TALK at MMU by Richard Fay 05.12.18
6.00-7.00pm — Visiting speaker (RF)
RF ABSTRACT
“Researching multilingually: researcher development and praxis”
In research guidance outside language-foregrounded disciplines, there has often been a surprising lack of support and encouragement for researchers (especially early career researchers) to think and become purposeful about, the possibilities for, and complexities of, using multiple languages in research (Issue 1). This is the case, I would argue, even within my own language-oriented home discipline of TESOL. Further, in an often Anglo-centric world of research, it is all too easy for researchers from certain backgrounds, working in certain locations, and writing in certain languages, to be either privileged or otherwise depending on their relationship with English-medium research publications (Issue 2). In this talk, I will present two AHRC-funded projects which focused on these two issues. From the first of these projects, I will introduce, and exemplify (with accounts of the developing thinking of researchers) a model of developing researcher purposefulness regarding researching multilingually. I will also note what kinds of guidance is (and isn’t) available. From the second project, using a ecologically-framed conceptualisation, I will present an analysis of researcher praxis regarding both issues. In particular, I will focus on examples of researchers’ linguistic activism in their research activities. Overall, my purpose in this seminar is to encourage researchers across disciplines to think more about the language possibilities and complexities of their work and to prioritise the development of what can be termed ‘a multilingual researcher mindset’.
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