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

TLDR

The study aims to use an ecological approach grounded in complexity theory and post‑modern sociolinguistics to illuminate language use in multilingual settings and to propose a new concept of symbolic competence. The authors analyze transcripts of multilingual interactions, review conversation and discourse analysis, and apply complexity theory and interactional sociolinguistics to develop the symbolic competence framework.

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’.’