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Stories of Multilingualism

Source: MEITS Blog, 6 December 2017, by Dieuwerke (Dee) Rutgers

Naturally, the question of what it means to be multilingual is one I receive frequently in my work as a researcher on the MEITS project. In the simplest terms, being multilingual can perhaps be defined as ‘being able to speak or use more than one language’; however, as Harper’s blog (16 August 2017) on the differences between bi- and multilingualism already highlighted, simple definitions often hide great complexity. Having worked on multilingualism in the European (Netherlands), South American (Ecuador) and North American (USA) contexts, I have come to understand that multilingualism knows many different stories; stories that nevertheless reveal a coherent narrative in terms of the cognitive, psychological, educational and social reality of what it means to be multilingual. From a scientific perspective, understanding the nature of multilingualism and its role in human life is not only about collecting and comparing individual stories, but also about applying different disciplinary lenses through which to observe, analyse and come to understand them. It is this principle that lies at the heart of the MEITS project, and it is with this principle in mind that I would like to share one of these stories – a story situated in the US context, as lived and experienced, and beautifully rendered by Melissa Lozada-Oliva, a poet, educator and heritage language speaker of Spanish living in Boston:...

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