, an international organisation, a scientific or academic field, a worldwide professional industry), where the status of the participants in communication is established and the circulation of writings can be described, but which function in more than one natural language. The globalisation of economic and cultural exchange has obviously developed such international and multilingual institutions. There is, thus, a need to reactivate this notion of a translingual communicative community, and this in turn entails the legitimacy of seeking answers to the question of common standards and variability of language use in the domain areas of interest to language educators and teachers.
The last 20 years have also seen the emergence of other issues that have been bothering language teachers more than ever before. It is now possible to identify around ten so-called languages of international communication (Cerquiglini 2019), which are often used for communication in areas geographically very distant from their 'birth' places. This situation raises a number of questions regarding the teaching of specialised languages. How do we define a specialised language? What kind of communicative practices should we relate it to? Which of these practices should be regarded as the most representative: those of the cradle country of a given language, those of emerging countries with dynamic demographics where the number of speakers of a given language is growing, or those of countries with strong economic expansion in languages other than their own? Is it still possible to speak of a specialist language in the singular in a global world? Beyond local lexical and phonological differences, is there a single universal Business English, français de la mode or français médical at the level of discourse and communication?
Areas of reflection
Researchers interested in the perspective we have just outlined are invited to reexamine, in the light of globalisation, what is meant by a specialised language, at the notional level, at the language level and as a teaching/learning object.
Here are the three areas that we propose with examples of questions that could be answered by the articles submitted:
Area 1. Problematic circulation of key concepts in the teaching of specialised languages
- How are the key notions of specialised language teaching evolving in the era of globalisation?
- How are these concepts reconfigured as they circulate internationally?
- What is the impact of these concepts on the standardisation or diversification of linguistic and/or curricular policies relating to specialised language teaching?
- What is the place of the CEFR in language policy relating to languages of specialisation in the context of globalisation?
Area 2. New ways of teaching specialised languages
- How and to what extent do classroom practices, teaching aids, language resources explored, etc. reflect the variability in the use of specialised languages taught for professional communication purposes?
- Why and how should specialised languages be taught in contexts marked by globalisation?
- What knowledge and skills should be taught in specialised languages? With what objectives, approaches and tools?
- How should conversational and writing standards be taught for certain world languages (such as English or French)?
- What is the place of digital technology in internationalised and distant teaching of specialised languages?
Area 3: The training of educational actors in the face of globalisation
- How can the globalised context of the use of specialised languages be integrated into the training of language teachers?
- What is the impact of globalisation on language teacher training curricula?
- Which training objectives are able to responding to the challenges of globalisation?
- What competences should trainers and others responsible for the teaching of languages of specialisation aim to develop?
Timetable
Final date to submit abstracts (2000-2500 characters) for consideration in the issue: August 31, 2022
Notification of abstract acceptance or rejection: October 15, 2022
Submission of full articles: January 31, 2023
Reviews released back to the authors: June 30, 2023
Submission of revised articles: June 30, 2023
Publication of the issue: December 2023
Addresses for submission:
Abstracts and articles should be sent to the following two addresses:
florence.mourlhon-dallies@u-paris.fr
Articles may be written in French or English.
Editorial guidelines can be found at: https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/n/about/submissions
References
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