Dominant Language Constellations

Teacher cognitions of multilingualism influence classroom behaviour and are partly formed during pre-service teacher (PST) education (Borg 2003). In Fryslân, a linguistically diverse region of the Netherlands, Frisian is a compulsory subject, yet teachers feel underprepared to teach it, leading to negative attitudes towards the minority language and multilingualism in general. A survey, dominant language constellation (DLC) artefacts (Ibrahim 2022), and focus groups with vignettes (Barter & Renold 1999) were used to explore 72 PSTs’ cognitions of multilingualism in education and multilingual identities. Our triangulation of methods shows how cog- nitions of multilingualism can be mapped in various ways. PSTs held slightly positive cognitions of multilingualism in education in the survey and identified as multilingual in the DLCs and focus groups. However, PSTs’ cognitions of minority languages should be improved. This study contributes to the understanding of PSTs’ multilingual identities and cognitions and offers guidance on how the concept of teacher cognition can be applied to multilingualism to improve training on multilingual pedagogies for PSTs.

The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects.

The study of ergodic theorems from the viewpoint of computable analysis is a rich field of investigation. Interactions between algorithmic randomness, computability theory and ergodic theory have recently been examined by several authors. It has been observed that ergodic measures have better computability properties than non-ergodic ones. In a previous paper we studied the extent to which non-ergodic measures inherit the computability properties of ergodic ones, and introduced the notion of an effectively decomposable measure. We asked the following question: if the ergodic decomposition of a stationary measure is finite, is this decomposition effective? In this paper we answer the question in the negative.

This contribution to the special volume is written in tune with Prof Marianna Visser's seeing linguistic diversity in Africa as an asset rather than a complicating factor (2012, 2013). Multilingualism is without a doubt an advantage. With that said, multilingual education is a truly challenging enterprise. In particular, the realisation of appropriate educational affordances is a daunting task. In view of this, the aim of this chapter is to highlight the necessity of systematic managing of affordances in multilingual education and introduce the idea of affordances streamlining as an additional way for bettering the practice of multilingual teaching and learning.

Multilingualism in post-postmodernity has proved to be the prevailing human condition. Various approaches have been applied to fully embrace the advantages of multilingualism and to come to terms with its challenges—among them, first of all, the widely spread competence concept. In addition to the competence approach, there are several others, such as linguistic ecology, complexity, and the philosophical approach. The aim of this article is twofold: 1) to discuss ways of conceptualizing multilingualism under the new linguistic dispensation (Aronin 2007; Aronin and Singleton 2008), and 2) to stress the role of affordances as a promising organizing concept for investigation of multilingualism. The competence paradigm is one of the various conceptualizations of how language is used and acquired. In this article, I will situate the affordances perspective among other current conceptualizations of multilingualism. To this end, I will first describe the New Linguistic Dispensation, which accounts for salient global changes in the role of languages in society. Next, I will briefly discuss some theoretical approaches to multilingualism, including the competence approach, with special emphasis on one recently emergent line of research—the philosophy of multilingualism. The final section of the article is devoted to examining the concept of affordances and its significance in multilingualism research and multilingual practices.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to