School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Society

What does it really mean to be multilingual, and what are the opportunities and challenges of multilingualism for individuals and society?

The Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS) project aimed to provide answers to these questions and so help change attitudes towards multilingualism and multiculturalism throughout society and amongst key policy-makers.

For more details on the whole project and its six research strands see the MEITS website.  

 

University of Nottingham led research

The project strand at Nottingham focused on people’s beliefs and behaviour in regard to what is “good” and “bad” or “wrong” and “right” language, in the languages people speak – at home, the language they learn in primary school, and in foreign languages that they may learn later and use in work and study.

We were especially interested in the way that mastering a “standard” written language is often seen as a passport to opportunities in education and career, and yet it’s constantly being challenged.

For more information about this research strand and how it fits within the overall project see the MEITS website.

See all of our Nottingham-based publications.

Nottingham project team

Schools outreach

We worked with Nottingham City Council’s Team for Identity, Diversity and English as an Additional Language (IDEAL) and Nottingham Writers’ Studio to provide creative writing workshops for local school pupils reflecting on multilingualism and multilingual identity. Find out more on our Outreach with local schools webpage.

NottinghamLingo

We are continuing to work to help celebrate languages and language heritages in Nottingham and the region. See our NottinghamLingo initiative, together with Prof. Natalie Braber at Nottingham Trent University.

The Pop-Up World of Languages

 The MEITS 'World of Languages' pop-up museum toured the UK in late 2019. Featuring a range of hands-on activities suitable for ages 10+, the museum was a celebration of our multilingual world. In Nottingham the museum was hosted by the Central Library from 2nd to 6th December 2019, open 9am-7pm. See the MEITS website for further details. The World of Languages was a great success. As a follow-on project, our colleagues at Cambridge University are now developing the materials as an interactive online museum experience.

Blog posts

To read all the Nottingham team members’ blogs, see the lists on the links below:

 

School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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