EDITORIAL

Abstract

Dear Sustainable Multilingualism community, 

Welcome to the 23rd issue of the journal. The period between the last two issues of 2023 was marked by several significant moments in the history of the journal, from tragic, unexpected, and sad—reminding us of the impermanence of life—to moments of accomplishment, allowing us to experience a sense of acknowledgement, success, and achievement.  

On the 29th of May 2023, the world lost an inspirational and courageous fighter for justice, equity and language rights, promoter of linguistic diversity and advocate for the rights of marginalized communities, an eminent scholar, prof. dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. Professor was an honorable member of our Editorial Board since 2017, when both renown defenders of linguistic human rights in the world – Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and prof. emeritus Robert Phillipson – gave their keynote speeches in our international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2017 and published their research in the journal in 2018. Her active involvement in “indigenous people’s and minorities’ struggle for linguistic human rights and in counteracting linguistic and cultural genocide, linguistic imperialism, and substractive spread of English” (Tove-Skutnabb Kangas, 2023), incredible corpus of research, published worldwide and translated into over 60 languages (see more at www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/), as well as her personal commitment and energy, refusal to compromise while solving language preservation issues is the greatest legacy for future generations. The Tributes received from a countless number of people worldwide and shared with us by courtesy of prof. Robert Phillipson (personal correspondence) witness that “She will forever be remembered as a fierce advocate of the wretched of the earth and a prophetic voice against injustice and suffering”, as a “giant intellectual who spoke her truth fearlessly”, and “a source of inspiration and energy” not only to the scholars of linguistic human rights but also to “the speakers whose linguistic rights were restored, even partially, by her thoughts and actions.” As Tove-Skutnabb Kangas wrote in the Afterword: Pursuing Linguistic Human Rights for the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights (2023, p. 679–687), a recent landmark publication exploring the intersection of human rights and languages, “showing the way forward is a primary goal of the Handbook of LHRs” so was her life, showing the way forward, to all of us.  

During this period there have been some changes in the membership of the Editorial Board. Michael Kelly, Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Southampton, a member of the Editorial Board since the first issue of the journal, decided to withdraw from the Editorial Board, having admitted being no longer close to the current academic and policy debates after the retirement from full-time academic duties. Professor expressed his delight that the journal had progressed so well and wished us “every success in the next phase of your exciting venture” (from personal correspondence). We are grateful for the support and contribution received during these ten years and wish our dear professor Michael Kelly all the best in his future endeavors.

Despite this, there is some bright news worth sharing. Three renown researchers have accepted our invitation to become the journal’s Editorial Board members. It is my pleasure to congratulate Enrica Piccardo, a professor in the Languages and Literacies Education Program and the Director of the Centre for Educational Research in Languages and Literacies, University of Toronto – an internationally recognized researcher in Second/Foreign Language learning and teaching, plurilingualism and mediation, known for the impact of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) on language teaching and assessment, complexity theories, and creativity in language acquisition; professor dr. Ina Druviete, the Vice-rector of the Humanities and Educational Sciences in the University of Latvia, a researcher in the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia, whose research focuses on education policy, language policy, sociolinguistics, Latvian language and ethnopolitics as well as language use in higher education; and Ugnius Vizgirda Mikucionis, assoc. prof. dr. at the Department of Language, Literature, Mathematics and Interpreting of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, whose research areas include Norwegian and Scandinavian linguistics, Old Norse literature and mythology, teaching Norwegian as a foreign language in different contexts. We hope that our new colleagues will bring the latest cutting-edge ideas to the journal policy and will contribute to maintaining and increasing its high standards.  

Another significant moment that will have an imprint in the journal history was the 7^th international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2023, which was held on June 9–10 at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania and provided a common platform for researchers, language policy makers, language teachers, students, and anyone interested in discussing and sharing their expertise in the key issues of multilingualism, including but not limited to such themes as “Multilingualism and Society,” “Language Education and Plurilingual Competence Development”, “Multilingualism and Professional Practice”, “Contemporary Lithuanian Language Studies”, and others. The conference attracted over 150 participants from over 20 countries of the world, who presented around a hundred presentations (see “Book of Abstracts”) on their current research and participated in conference discussions, including a Round Table discussion “The Importance of Language in Higher Education Teaching”, as a part of the multiplier event of Erasmus + APATCHE (Adding Plurilingual Approaches to language Teacher Competences in Higher Education) project. Many researchers who presented their findings in the conference have submitted or intend to submit their manuscripts to be published in our journal.  

The articles chosen to be published in the issue 23/2023 have been distributed into four subsequent sections, the first being Language Education in Multilingual and Multicultural Settings. 

Life goes on, even during the war. Russia’s military aggression, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, started on 24 February 2022, has destructed the educational infrastructure, paused the educational and research processes, and traumatized the young and the old. But the courageous nation, fighting for their homeland, tries to maintain life however and wherever it is possible under such circumstances. Thus, the article by Kapranov and Voloshyna “Learning English Under the Sounds of Air Raid Sirens: Analyzing Undergraduate EFL Students’ Sustainable Learning Practices” is of utmost value, presenting students’ reflections on their “sustainable practices related to the ways the participants learnt English during the Russo-Ukrainian war” and concluding that “the development of multilingualism in the time of crises is feasible and sustainable” if coupled by internal, psychological and external, institutional support.  

