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The Learner Development Journal Issue 5: Engaging with the Multilingual Turnfor Learner Development: Practices, Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations
Author: Brennan Conaway
Title: A Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social
Approach
Date of publication online: 2021
Author contact: <brennanconaway81@gmail.com>

Published by the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Learner Development Special Interest Group, Tokyo
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The APA citation reference for this paper is:Conaway, B. (2021). A learner’s review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing
Multilingualism: A Social Approach. In A. Barfield, O. Cusen, Y. Imamura, & R. Kelly(Eds.), The Learner Development Journal Issue 5: Engaging with the Multilingual Turn for
Learner Development: Practices, Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations (pp. 153-158). Tokyo:
The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Learner Development Special
Interest Group.

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PRACTICE-RELATED REVIEWA Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018)
Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach
Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach. Kristine Horner & Jean-Jacques Weber (2nd ed.).
Routledge, 2018. xv + 308 pp. ISBN 978-1-138-24449-8

Reviewed by
Brennan Conaway, Tokai University, Japan<brennanconaway81@gmail.com>
This review of Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach (Horner & Weber, 2018) looks at interconnections andinteractions between language ideologies, dominant discourses, and language use in specific cases across a wide
range of contexts. Among many different issues, the book covers the global spread of languages (including
English), societal multilingualism, mother tongue education, discourses on migration, and multilingualism in new
media. Horner and Weber present a stimulating introduction to multilingual issues in society in this global age. I
wrote this review as an adult learner reading the book while completing a TESOL master’s program, and I sharerevelations and discoveries made during the process of reading Horner and Weber and studying multilingualism.
I conclude the review with my response to the book and some personal thoughts about my previously held
beliefs and assumptions about certain language ideologies.
本稿は，幅広いコンテクストの具体的なケースにおける言語イデオロギー，支配的言説，言語使用の間の相互関連と相互作用に注目した書籍，Introducing multilingualism: A social approach (Horner & Weber, 2018) の書評である。様々な問題の中でも，本書は言語（英語を含む）の世界的な広がり，社会的な多言語主義，母語教育，移民に関する言説，そして新しいメディアにおける多言語主義を取り上げている。Horner & Weber は，このグローバル時代の社会における多言語問題について関心をかき立てる紹介をしている。この書評は，筆者がTESOL修士課程でこの本を読み一成人学習者の目線から書いたものである。Horner & Weberを読み，多言語主義を研究する過程で得た発見や気づきを共有する。最後に，この本に対する学習者個人としての反応と，特定の言語イデオロギーに関して以前から抱いていた信念や仮定についての個人的な考えを述べ，この書評を締めくくる。
Esta es una revisión de Introducing multilingualism: A social approach (Horner & Weber, 2018) que analiza lasinterconexiones e interacciones entre las ideologías lingüísticas, los discursos dominantes y el uso del lenguaje
en casos específicos en una amplia gama de contextos. Entre muchos temas diferentes, el libro cubre la difusión
mundial de idiomas (incluido el inglés), el multilingüismo social, la educación en la lengua materna, los discursos
sobre la migración y el multilingüismo en los nuevos medios. Horner y Weber presentan una estimulante
introducción a los problemas multilingües en la sociedad en esta era global. Escribí la reseña como estudiante
adulto leyendo el libro mientras completaba un programa de maestría de TESOL. Aquí comparto revelaciones ydescubrimientos hechos durante el proceso de lectura de Horner y Weber y el estudio del multilingüismo.
Concluyo la reseña con mi respuesta al libro y algunos pensamientos personales sobre mis creencias ysuposiciones previamente sostenidas sobre ciertas ideologías lingüísticas.

Keywords
multilingualism, adult learner, social approach, identity, language ideologies
多言語主義，成人学習者，社会的アプローチ，アイデンティティ，言語イデオロギー

multilingüismo, alumno adulto, enfoque social, identidad, ideologías lingüísticas

I

n a time that now feels like a different era, when zoom was a word used in comic books andnot for online classes, I entered the TESOL master’s program at Temple University Japan. I
was pursuing a graduate degree for purely practical reasons: I wanted to learn how to teachEnglish and then find a job somewhere in the Tokyo megalopolis. But as I progressed throughLearner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 5 • December 2021

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A Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach

the program and was introduced to different theories about language acquisition and alternate
definitions of language itself, I went through a de- and re-construction of my conceptions
about the English language. I realized that I had been unaware of my own preconceptions
about language, the “ideas and feelings, norms and values, which inform the way people
think about languages” (p. 20). That process was helped along by Kristine Horner and JeanJacques Weber’s Introducing Multilingualism - A Social Approach, which I read as a graduate
student, and as a learner new to many of the issues that the authors cover.

