Abstract
Applied linguists have engaged in critical work, punctuated by the social, the ethical, and the multilingual “turns,” for three decades. Most critiques, however, continue to be rooted in Euro-Anglo-Northern knowledge, and many still remain bound to modernist and postpositivist intellectual traditions.
This is the case in my own work as well, where I have offered a rethinking of second language acquisition that is guided by a dual multilingual and social justice orientation.
Newer critical positionings in applied linguistics have found inspiration in decolonial theories and Southern epistemologies. Do we need any Southern/decolonial turns in the field? Are they worth the trouble?
In this talk, I will examine the potential of a decolonial lens to further sharpen social justice orientations towards the study of multilingual learning. I will also reflect on the barriers and possibilities that await applied linguistics and scholars of multilingualism who wish to consider social justice and decoloniality as tools to increase the relevance of their research for both elite and marginalized multilinguals.
Bio
Lourdes Ortega (she/ella) is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. Her main area of research is in second language acquisition (SLA).
She is best known for her award-winning meta-analysis of second-language instruction in 2000, her best-seller textbook Understanding Second Language Acquisition (2009, translated into Mandarin in 2016), and for championing a bilingual and social justice turn in SLA. She co-edited, with Annick De Houwer, The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Ortega is the General Editor of Language Learning and President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. Forthcoming this December is a special issue of Applied Linguistics titled “Toward A Decolonial Applied Linguistics,” which she guest co-edited with Anna De Fina (Georgetown University) and Marcelyn Oostendorp (Stellenbosch University).
Featuring six articles, among others by Pia Lane (MultiLing/UiO) and Ana Deumert (University of Cape Town), this special issue is the culmination of Ortega’s transformative collaboration with MultiLing on the INTPART 2.0 grant from 2019 until 2022.
Additional Information
The MultiLing Lecture is a part of the Opening Ceremony for MultiLing's Closing Conference. The Opening Ceremony will also include a musical performance by Frode Fjellheim and Hildegunn Øiseth, as well as opening remarks by University Rector Svein Stølen and MultiLing Center Director Unn Røyneland.
The event takes place in the University Aula. For information about where it is and how to get there, please consult this website.
As coat check is mandatory in the University Aula, we encourage attendees to arrive 30 minutes early.