Language Acts and Worldmaking: How and Why the Languages We Use Shape Our World and Our Lives

(Paperback)

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Collectively authored by the Language Acts and Worldmaking team, this defining volume offers reflective narratives on research, theory and practice over the course of the flagship project of the same name, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative. It returns to the project's key principles - that our words make worlds and we are agents in worldmaking - analyses the practices and outcomes of collaborative working, and looks to the future by offering concrete ideas for how the work they have done can now continue to do its work in the world.

Focusing on the key research strands, this volume looks at the role of the language teacher as a mediator between languages and cultures, worldmaking in modern languages, translation and the imagination, languages and hospitality, digital mediations, and how words change and make worlds. Critically, it analyses the impact on communities of living in multilingual cities, and the ways in which learning a first language, and then a second, and so on, plays a crucial role in our ability to understand our culture in relation to others and to appreciate the ways in which they are intertwined.

Specific aims are to:

propose new ways of bridging the gaps between those who teach and research languages and those who learn and use them in everyday contexts from the professional to the personal

put research into the hands of wider audiences

share a philosophy, policy and practice of language teaching and learning which turns research into action

provide the research, experience and data to enable informed debates on current issues and attitudes in language learning, teaching and research

share knowledge across and within all levels and experiences of language learning and teaching

showcase exciting new work that derives from different types of community activity and is of practical relevance to its audiences

disseminate new research in languages that engages with diverse communities of language practitioners.

Author Bio

Collectively authored as Language Acts and Worldmaking project team, this volume was co-edited by Catherine Boyle and Debra Kelly.

Catherine Boyle is Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies at King's College London where she is also the Director of the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking in King's Arts and Humanities Research Institute. Her re search and practice is based in connections between cultural history and translation and on methodologies for theatre translation in research and performance, and she was Principal Investigator for the Language Acts and Worldmaking research project.

Debra Kelly is Professor Emerita in Modern Languages, School of Humanities, University of Westminster, London. In 2005 she received the award of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the French Government in recognition of her services to French language, literature and culture. She has published widely in French and Francophone literary and cultural studies. Her research now focuses on the historical and contemporary French and Francophone communities in London, and she recently authored Fishes with Funny French Names: The French Restaurant in London from the 19th to the 21stCentury (2021). Since 2008, she has been Co-Director of Routes into Languages London, a programme which supports and encourages language learning from primary through to higher education with a focus on access and widening participation. She is also Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London working with the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking in King's Art and Humanities Research Institute and co-leads the research strand 'Language Transitions' with Ana de Medeiros.