The Centre for Luxembourg Studies warmly congratulates Sarah Muller who defended her PhD online and passed her viva with no corrections on 7 January 2021.
In her doctoral research, she draws on a theoretical framework that bridges fields in Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition, and employs an innovative mosaic of multimodal research methods. The Thesis, entitled ‘The lived experience of language (education policy): multimodal accounts by primary school students in Luxembourg’ draws on a 12-week long ethnographic fieldwork period in a school in Luxembourg. A total of 34 participants engaged in the research by participating in interviews and creating visual artefacts all linked to their experiences with, and perspectives on, languages and language education policy in Luxembourg.
Exploring the students’ lived experiences at the interface of educational policies and structures, this research foregrounds the emotional dimension of language in education, and argues that this dimension needs to be given more attention in education.
Drawing on participants’ openness towards languages and multilingualism, and their desires to learn new languages, this thesis maintains that this should be capitalised on with young people in order to foster language awareness, celebrate all forms of multilingualism and support positive attitudes towards minoritised languages.
Finally, the thesis also critically engages with language education policy in the Luxembourgish education system, and specifically the use of German to teach basic literacy skills and as the medium of instruction for academic subjects. German is a “foreign” language for many students in Luxembourg and the study has highlighted the (often negative) experiences for students in this situation. Discussions around multilingual and/or more flexible language education policies that would better meet the linguistic and educational needs of diverse student populations are not only relevant in the Luxembourgish context, but also many education systems around the world.
We look forward to forthcoming publications based on this methodologically innovative and socially impactful research. Watch this space for further details!