Multilingual students' language use, identities and attitudes in Taiwan

Abstract

Multilingualism is a worldwide phenomenon. The learning of two or more languages in the school context is becoming very common in different parts of the world. Today, there is increasing interest in research exploring the linguistic practices of multilingual speakers. The main focus of this thesis is situated in the context of Taiwan, a country that has suffered different colonial occupations in the past and has a diverse ethnic population. In the recent decades, Taiwan has moved from promoting monolingualism to multilingualism. The aim of this study is three-folded: to explore to what extent multilingualism has been practiced by Taiwanese multilingual students in different social contexts, to investigate the linguistic identities of students and to analyze the attitudes of students towards different languages, bilingualism and multilingualism. A total of 150 participants took part in this study which uses a mixed method approach including quantitative and qualitative data. Results reveal that Taiwanese students¿ literacy practices are not only multilingual but also multimodal. The evidence on the use of translanguaging demonstrates that Taiwanese multilingual students have a fluid linguistic communicative repertoire. Our analyses suggest that Taiwanese students¿ linguistic identities are not fixed but constantly changing and continuously expanding. In terms of attitudes, results indicate that students generally have positive attitudes towards each of the languages. In particular, we found a significant effect of age on attitudes towards Mandarin, English and bilingualism. These results can be linked to psychological, educational and cultural factors.