Speaking Subjects in Multilingualism Research

Judith Purkarthofer is a Junior Professor in the German Studies Department at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She holds a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria, and has completed postdoctoral work at the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan of the University of Oslo, Norway, and at Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany. She carries out ethnographic and biographic research in families, schools and kindergartens.Mi-Cha Flubacher is a Postdoc-University Assistant in the Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria. She is the author of Language Investment and Employability: The Uneven Distribution of Resources in the Public Employment Service (with Alexandre Duchêne and Renata Coray, 2018, Springer) and the editor of Language, Education and Neoliberalism: Critical Studies in Sociolinguistics (with Alfonso Del Percio, 2017, Multilingual Matters).

• Figures and TablesContributorsAcknowledgmentsPart 1: Introducing Speaking SubjectsChapter 1. Mi-Cha Flubacher and Judith Purkarthofer: Speaking Subjects in Multilingualism Research: Biographical and Speaker-centred ApproachesChapter 2. Judith Purkarthofer: And the Subject Speaks to You: Biographical Narratives as Memories and Stories of the Narratable SelfChapter 3. Tim McNamara: Discourse and the Agency of the Subject in Autobiographical NarrativesChapter 4. Mi-Cha Flubacher: Ethnography as a Speaker-centred Approach? Methodological ReflectionsPart 2: Empirical InsightsLanguage Portraits as a Starting Ground Chapter 5. Christine Anthonissen: Profiles of Multilingualism: An Analysis of Language Biographies and Linguistic Repertoires of University StudentsChapter 6. Maartje De Meulder and Annelies Kusters: Experiencing Multimodal Languaging: The Use of Language Portraits with Deaf and Hearing Multilingual SignersChapter 7. Ruth Singer: Linguistic Biographies and Language Portraits as Tools for Developing Shared Understandings of Multilingualism with an Indigenous Australian CommunityLinguistic Repertoires and Language Learning in Time and SpaceChapter 8. Xolisa Guzula: Children’s Use of Their Full Linguistic Repertoire to Establish a Social and Linguistic Third Space for Learning: A Case Study of the Stars of Today Literacy ClubChapter 9. Simangele Mashazi and Marcelyn Oostendorp: Belonging: The Interplay of Linguistic Repertoires, Bodies and Space in an Educational Context Chapter 10. Julie Choi: Learning about Multilingual Language Learning Experiences through Language Trajectory GridsChapter 11. Andrea Sedlaczek: Using Media Diaries to Study Multilingual Media Repertoires: A Pilot Study with Language Learners in a Rural Community Education SettingAddressing TraumaChapter 12. Julia Sonnleitner: A Past of Flesh and Blood: Chronotopic Agency and Embodiment in Biographic NarrativeChapter 13. Mastura Raschidy: Freedom is Suffering for a Caged Bird: Biographical Approaches and PsychotraumatologyChapter 14. Mascha Dabić: Speaking about the Unspeakable: Interpreter-mediated Psychotherapy for Survivors of War and TorturePart 3: Unsettling and Extending Biographical Research and Speaker-centred Approaches  Chapter 15. Ana Deumert, Zolani Kupe and Nkululeko Mabandla: Ilwiimi Zisulungekile: Reflections on Language, Meaning and CommunicationChapter 16. Jürgen Spitzmüller: Ideologies of Communication: The Social Link between Actors, Signs and PracticesChapter 17. Anne-Christel Zeiter-Grau: Language Issues? On Collecting Language Biographies without Focusing on LanguageChapter 18. Brigitta Busch: A Few Remarks on Working with Auto-Socio-Bio-EthnographyIndex

This brilliant contribution to language research reframes our understanding of linguistic repertoires, diversity and (in)equality in multilingual societies. Through creative and thought-provoking ideas, it inspires researchers to think differently regarding the creation of knowledge about speakers and their languages. A must-read for anybody interested in speaker-centred approaches to language.