MULTILINGUAL SYDNEY

Multilingual Sydney is the web site of the Multilingualism Research Centre (MRC), a Research Centre of the Faculty of Human Sciences at Macquarie University, bridging the Departments of Linguistics and Educational Studies. 

 

The Multilingualism Research Centre works to advance transdisciplinary research that informs language and education policy by

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• deepening understanding of the diversity and specificity of multilingualism in its social and historical contexts

• evaluating the impact of multilingualism on communities, social identities and life experiences

• exploring the cultural and affective significance of languages to the communities that know and use them

• investigating formal and informal language learning and teaching processes and their impact on multilingual lives. 

 

MRC takes a broad view of multilingualism that accommodates language acquisition, attrition, and revival as well as varying degrees of multilingual competence and varied language repertoires. Our research streams are:

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• Language learning and use in the community

• Australian indigenous languages

• Multilingualism, technologies and literacies in education

• English in a multilingual society

• Multilingualism in social and professional life

• Geographies of multilingualism. 

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We focus on a range of experiences of multilingualism, including those of Indigenous Australians, long-term migrants with a first language other than English, second-generation migrants who have grown up with more than one language, and English-speakers with proficiency in an additional language or dialect. Our work covers the experiences of both multilingual individuals and multilingual communities.