Language Acts and Worldmaking: How and Why the Languages We Use Shape Our World and Our Lives (Language Acts and Worldmaking)

Collectively authored by the Language Acts and Worldmaking team, this defining volume offers reflective narratives on research, theory and practice over the course of the flagship project of the same name, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative.It returns to the project's key principles - that our words make worlds and we are agents in worldmaking - analyses the practices and outcomes of collaborative working, and looks to the future by offering concrete ideas for how the work they have done can now continue to do its work in the world. Focusing on the key research strands, this volume looks at the role of the language teacher as a mediator between languages and cultures, worldmaking in modern languages, translation and the imagination, languages and hospitality, digital mediations, and how words change and make worlds.Critically, it analyses the impact on communities of living in multilingual cities, and the ways in which learning a first l