Summary of the Book
Introducing Multilingualism is a six-part textbook which includes class activities, discussions,and chapter quizzes. It leads the reader to question assumptions about language, investigates
the history and prejudices of named languages, and looks to a future where multilingualism
is recognized as the norm, not the exception. (Although this questioning and investigation
was reinforced by some of the readings in my master’s program, Introducing Multilingualism
was not one of my textbooks at Temple University. I was therefore glad to have the chance
to read it for this review.) Language, peoples, and identity are all interconnected in the social
approach that Horner and & Weber take in their introduction to multilingualism.
With this social approach, Horner & Weber offer a different view of multilingualism,
together with many personal, educational and institutional responses to multilingualism.
The social approach defines language and multilingual socially rather than linguistically or
cognitively, by looking at how languages are used in society and the real world, rather thanbounded within dictionaries and academic subjects. To introduce the social approach andguide the reader towards its use in the study of multilingualism, Horner & Weber divide
Introducing Multilingualism into six parts, which I summarize below.
Part 1 (Theoretical and Methodological Considerations) introduces Horner & Weber’s social
approach to the study of multilingualism, and how they “question deeply held assumptions
about language and multilingualism … our ‘language ideologies’ ” (p. 5). They encourage
readers to do the same. Those language ideologies are enumerated as the hierarchy oflanguages, the standard language ideology, one nation-one language ideology, mother tongue
ideology, and the ideology of purism. In my reading of this textbook, as a learner and a newstudent in the field of multilingualism, I did exactly as Horner & Weber encouraged me to do:
I questioned my own assumptions.
Part 2 (Multilingualism Within and Across Languages) looks at so-called standard English,
which is one of the language ideologies from Part 1, and “the fuzzy boundaries of named
languages” (p. 37). This linguistic fuzziness suggests an intra- and inter-language
continuum where dialect and language are just different words for the same sociolinguistic
practice and, although there are conventionally named languages, there are no separate,bounded and distinct languages. Horner & Weber note: “What we learn in childhood is‘language,’ and separately, as it were, we discover that the linguistic features we are learning
are conventionally associated with a particular named language” (p. 37). This suggests that
we each learn a personalized language first, and then learn to conform that language to a
standardized named language later. That named language is just a theoretical construct, as
nobody speaks the official language correctly at all times because language is “social action
and practice” (p. 45). Living languages are wild and dynamic, impossible to contain, despite
attempts to standardize them. Part 2 continues this exploration of sociolinguistic practicewith discussions of African-American English, Caribbean ‘Nation Language’, SingaporeanSinglish, and French youth languages. This part of the textbook also covers the global spreadof English, the endangerment of so-called minority languages, and the attempts, both154

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Brennan Conaway

successful and unsuccessful, at revitalization of those languages through national policies.
Part 3 (Societal and Individual Multilingualism) examines multilingualism on the societal, or
national scale, in Ukraine, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Nigeria,
noting that “the distinction between officially monolingual and multilingual states is not a
fixed binary opposition but a dynamic and shifting continuum” (p. 89). This continuum at thesocietal level is similar to the linguistic continua at the individual level, when a supposedly“monolingual” person is proficient with a range of social registers, idiomatic expressions or
foreign loan words. In their examination of language and identity, Horner & Weber explain
the essentialist concept of identity versus a social constructivist concept of identity by using
the analogy of a peach versus an onion: “You believe in a ‘true’, ‘deep’ or ‘real’ self which,just like the stone in the middle of the peach, constitutes your core identity” (p. 107). In
contrast, if “you see identity as more like an onion, then you believe in the possibility of
having multiple and changing selves … and none of them forms an essential and fixedcore” (p. 107). Some people see themselves as many-layered and ever-changing, and their
linguistic identity includes translanguaging, code-switching and language crossing. Horner& Weber conclude that “most speakers in the world are multilingual to different degrees,and many of these multilingual speakers tend to mix their languages … multilingualism andtranslanguaging are the norm” (p. 117). The normalization of multilingualism, rather thanmonolingualism as the default norm, is a recurrent theme in Introducing Multilingualism.
Part 4 (Multilingualism in Education and Other Institutional Sites) discusses national or regional
educational policies for multilingual school students, with case studies in Luxembourg,
Catalonia and Basque Country demonstrating the advantage of a flexible approach over a fixed
approach towards multilingual schooling. Horner & Weber comment: “Only flexible, local
solutions can potentially meet all the children’s linguistic needs in the best possible way” (p.
148). Concerning policies and approaches towards mother tongue education, Horner & Weberalso look at South Africa as a case study and highlight three problems: Too many mothertongues represented in the classroom, policy-makers’ arrogance in deciding that so-called
minority languages should be kept, and the presumption that a student’s mother tongue isthe standard version of that language. To counter these problems, Horner & Weber propose“literacy bridges” (p. 166) based on common links between students’ linguistic repertoires.
In policies for heritage language education, Horner & Weber find a continuation of standard
language ideology and purist ideology, as presented in Part 1 and discussed in more detail in
the next section about critical analysis of discourses. There is a call to action for “teachers to
break through the standard language ideology and to valorize all the different linguistic andcultural resources of all the children, including not only standard indiegnous or.immigrantlanguages, but also non-standard or ot fully standardized varieties” (p. 184). Horner & Weberpromote a similarly flexible and non-ideological approach for multilingualism in other stateand private institutions.
Part 5 (Critical Analysis of Discourses) looks at national discussions about immigration,
language, integration policies, as well as concerns about social cohesion and “a deeper andmore irrational fear of societal multilingualism and heterogeneity” (p. 207). This is a fear thatin turn leads to language-testing for citizenship. Here Horner & Weber look at case studies
in Luxembourg, Britain, and the United States, critiquing presentations of multilingualism inthe media, where “monolingualism is the norm and multilingualism is exceptional, deviant,abnormal—either all good or all bad” (p. 227). Retrograde “English-only” advocates findmultilingualism “all bad,” but Horner & Weber find online attitudes and linguistic practices
to be multilingual and accepting of differences in language proficiencies. The internet has
limited multilingualism, with English being the dominant language, but, according to theauthors, people online tend to use all their linguistic resources, borrowing, adapting and
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A Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approachtransforming their language in response to contact with other languages. Beyond the internet,in brick-and-mortar urban streetscapes, the linguistic landscape is also often multilingualand multimodal, and Horner & Weber present methods of discourse analysis for linguists
studying the languages used on street signs and shop billboards.
Part 6 (Further Directions in the Study of Multilingualism) puts the case for research into
multilingualism as it relates to sign language, assessment practices, and gender. Introducing
Multilingualism ends with a call for “the normalization of multilingualism” (p. 283) throughan understanding that the world is linguistically diverse, multilingualism is ubiquitous, andpeople have complex repertoires of languages, dialects, and registers at their disposal.

