Languages of the Wider World : Valuing Diversity

The last few decades have seen a stretching and exchange of local, regional and national languages, identities, cultures, and economies worldwide as a consequence of globalisation and technology development. Significantly, the languages of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia have been attracting increasing strategic, commercial and civic attention. Collectively referred to as ‘Languages of the Wider World’ (LWW), these languages are important given the emergence of new centres of capital and cultural accumulation in the 21st century, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs). This volume focuses on LWW in use, and on their teaching and learning. It ranges from a highly localized focus (on learners and teachers of Community/Heritage Languages), to broader national and international foci (on policy makers and multilingualism; on teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary systems). It aims to inspire researchers and practitioners to work on languages other than the ones that have been the mainstay of the field to facilitate the development of a vibrant and critical community of enquiry in Languages of the Wider World.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Language Learning Journal.

Itesh Sachdev was born and brought up in Kenya. He completed secondary and undergraduate education in the UK, studying Psychology at the University of Bristol, and doctoral training in Social Psychology at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. He then taught in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and is currently Professor of Language and Communication at the School of Oriental & African Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK. He has also been Director of the SOAS-UCL Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 'Languages of the Wider World', served as President of the British Association for Canadian Studies and of the International Association for Language and Social Psychology, and is currently co-Chair of the SOAS Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies. He has published widely in the social psychology of language and intergroup relations, having conducted research with various ethnolinguistic groups including those in/from Bolivia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia and the UK.