Projects

The project investigates aspects of multilingualism on Facebook, in particular code selection/code switching by language users of Iranian descent in a Belgium. The focus is three-fold: (i) the distributional salience of the various languages used, (ii) their functional role in the interactional architecture of social media, (iii) the
connections with the construction of a diasporic space characterized by fragmented/dislocated ...

Multilingualism is a widely discussed societal phenomenon. The present project aims to contribute to a betterunderstanding of multilingualism from a specific historical perspective: medieval and early modern song(1350-1550) in the Low Countries. A multidisciplinary collaboration between musicologists,musicians, translation scholars, (literary) historians, and database specialists will focus on mapping outmultilingualism in the songs’ material ...

Although language diversity poses short-term challenges, early multilingualism and multiliteracy come with great benefits, at least, when it is correctly supported. Currently, many language minority (LM) families are distressed about language issues and many early childhood (EC) professionals (such as parenting advisors and childcare staff) feel insecure in their approach toward LM families. This project aims to transform this societal ...

Co-lingual-S tackles a well-documented disconnect between family- and school language policies regarding multilingualism by applying innovative visual methods to understand multilingual family life, and develop multilingual pedagogies in schools. Co-lingual-S sets out to 1) understand how family members’ intersected identities (such as the interplay between gender, language and migration status) shapes family roles and actions in creating ...

This project wants to investigate the complex relations between literary multilingualism and the construction of identity in contemporary autobiographical texts (1980-2015) written by authors from the Southern Cone (Argentina and Chile) and Mexico. The authors under consideration write in different languages simultaneously or alternatingly, or in a mother tongue influenced by other languages. Exile, migration and postcolonial emancipation ...

Currently there are 272 million international migrants worldwide. This has resulted in linguistically and culturally diverse healthcare systems where healthcare professionals and patients frequently do not share a common language. Language barriers arising from language discordance between healthcare professionals and patients are the most influential impediment to effective medical communication with dire consequences for the quality of ...