New project focuses on how people with different languages and cultures communicate
Birkbeck linguistics researchers will study multilingual interaction in Newham as part of a £1,937,527 project
Birkbeck linguistics researchers will study multilingual interaction in Newham, a linguistically and culturally diverse borough of London as part of a £1,937,527 project. The study will help policy-makers and communities to understand better how people communicate across different languages and cultures.
Researchers of the Centre for Multilingual and Multicultural Research, Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck, have been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Large Grant as part of the Translating Cultures programme. The 4-year research project, Translation and Translanguaging: Investigating Linguistic and Cultural Transformations in Superdiverse Wards in Four UK Cities, is a collaboration between four UK universities, led by the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism at the University of Birmingham. The interdisciplinary research programme will develop new understandings of multilingual interaction in cities in the UK, and communicate these to policy-makers and communities locally, nationally, and internationally. The research project will run from 2014–2018.
Superdiverse cities
Globalisation and changing patterns of migration mean that ‘superdiverse’ cities are increasingly populated by speakers of multiple languages. The research team from Birkbeck, Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds universities will generate new knowledge about communication in changing urban communities. They will conduct detailed linguistic ethnographic investigations and focus on multilingual interactions between people in contexts of business, legal advice, community sport, and libraries and museums. Analysis will provide detailed evidence of how people communicate across languages and cultures. The Birkbeck team, led by Professors Zhu Hua and Li Wei, will be conducting their fieldwork in Newham, a linguistically and culturally superdiverse borough in London.
The interdisciplinary project will involve academic researchers from a broad range of subject areas and partners from private, public, and third sectors, including Migrants’ Rights Network, Business in the Community, Law Centres Network, Sporting Equals, Equality and Human Rights Commission, and various libraries and museums networks. The project will also benefit from the expertise of international specialists in multilingualism and superdiversity, including those from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and the Norwegian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan.
Understanding multilingualism in civic life
In response to the award, Professor Zhu Hua, Professor of Applied Linguistics and Communication, said, “This award gives us the opportunity to be part of a major, ground-breaking study of multilingualism across England and Wales. The research will make a significant contribution to knowledge about the potential of multilingualism as a resource for communication, creativity, and civic participation.”
Professor David Latchman, CBE, Master of Birkbeck, welcomed the award, saying: “The award will not only strengthen Birkbeck’s relationship with Newham Council but also allow our research to have a real impact on London and beyond”
Theme Leadership Fellow for Translating Cultures, Professor Charles Forsdick (Liverpool), commented that the award “will provide an urgently needed contribution, from an Arts and Humanities perspective, to our understanding of some of the most pressing issues in the twenty-first-century. The aim of the project is to interrogate, analyse and demonstrate the central place of languages and culture in contemporary life. The project will transform academic and public understanding of the theories and practices of translation and interpreting in innovative, exciting and, I anticipate, often unexpected ways.”
Two other projects are also funded by the AHRC as part of the Translating Cultures programme. They are Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State, and Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Mobility, Identity and Translation in Modern Italian Cultures.