Abstract
This multilingual webinar features Anna Ritter (Universität Duisburg-Essen) as well as Maria Stopfner and Sabrina Colombo (Eurac Research) focusing on plurilingual families in Germany and South Tyrol and how they live and experience their plurilingualism.
Ritter will first examine how different family languages are used and related to each other, and how the language biographies of individual family members from different generations affect the linguistic situation within the family. Based on audio recordings in ten German-Russian bilingual families (about 600 minutes in total), questionnaires for all participants and interviews with parents, Ritter will describe individual interaction styles of plurilingual families living in Germany and present a typology of bilingual interactions in plurilingual families.
Stopfner and Colombo will then focus on the family language policies of plurilingual families and how different generations situate themselves in a multilingual region like South Tyrol. On the basis of twelve family interviews with at least one parent and one child, different frames of reference become apparent through which the different family members locate themselves and are located by others in discourse and interaction. The two researchers will also discuss the point of view of more than 100 professionals working with plurilingual families on language use at home and on the factors affecting the language choices in home settings where more than two languages are spoken.
The webinar will take place in German, English and Italian. Questions on the part of the audience will be welcome in any of these languages.
The webinar is part of the online series “Diversity Matters” hosted by the Migrations and Diversities research group of Eurac Research. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the webinar series explores the impact of migrations, diversities and mobilities on increasingly superdiverse territorial realities. The series is a forum for experts to share their work and expertise with an audience of fellow academics, students, decision-makers and practitioners.