Andrea Schalley, professor of English, has received funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) to conduct full-time research in 2025-2026. She will complete a monograph on language maintenance, synthesising and contextualising a decade of research.
“I am extremely grateful for the RJ sabbatical and the opportunity to focus exclusively on my research,” says Andrea Schalley. “The goal is to complete a monograph that synthesises and contextualises the extensive research on language maintenance that I, along with my collaborators, have conducted over the past decade, and to publish it open access, which is a very welcome added benefit.”
Andrea Schalley hopes her work will be valuable to experts in multilingualism, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students, teacher educators, and practitioners such as teachers, speech pathologists, and social workers.
What is the focus of your monograph, and why is it significant?
“The volume will provide a state-of-the-art overview that integrates linguistic perspectives with social, affective, and educational dimensions of language maintenance. It examines language maintenance from both a societal and individual perspective. Given the prevalence of multilingualism in our societies, and the ensuing political and educational debates, it is paramount that we have solid evidence at our fingertips to inform our decision-making.”
What inspired you to choose this field of research and what drives you in your work?
“My interest in multilingualism started when I had children of my own, which we raised bilingually. For me as a linguist, there was no question that this was the right thing to do for our family. However, there were so many parents in Australia – where we lived at the time – who did not raise their children in their own languages that I started to become interested in the topic of home language maintenance. Apart from a general academic curiosity, I have come to realise that language maintenance is closely related to questions of individuals’ and families’ well-being and societal cohesion, both of which we need to get right in order to foster a healthy and fulfilling development of individuals and communities.”
What do you hope to achieve with your research?
“I want to consolidate what we know about what fosters or impedes speakers to continue using their languages. Families from minority or migrant backgrounds often struggle to keep their languages in use, and many languages are endangered. Why do languages get transmitted, or why don’t they? What prerequisites need to be met for it to happen? What contextual factors are at play? What do we know about repercussions when they do or do not get transmitted? These are all questions I hope to answer in my book.”
Riksbankens Jubielumsfond is an independent foundation with the goal to promote and support research in Humanities and Social Sciences. Through RJ Sabbatical, researchers can spend up to one year of full-time research. The purpose is to give more researchers time to complete advanced research and write larger works that have the potential to be considered academically significant.
Read more about the book project at rj.se: www.rj.se/en/grants/2024/keeping-languages-in-use-social-affective-and-educational-dimensions-of-language-maintenance/
