Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft

In this seminar, we will explore a wide range of contexts - from individual biographies to societal patterns - in which multiple languages are used. After a brief introduction into the various fields of research into multilingualism, students will be given the opportunity to design, conduct and present their own small-scale research project.

Since Donald Trump took office, the US Environmental Protection Agency has reworded its mission statements and now claims that its intended mission is “to create an environment in which jobs can grow.” In this seminar, we will explore the ways in which people, institutions, governments and other organisations contribute to and shape public discourse about the relationship between humans and their (natural) environments. We will do this by critically analysing texts, both written and spoken, which reflect past and current ideologies about nature and their embeddedness in economic and political discourses according to their language and discourse features. Ecolinguistics, then, “is about critiquing forms of language that contribute to ecological destruction, and aiding in the search for new forms of language that inspire people to protect the natural world” (Stibbe 2015). Students are required to actively take part in the design of the seminar by contributing their perspectives, favoured topics and interests. Preparation for the seminar will include regular reading of news items other online content as well as the assigned academic texts for each session. Credit points will be awarded for project work on a chosen environmental-linguistic topic.