Elisabeth Barakos
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Foreign Language Business Communication, Research Assistant and Assistant Lecturer
I am sociolinguist, discourse analyst and trained English and Spanish language teacher dedicated to research on language in society, multilingualism and language policy in education and the world of work, with over 15 years of research and teaching experience across universities in the UK, Germany and Austria.
From October 2023, I will be Guest Professor in English Linguistics at the University of Vienna, Austria.
Previous to that, I was Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Education at University of Hamburg, Germany, as part of the diversity in education research group. I also worked as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and as a research assistant and lecturer for Business English Communication at Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.
My past research projects have involved minority language policy and bilingualism in businesses in Wales through the lens of Critical Discourse Studies (PhD).
My postdoctoral project examined the discourses, ideologies and practices of elite multilingualism in the commercial adult language training industry through discourse-ethnography.
Lately, my focus has shifted to elite and precarious multilingualism in the context of language and migration in diverse urban school settings, with a focus on new arrival students' social and linguistic education journeys in Germany.
I am the co-convenor of the BAAL Special Interest Group on Language Policy (with Florence Bonacina-Pugh) www.langpol.ac.uk
From October 2023, I will be Guest Professor in English Linguistics at the University of Vienna, Austria.
Previous to that, I was Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Education at University of Hamburg, Germany, as part of the diversity in education research group. I also worked as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and as a research assistant and lecturer for Business English Communication at Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.
My past research projects have involved minority language policy and bilingualism in businesses in Wales through the lens of Critical Discourse Studies (PhD).
My postdoctoral project examined the discourses, ideologies and practices of elite multilingualism in the commercial adult language training industry through discourse-ethnography.
Lately, my focus has shifted to elite and precarious multilingualism in the context of language and migration in diverse urban school settings, with a focus on new arrival students' social and linguistic education journeys in Germany.
I am the co-convenor of the BAAL Special Interest Group on Language Policy (with Florence Bonacina-Pugh) www.langpol.ac.uk
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Journal articles by Elisabeth Barakos
researcher identities in the context of Welsh-English bilingualism in
Wales. It aims to develop a reflexive approach to researching
bilingualism, foregrounding the actions and experiences of doing
bilingual research in a minority language context. Taking data from
education and business as our starting point, we present two selfreflexive
accounts of how our research identities, specifically our
language profiles, (as an L1 British English speaker and an LX English
user, both of whom have only limited understanding of Welsh), and
positionalities are questioned, (de)legitimised and assessed in our
research projects. In light of this, we reflect also on the methodological
consequences and decisions that were taken during the research
process. Taken together, these two reflective perspectives allow us to
generate new theoretical, methodical and analytic understandings of
language within the bilingual Welsh-English context specifically and
researcher reflexivity more broadly.
preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutionalethnographic
approach that problematises and visualises the
various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises, methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider
social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper enriches the methodological landscape in language, education and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with educational research sites.
combining Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded
Theory to investigate linguistic transition processes of newlyarrived
students in the German school system. Legitimised by a
missing knowledge of German, the students are separated into
preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for
the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutionalethnographic
approach that problematises and visualises the
various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these
transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises,
methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which
allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant
tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider
social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper
enriches the methodological landscape in language, education
and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with
educational research sites.
practices, and debates’, we focus on ‘elite multilingualism’ as a means to
provide a window into the complex layers and nuances of today’s
multilingual, mobile and global society. Our aims here are to provide an
empirical and conceptual discussion of a growing language-centred
elitism. We also aim to expand current scholarship on the construction,
valuation and instrumentalisation of multilingualism, and its
consequences for the formation of social boundaries and inequalities.
We first discuss major concepts such as the notion of elite/ness and
multilingualism, commodification, authenticity and hierarchies and the
linguistic market in a global knowledge economy. We also discuss the
critical sociolinguistic, discourse and ethnographic approaches that
frame this special issue and go on to outline the diverse manifestations
of elite multilingualism in different educational and social settings.
Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the value of the concept of elite
multilingualism as a social practice, and argue for the importance of
examining the lived experience of multilinguals on the ground.
valuing language as symbolic entities attached to ethnonational concerns or as promotional objects that bring material gain. Language governmentalities also appear to shape new forms of ‘languaging’ the minority language worker as selfgoverning, and yet, governed subjects who are ultimately made responsible for ‘owning’ Welsh.
