Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development: Call for Papers

by Heather Sparling

JMMD solicits articles for publication in a special issue on Heritage Language Revitalization and Music, guest edited by Dr. Begoña Echeverria (University of California, Riverside) and Dr. Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University). 

A response to the incredibly complex challenge of language decay demands not only the perspectives of speakers and learners of a range of languages, but the perspectives offered by diverse disciplines. Approaches to reversing processes of linguistic morbidity have assumed that solutions should focus on the language itself (e.g., offering language classes, availability of services in a given language), often with minimal consideration given to other forms of cultural expression. 

This volume offers an innovative perspective in its emphasis on music as the primary point of encounter with language and, as such, it offers a previously unrecognized and undervalued means of supporting heritage languages – minority languages to which learners typically have exposure through community and family. We welcome papers that foreground music in all aspects of heritage language revitalization, including status, acquisition, and corpus planning.

Key questions

In what ways can/does music:

• elevate the status of a language among non-speakers, learners, and fluent speakers?

• encourage the use of a language in a greater variety of domains? 

• create a gateway to language acquisition?

• offer opportunities to acquire language? 

• open up avenues to use language? 

• provide a tool with which to document a language?

• offer possibilities to study linguistic change? 

• get used to implement linguistic change or policies? 

JMMD is a peer-reviewed cross-disciplinary journal for researchers from diverse scholarly and geographical backgrounds. It is concerned with macro-level coverage of topics in the sociology and social psychology of language, and in language and cultural politics, policy, planning and practice.

Articles should be about 7000 words. The deadline for complete manuscripts is September 15, 2021.

Please visit the journal website for complete submission details:
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rmmm20/current

Please contact the guest editors with any questions:
Dr. Begoña Echeverria (b.echeverria@ucr.edu) or Dr. Heather Sparling (heather_sparling@cbu.ca)

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