Response to the Book, as a Learner
As mentioned in the introduction of this review, Introducing Multilingualism helped me toidentify and examine language ideologies which have strongly influenced me. Horner &Weber focus on five ideologies in particular, which tend to reduce people’s thoughts about
languages to basic stereotypes. These ideologies are widespread, complicating our discussions
about language. Below is my response, as an adult learner in the master’s program at Temple
University, to those five ideologies, including some of the lessons I learned by examining thestereotypes I had before reading this book and doing the master’s program.

Hierarchy of Languages
An ideology about a Hierarchy of Languages puts language above dialect, and some named
languages above others. I was unaware that “it is not possible to distinguish between
language and dialect in purely linguistic terms” (p. 21). Horner & Weber dismantle thecommon argument that named languages aren’t mutually intelligible, while dialects are,revealing that “named languages may be seen as socio-political constructs” (p. 21). This
revelation about the false dichotomy between language and dialect, as well as the boundaries
around named languages, allowed me to see all languages as interrelated, borrowing andlending from each other.

Standard Language
The Standard Language ideology is “the belief that languages are internally homogenous,
bounded entities” (p. 21). I was dissuaded from this way of thinking early in the firstsemester in the master’s program at Temple University, but this ideology is persuasive,
because it is reinforced everywhere through what Horner & Weber call the codification ritualsof dictionaries and textbooks and the pedagogical rituals in schools. There is some pushback
to this ideology, but I feel that almost everyone believes there’s a “correct” way to speakor write, even, or especially, among those people who are not correct. I understand thisideology deeply, because it was an unexamined assumption of mine, before the master’s
program. Learning to move beyond acceptance of World Englishes and non-standard
dialects, and to celebrate all forms of this living language, was an important lesson fromthe TESOL program. The social approach taken by Horner & Weber shows language as adynamic process, constructed and used by real people in the real world. Throughout myeducation, from kindergarten to graduate school, I was required to use standardized language
for written assignments and subtly encouraged to do so in classroom discussions as well.
I now realize that knowing and using so-called standard English allowed me to have thesocial privileges which many of us take for granted, as the seemingly “natural” benefits ofbeing well educated. That education itself, and access to it, is one of those social privileges.

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After thinking about the Standard Language ideology, I had a renewed thankfulness for theopportunity to study at Temple, as well as a newfound humility that my acceptance to the
TESOL program was more contingent on my command of a standardized English than I had
previously realized.

