Kielitietoisuus eriarvoistumiskehitystä jarruttamassa
Keywords:
language awareness, multilingualism, inequality, applied linguisticsAbstract
In this introduction to the 2017 Yearbook of the Finnish Association for Applied Linguistics (AFinLA), we present the yearbook theme Language awareness in an increasingly unequal society. Our aim is to define and discuss language awareness and inequality in the context of applied linguistics. We describe the three plenary talks given at the 2016 AFinLA Autumn Symposium by Christine Hélot (University of Strasbourg), Ulla Tiililä (Institute for the Languages of Finland) and Steven Thorne (Portland State University). The plenarists discussed the meaning and role of multilingual language awareness in educational contexts and highlighted the importance of scrutinizing language ideologies that guide linguistic and interactional practices in education, politics and social services. We also introduce the 15 individual contributions to this volume that approach the theme from a variety of perspectives. We believe research in applied linguistics can mitigate increasing inequality, and that language awareness plays a key role in this endeavor.
