Advances, Issues, and Future Directions in Multilingual and Intercultural Communication Studies

MIC Distinguished Lecture Series

The increasing salience of linguistic and cultural diversity in contemporary society and issues that continue to confront many minority groups call for critical reflection, innovation, and intervention in many sectors. Interdisciplinary insights and practices supporting multilingualism and intercultural understanding and the complex identities of those we interact with are needed across a range of institutional settings, such as schools and universities, medical and legal settings, and other workplaces and communities. In this presentation, I discuss some successful strides being made as well as remaining challenges to be tackled in relation to changing multilingual (or monolingual) policies and ideologies, efforts to revitalize and valorize minority languages, cultures, and diverse semiotic repertoires, and the role of emerging technologies, including AI and other online tools, practices, and networks. I conclude by identifying some priorities for future interdisciplinary work in this area, especially in light of the intensification of globalization, transnationalism, and mobility.

Speaker:

Patricia A. Duff

Patricia (Patsy) Duff is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia and past president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. She researches language socialization across multilingual settings; qualitative methods in applied linguistics; issues in the teaching, learning, and use of English, Mandarin, and other international and heritage/Indigenous languages in transnational contexts; the integration of newcomers in schools, universities, workplaces, and society; academic discourse socialization; sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and sociopolitical aspects of languages in education; and theories of second language learning. She has published and lectured widely on these topics.