One Nation-One Language
The One Nation-One Language ideology is just what it sounds like, but when it is dissected byHorner & Weber as the belief that “language can be equated with territory” (p. 22), it shows
itself to be absurd. It can also be dangerous, perhaps precisely because it is absurd. Horner &Weber observe: “Because it is so important to many people, they frequently develop ... a moregeneral fear of linguistic and cultural heterogeneity, which is perceived as a threat not only
to the national language but also to the national identity” (p. 23). Threats and general fear
are often exploited by nationalist politicians, of course, but it is the origin of the so-called
national language as a construct of the nation-state that allows this fear to be generated
and exploited. The national language is designed to be a source of identity. As I was reading
Introducing Multilingualism, I was enrolled in a course on Intercultural Communication. A
Zoom discussion with my classmates who were teaching in Japanese high schools revealed
a powerful state-level linking of language and identity that I was previously unaware of. I
had assumed that students were going to nihongo/日本語 [Japanese language] class to study
Japanese, but that’s not the term that’s used. Instead, students are going to kokugo/国語[national language] class, where they study so-called standard Japanese, classic Japanese
literature and also classic Chinese literature. The contents of these classes explore themultilingual and multinational history of the Japanese language, but naming them in thisway reinforces the One Nation-One Language ideology.

Mother Tongue
This One Nation-One Language ideology is closely related to the Mother Tongue ideology,“the belief that speakers have one and only one ‘mother tongue’” (p. 23). As the father ofa child who speaks both better Japanese and better contemporary English than I do, thisideological prejudice never occurred to me, but I certainly did have the attitude that underlies
this ideology: that monolingualism is the norm. It is not. And with Horner & Weber’s
expansion of the concept of multilingualism to include dialects, registers, borrowed andpartial language, multilingualism is not only the norm, it is all there is. Monolingualism has
become, and maybe always was, a theoretical concept that does not exist in the real world.

PurismThe ideology of Purism is similar to the Standard Language ideology, but it seems more
focused on pronunciation and accent, as “the belief that only some speakers of the language
have an accent (in particular lower-class people or learners of the language as a foreign
language” (p. 25). Horner & Weber point out that a Purism ideology has “a powerfulevaluative component” (p. 25) which may involve fears of a language dying out or becoming
endangered. Racism, classism, cultural supremacism, and other ugly-isms all lurk beneaththe surface of language purist ideology. It was a good reminder for me that we all haveaccents, not just in our second or third languages, but also in our first.
The cumulative effect of my reflections on these five ideologies was humbling. I realized
that, previous to the master’s program and reading Introducing Multilingualism, my unvoiced
and unexamined assumptions were both arrogant and slightly ridiculous. American English
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A Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approachis not better than other varieties, standardized language is not more “correct,” nations are
not monolingual, children do not have a single mother tongue, and accent does not equal
mispronunciation. All these observations might seem obvious now, but as a learner reading
Horner & Weber’s textbook, they led me to fresh revelations about my own beliefs andassumptions to do with certain language ideologies.

Conclusion
As a learner in the TESOL program, I used this book in a way that is probably different than
the way a teacher would use it for an introductory class on multilingualism, but I believe
the outcomes are roughly similar. When I finished reading, the easy assumptions and folk
beliefs about language that I had held at the beginning were gone, not replaced with pat
answers, but with more questions. The biggest of which was “How can I use this knowledge
in the classroom?” As I move from the role of learner into the role of teacher, I am inspiredby Horner & Weber’s discussion of the polynomic approach, which they see as ”a positive
response to linguistic variation” (p. 77). They continue: “There is no single linguistic normthat is considered to be the only ‘correct’ one” (p. 77). The authors call polynomy an ideology,
but it is far different than the five ideologies that I discussed earlier. As I begin my practice, I
want to be the kind of teacher who fosters tolerance, celebrates language diversity, empowers
students and makes the classroom experience different. The examination of my language
ideologies, as a learner, was a big step towards making me better as a teacher.

Author Bio
Brennan Conaway: While writing this book review, Brennan Conaway completed the TESOL
master’s program at Temple University Japan and worked as a part-time instructor at Tokai
University and Tokyo University of the Arts, where he researched the uses for the visual arts
in EFL instruction. Currently, he continues at Tokai University’s Shonan Campus and also
continues to explore art and EFL. When he’s not in the classroom, Brennan is either in theocean, trying to surf, or in the studio, attempting to make some art.
コナウェイ・ブレナン。本書評を執筆する中，Temple University JapanでTESOL修士プログラムを修了し，東海大学と東京藝術大学で非常勤講師を務め，EFL指導における視覚芸術の活用を研究してきた。現在，東海大学湘南キャンパスで勤務し，芸術とEFLを探求し続ける。私生活では，海でサーフィンをするか，スタジオでアート作品を作成する。

Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Akiko Takagi and Tanya McCarthy. (Contributors have theoption of open or blind review.)

Reference
Horner, K., & Weber, J. (2018) Introducing multilingualism: A social approach (2nd ed.). Routledge.

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