Gessica De Angelis (Norwegian University of Science and Technology): Understanding changing societies through social and individual multilingualism

Multilingualism is a growing phenomenon in many parts of the world, and like any new reality, it brings with it great opportunities and significant challenges. Canada is one of the many multilingual countries in the world where different languages coexist, but most importantly, where many individuals function using different languages in their daily lives. What does this entail for academia and, more broadly, for education? Are we ready to face the challenges that already exist and those that lie ahead of us? I will be discussing some of the most significant benefits and difficulties associated with multilingualism today for students, academic programs, employers, and local economies, showing how the linguistic and cultural capital derived from multilingualism is underutilized, often ignored, and generally misunderstood in modern societies.

Gessica De Angelis is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL in the Department of Teacher Education of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. She has worked in the UK, Canada, Italy, and Ireland. She has published extensively on crosslinguistic influence, multilingual teacher education, multilingual testing and assessment, and multilingual language acquisition and development. Her publications include the books Third or Additional Language Acquisition (2007) and Multilingual Testing and Assessment (2021) as well as edited volumes and journal articles on multilingualism research. She has been actively involved with the International Association of Multilingualism, serving as Vice-President (2009–11; 2012–2014), Treasurer (2014–2016) and Board Member (2004–2016).

For more information, please contact Prof. Alena Barysevich abarysev@uoguelph.ca