(1159) LANDSCAPING MULTILINGUALISM IN THE URBAN COMMUNITY OF LIMASSOL: POLICIES, PRACTICES AND VISIONS

摘要

Contemporary era is characterised by unprecedented movement of goods, capitals, people and ideas.Living and working in such an era, citizens' everyday communication activities are challenged by thestruggle to understand different cultural groups who share different viewpoints and perceptions. Insuch a context, many policy makers and university researchers call attention to the need tounderstand how intercultural communication occurs. With this in mind, this study builds up a picture ofhow communication occurs in various aspects of life in an under-researched city, Limassol, Cypruswith regard to multilingualism and plurilingualism. More specifically, it explores issues pertaining tomultilingualism and plurilingualism in education, the public sphere, economic life, the private sphere,and urban spaces. Drawing from both the primary and secondary data collected during the two phasesof the research, the study examines certain aspects of multilingualism, such as good practice inlanguage learning for immigrants, the role of linguistic support in social inclusion, provision forcommunication and cultural exchange with neighbouring languages, promotion of interculturaldialogue, and the changing face of migration in the Limassol civic context. The study also addressesmore specific research questions such as language visibility and invisibility, affordances at the level ofgovernance or policy, as well as challenges and obstacles involved in creating and managingmultilingualism in the city of Limassol. Findings demonstrate policies and practices implemented in thevarious aspects of city life in order to promote intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. As aresult of the findings, suggestions for best practices, introduction or improvement of policies andvisions of the multilingual cities are put forward.