ABSTRACT

Linguistic biographies have been increasingly used in language and teacher education, even if mainly in a written form. In this study we analyse 33 visual linguistic biographies, using drawings to examine the (re)constructions of the multilingual self. The visual linguistic biographies were produced by prospective Spanish language teachers at the University of Hamburg (Winter Semester 2017). We looked at the visual composition of the linguistic biographies and the elements which student teachers combine to trace the representation and the evolution of the multilingual self. We conclude that temporal and geographic metaphors are the most commonly represented, displaying beliefs about language learning and becoming multilingual in a succession of different languages, generally in a schooling pathway. Additionally, student teachers perceive living and studying abroad as important experiences leading to linguistic proficiency. The study suggests that students developed a multilingual imagery made up of languages acquired chronologically, these being associated with specific nation-states and kept separate from each other in individuals’ repertoires. We propose that these beliefs should become a starting point for discussing complexity in trajectories of multilingual becoming and heterogeneity of multilingual repertoires.

摘要

语言传记越来越多地用于语言和教师教育，即使主要是书面形式。在这项研究中，我们分析了 33 部视觉语言传记，使用图画来检查多语言自我的（重新）构建。视觉语言传记由汉堡大学的未来西班牙语教师制作（2017 年冬季学期）。我们研究了语言传记的视觉构成以及学生教师结合起来追踪多语言自我的表现和演变的元素。我们得出结论，时间和地理隐喻是最常见的表现形式，显示出关于语言学习的信念，并在一系列不同的语言中成为多语种，通常是在学校教育途径中。此外，学生教师认为在国外生活和学习是提高语言能力的重要经历。该研究表明，学生开发了由按时间顺序获得的语言组成的多语言图像，这些语言与特定的民族国家相关联，并在个人的曲目中彼此分开。我们建议这些信念应该成为讨论多语言发展轨迹的复杂性和多语言库的异质性的起点。