We live in the times of global free and forced migration and mobility, when even our hitherto monolingual European countries and/or institutions are increasingly becoming multilingual and multicultural; when due to open website resources, increased international collaboration and cooperation, our students and staff are becoming plurilingual. All this brings new challenges to education, including language education which is in need of innovative approaches that involve students' plurilingual repertoires in language teaching, as monolingual teaching methods in foreign language classes have been proved to be no longer valid. Cvilikaitė-Mačiulskienė, Daukšaitė-Kolpakovienė, Gvazdikaitė, and Linkevičiūtė discuss translanguaging in teaching and learning English at a higher education, revealing the attitudes and experiences of Ukrainian students studying in a Lithuanian university and their teachers towards the use of other languages in the English classroom. The study is supported by a solid theoretical background on the necessity to switch from monolingual to a more holistic paradigm in language teaching. According to Převrátilová, “plurilingualism goes beyond the mere ability to use multiple languages; it emphasizes the interconnected nature of languages within an individual's linguistic competence”, the author of “One Mind, Many Languages: Czech as an Additional Language in Plurilingual Repertoires”. Silvie explores the interplay of languages in the plurilingual repertoires of international students, learning Czech as an additional language. The research, based on the Perceived Positive Language Interaction framework (Thompson, 2016), reveals perceived positive interactions not only among some of the students’ studied languages within language families but also across typologically different languages, such as between Czech and German. The study concludes that students can significantly benefit from their previous language learning experiences when learning an additional language.  

Pundziuvienė, Meškauskienė, Ringailienė, and Matulionienė present their research into the role of linguistic and cultural mediation in learning the host country’s language, i.e., English in the UK and Lithuanian in Lithuania. The study revealed that mediation applied as a language learning method in language classes can improve students’ use of non-linguistic competences, thus reducing linguistic and cultural barriers, encourage collaboration among language learners, and enrich their competence in translanguaging; however, careful guidance on the part of a language teacher is needed. Rapún Mombiela and Tramallino analyze the influence of multilingual learner repertoires from a linguistic perspective in their study “Acquisition of Spanish Adverbials by Multilingual Estonian Learners”. The study concentrates on the difficulties Estonian students face with Spanish time adverbials, specifically, prepositions and articles. The findings emphasize the importance of language proficiency levels and crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of third languages. The study by Mambetaliev presents the analysis of the attitudes toward English and preferences for language policy models expressed by international applicants to Hungarian universities. Research participants expressed their positive attitudes towards English as a medium of instruction, but show preferences for multilingual language policies depending, emphasizing the importance of preserving their native languages.

The second section – Digital Technologies in Language Education – presents two studies – a thorough bibliometric analysis and a study on the teachers’ views on the use of technologies in education. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all spheres of our life has been growing exponentially, and it plays “a transforming role in education, including language teaching and learning” (Jaleniauskienė, Lisaitė, and Daniusevičiūtė-Brazaitė). Using bibliometric analysis, the authors present an overview of the most recent research related to the use of AI in language education: productivity in terms of authors and countries, co-authorship, most cited references, most popular journals, and most common keywords. The results show that each year a consistent number of publications on the application of AI in language education appears. Another article presented in this section by an international group of researchers (Klimova, Pikhart, Fronckova, Sanchez-Stockhammer, Stukalina, Iruskieta, Okumuş Dağdeler, Lejot, Parmaxi, Rodríguez, Pareja-Lora) deals with foreign language teachers’ attitudes towards the use of digital teaching in the EU countries. The results of their research show that foreign language teachers have positive attitudes towards the use of technologies in their classes and frequently use them to engage students in language learning; however, they need more training in the use of new technologies and expect professional support from the management of their home institutions. 

Languages in Societal Discourse section contains the study by Anča who explores the nomenclature of traditional ornaments, characteristic for the Latvian and Lithuanian ethnographic regions, as an essential part of traditional Baltic culture. The research compares the ornament naming traditions in both countries and highlights the main parallels and differences, revealing more diversity found in the spectrum of ornament nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century in Latvia than it is now; “that it is common for Latvians and Lithuanians to view ornament as a pattern rather than separate graphic elements and that geometric, plant, animal, artefact and celestial body denominations dominate the nomenclature of both languages. 

Traditionally, we try to publish articles on Issues in Translation which are important for preserving languages and sustaining multilingualism in the times when some domineering languages are gaining momentum in the world. Koverienė investigates the “intricate nature of lip synchrony in dubbing as an audiovisual translation mode, highlighting its significance beyond aesthetic considerations”, and presents recommendations to audiovisual translators.  

Welcoming the 23rd issue of the journal, I would like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all contributors: the authors who chose our journal for sharing their valuable research, diligent reviewers who provided valuable constructive feedback and ideas for manuscript improvement, and the whole editorial team: executive editors and the technical support group (proofreaders, layout designers, and translators) whose conscientious efforts, thorough work, and belief in the mission of the journal allow us all to pursue the goal of sustaining multilingualism.  

Prof. Dr. Nemira Mačianskienė, Editor-in-Chief

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0412-9584

References

APATCHE (Adding Plurilingual Approaches to language Teacher Competences in Higher Education) project. http://www.apatche.eu/ 

Mačianskienė, N., & Žiūraitė, V. (Eds.). 2023. Sustainable Multilingualism 2023: Book of Abstracts. The 7th International Conference. https://doi.org/10.7220/9786094675720 

Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Phillipson, R. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights. Wiley-Blackwell.  
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119753926. 

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2018). Linguistic diversity, language rights and language ecology. Sustainable Multilingualism, 13(2018), 14–59. 

Phillipson, R. (2018). Language challenges in regional and Global Integration. Sustainable Multilingualism, 12(2018), 14–35.