Professor Jean-Jacques Weber’s recently published book is gaining attention. Read on to find out why Introducing Multilingualism: a social approach can help us question our beliefs about language.

Professor Weber, with Kristine Horner, recently authored the book  Introducing Multilingualism: A social approach . In his work, Prof. Weber questions our beliefs about what language really is, how language works and how it is used in everyday contexts. He asserts that the meanings of words are not contained within the individual word, but are constructed by the listener or reader who needs to link the word with their own background knowledge in order to make sense of it. 

Professor Weber makes a compelling argument that languages exist on a continuum, and to some extent, each one of us is multilingual, since we all have a variety of resources in our “language libraries”. In this book, Weber and Horner use a variety of examples from all over the world to show how language is influenced by social and political factors.

For example, with the global spread of the English language all over the globe we will see the emergence of local, nativised “englishes”’, such as Singlish (Singapore English) in Singapore or Sheng (Swahili-English) in Kenya. The spread of global languages reflects both the globalising and the localising forces of our age.

“Through my research, I am able to gain vital insights into the role of multilingualism in education, and the workings of language, in a very unique setting here in Luxembourg”, Prof. Weber explains.  “We are perhaps one of the best places in the world to examine this exciting topic, especially as we live in the late modern age of the spread of global languages”.

Jean-Jacques Weber is a Professor of English and Education at the University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE), Languages, Culture, Media and Identities (LCMI) research unit. His research focuses primarily on issues in multilingualism and education, language policy and globalisation, as well as language use in urban neighbourhoods.

Introducing Multilingualism: A social approach is published by Routledge 2012, ISBN: 9780415609982.

For more information on LCMI research at the University of Luxembourg, please visit LCMI .