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Applied Linguistics Advance Access originally published online on June 16, 2008
Applied Linguistics 2008 29(4):645-671; doi:10.1093/applin/amn022
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© Oxford University Press 2008

Language Ecology in Multilingual Settings. Towards a Theory of Symbolic Competence

Claire Kramsch1 and Anne Whiteside2

1UC Berkeley, 2City College San Francisco


  Abstract

This paper draws on complexity theory and post-modern sociolinguistics to explore how an ecological approach to language data can illuminate aspects of language use in multilingual environments. We first examine transcripts of exchanges taking place among multilingual individuals in multicultural settings. We briefly review what conversation and discourse analysis can explain about these exchanges. We then build on these analyses, using insights from complexity theory and interactional sociolinguistics. We finally outline the components of a competence in multilingual encounters that has not been sufficiently taken into consideration by applied linguists and that we call ‘symbolic competence’.


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