MULTILINGUALISM AS A KEY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Socio­Cultural Context of Writing

MULTILINGUALISM AS A KEY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Özlem Alagöz­Bakan¹, Marco Linguri²

¹Schreibwerkstatt Mehrsprachigkeit, Hamburg, Germany and Schreibzentrum Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ²Schreibwerkstatt Mehrsprachigkeit, Hamburg, Germany and Schreibzentrum Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Multilingualism and interculturality are gaining an increasingly important role in today's globalized world.

Intercultural exchange along with worldwide migration are both a source for potential conflict as well as opportunity. Writing centres ­ especially in multicultural cities like Hamburg and Frankfurt ­ therefore need to adress this topic. Peer tutors may ask themselves: What does it mean for a L2 learner of German to write an essay in German literature? What does it mean for master degree students who write their thesis in English?

To us as peer tutors, it can sometimes be challenging to not only see the problems but also recognize the opportunities. We should keep in mind that a significant advantage of peer tutoring is that it provides a one­to­one situation including a non­judgmental space which leaves much more room for experiments that tap into students’ multilingual skills and expose them to different methods of writing (cf. Knorr et al. 2015).

Multilingual writers who actively incorporated multilingualism into their writing process have reported positive influences on several aspects of their writing. These students utilize for example the linguistic knowledge of their languages and thereby create a unique writing style.

Finally, our aim is to present methods and strategies one could employ in writing conferences with multilingual students. Also, we will provide some experiences we made by using them. By this we would like to encourage others to make it their goal to truly keep an open mind towards their multilingual students and embrace their additional language skills as a strength and opportunity.

References

Knorr, Dagmar/ Andresen, Melanie/ Alagöz­Bakan, Özlem/ Tilmans, Anna (2015): Mehrsprachigkeit – Ressource für SchreibberaterInnen und Ratsuchende. In: Dirim, Inci/ Gogolin, Ingrid/ Knorr, Dagmar/ Krüger­Potratz, Marianne/ Lengyel, Dorit/ Reich, Hans H./ Weiße, Wolfram (ed.): Impulse für die Migrationsgesellschaft. Bildung, Politik und Religion. [Bildung in Umbruchgesellschaften; 12]. Münster, 318­338.

Lange, Ulrike (2012): Strategien für das wissenschaftliche Schreiben in mehrsprachigen Umgebungen. Eine didaktische Analyse. In: Knorr, Dagmar/ Verhein­Jarren, Annette (ed.): Schreiben unter Bedingungen von Mehrsprachigkeit [Textproduktion und Medium, Bd. 12]. Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 139­155.