Thesis Chapters by Elisabeth Barakos
Books by Elisabeth Barakos
Publication Name: Discursive Approaches to Language Policy, edited by Elisabeth Barakos and Johann W. Unger
Book chapters by Elisabeth Barakos
researcher identities in the context of Welsh-English bilingualism in
Wales. It aims to develop a reflexive approach to researching
bilingualism, foregrounding the actions and experiences of doing
bilingual research in a minority language context. Taking data from
education and business as our starting point, we present two selfreflexive
accounts of how our research identities, specifically our
language profiles, (as an L1 British English speaker and an LX English
user, both of whom have only limited understanding of Welsh), and
positionalities are questioned, (de)legitimised and assessed in our
research projects. In light of this, we reflect also on the methodological
consequences and decisions that were taken during the research
process. Taken together, these two reflective perspectives allow us to
generate new theoretical, methodical and analytic understandings of
language within the bilingual Welsh-English context specifically and
researcher reflexivity more broadly.
preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutionalethnographic
approach that problematises and visualises the
various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises, methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider
social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper enriches the methodological landscape in language, education and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with educational research sites.
combining Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded
Theory to investigate linguistic transition processes of newlyarrived
students in the German school system. Legitimised by a
missing knowledge of German, the students are separated into
preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for
the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutionalethnographic
approach that problematises and visualises the
various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these
transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises,
methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which
allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant
tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider
social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper
enriches the methodological landscape in language, education
and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with
educational research sites.
practices, and debates’, we focus on ‘elite multilingualism’ as a means to
provide a window into the complex layers and nuances of today’s
multilingual, mobile and global society. Our aims here are to provide an
empirical and conceptual discussion of a growing language-centred
elitism. We also aim to expand current scholarship on the construction,
valuation and instrumentalisation of multilingualism, and its
consequences for the formation of social boundaries and inequalities.
We first discuss major concepts such as the notion of elite/ness and
multilingualism, commodification, authenticity and hierarchies and the
linguistic market in a global knowledge economy. We also discuss the
critical sociolinguistic, discourse and ethnographic approaches that
frame this special issue and go on to outline the diverse manifestations
of elite multilingualism in different educational and social settings.
Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the value of the concept of elite
multilingualism as a social practice, and argue for the importance of
examining the lived experience of multilinguals on the ground.
valuing language as symbolic entities attached to ethnonational concerns or as promotional objects that bring material gain. Language governmentalities also appear to shape new forms of ‘languaging’ the minority language worker as selfgoverning, and yet, governed subjects who are ultimately made responsible for ‘owning’ Welsh.
Publication Name: Discursive Approaches to Language Policy, edited by Elisabeth Barakos and Johann W. Unger
Schüler*innen in Hamburg für ein Jahr beschult, bevor sie ins Regelsystem
übergehen. Im Rahmen des bundesweiten Lockdowns musste auch der
IVK-Unterricht auf virtuelle Unterrichtsformate umgestellt werden. Im Bei‐
trag erörtern wir anhand von Daten einer Schulethnographie einer Ham‐
burger Stadtteilschule, welche Ansprüche Wissenschaft, Bildungspolitik und Schulpraxis bezüglich des veränderten Sprachunterrichts in IVKs aneinander formulieren. Mittels Stellungnahmen öffentlicher Bildungseinrichtungen, offizieller Verlautbarungen der Bildungspolitik und reflektierender Interviews mit einem Referatsleiter der Schulbehörde und IVK-Lehrkräften diskutieren wir diese diversen Ansprüche und die Herausforderungen, die in Bezug auf die Umstellung des Sprachunterrichts in der Corona-Pandemie entstanden sind. Im Beitrag relationieren wir die drei Perspektiven, die wir mittels der Reflexiven Grounded Theory nach Breuer et al. (2019) analysieren, und betten unsere Analysen in die Debatte um Bildungsgerechtigkeit (Giesinger 2012) und die „Illusion der Chancengleichheit“ (Bourdieu / Passeron 1971) ein.
Publication Name: Discursive Approaches to Language Policy, edited by Elisabeth Barakos and Johann W. Unger
Publication Date: 2016
Publication Name: Discursive Approaches to Language Policy, edited by Elisabeth Barakos and Johann W. Unger
https://www.languageonthemove.com/recent-arrival-migrant-students-during-the-covid-19-school-closures/