The Language Center and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures present Dr. Tobias Schroedler, Junior Professor of Multilingualism and Social Inclusion at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Dr. Schroedler holds an M.Phil. (2011) and Ph.D. (2016) in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). Before his current role, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and has been visiting scholar at Macquarie University Sydney (Australia), as well as the universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria (South Africa). He has given guest lectures at various universities in the US, including MIT and Yale. His research addresses multilingualism in education, multilingual pedagogies, institutional multilingualism, language use in the labor market, and language ideologies, including the prestige and value assigned to languages. He currently leads four funded research projects on international comparisons of heritage languages in education, on using multilingual repertoires in the workplace, and on teacher professionalization for multilingual learning contexts. Dr. Schroedler has presented papers at over 50 international conferences, and has authored several books as well as over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Abstract: While languages cannot be produced, sold, or consumed like typical market goods, they can nonetheless hold economic value. This lecture begins by introducing key concepts related to different types of value of languages. These include notions of personal or social value, societal value and prestige as well as economic value (the value of languages in the labor market). Within the field of language economics, the notion of skills in different languages as a form of human capital is central to understanding their role, value, and utility for individuals. The degree to which a language holds economic value is shaped by a range of contextual factors, which will be illustrated through empirical examples. The second part of the lecture presents research findings on the role and value of multilingualism in the workplace in Germany. To contextualize these findings, the theoretical framework on the value of languages is expanded by incorporating sociolinguistic perspectives on perceived language value and language prestige. Following a brief overview of the German labor market, the lecture will highlight how languages other than German are positioned within workplace practices, revealing both opportunities and challenges in multilingual professional environments.
LOCATION:Plimpton Room, Barker Center room 133 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20251002T200000Z DTEND:20251002T220000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR