8 - Decolonizing Languages in Rural Settings

Summary

The dominance of research into multilingualism and multilingual education produces a privileging of work within urban settings. The multilingual city; the superdiversity of urban wards; the institutions of language learning – the libraries; the cinemas; community language schools; cafés for language conversation; ethnically diverse restaurants, shops and take-aways where languages proliferate and live – all produce particular urban language ecologies. Policy is largely framed for languages according to needs of urban settings and rural multilingualisms are framed as ‘indigenous’, or of ‘the margins’. By tracing genealogies of language learning in and for rural settings and for research outside of urban environments the chapter deconstructs ways in which multilingualisms serve dominant policies, especially of colonial powers. Taking case studies from AHRC Large Grant Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State, the chapter considers the dimension of rurality in working towards equity and parity in language positions, and the way that arts and indigenous knowledges might serve a decolonizing agenda as it receives renewed critical attention.