Family multilingualism in the post-digital age – Sociolinguistic perspectives on an emerging field címmel tartott vendégelőadást a Károli Gáspár Református Egyetemen Kristin Vold Lexander, a University of Inland Norway professzora és kutatásunk külső tanácsadója.

Kristin Vold Lexander kutatási területe a többnyelvűség és a digitális kommunikáció összefüggései. Társszerzője a 2023-ban megjelent Multilingual Families in a Digital Age: Mediational Repertoires and Transnational Practices című kötetnek, amely a brit alkalmazott nyelvészeti társaság (BAAL) 2024-es könyvdíján második helyezést ért el.

A 2026. október 20-án elhangzott előadásának rövid összefoglalója: In this talk, I present the emerging field of research on digitally mediated practices in multilingual transnational families. These works investigate how the proliferation of digital tools and their integration into families’ everyday life on- and offline affect their linguistic repertoires, in particular their heritage language use, and their family bonds. First, I focus on the three fields that this research builds on: Family language policy research (FLP), including critical perspectives, studies of online multilingualism, and works on online family-making in other domains than linguistics. Second, I provide an overview of the current state of the field, including theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions, bringing in examples from ethnographic research with Norwegian-Senegalese families. Finally, I suggest paths for future research.

Az egyetemi tréninghét keretében megvalósuló előadás nagy érdeklődésre tartott számot. A résztvevőknek lehetőségük nyílt néhány volof szó elsajátításra is. A plenáris előadást tartalmas diszkusszió követte.

Kristin Vold Lexander, a professor at the University of Inland Norway and an external advisor to our research project, gave a guest lecture entitled Family multilingualism in the post-digital age – Sociolinguistic perspectives on an emerging field at Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church.

Kristin Vold Lexander’s research focuses on the interrelationships between multilingualism and digital communication. She is a co-author of the volume Multilingual Families in a Digital Age: Mediational Repertoires and Transnational Practices, published in 2023, which was awarded second place in the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) 2024 Book Prize.

A brief summary of the lecture delivered on 20 October 2026: In this talk, I present the emerging field of research on digitally mediated practices in multilingual transnational families. These works investigate how the proliferation of digital tools and their integration into families’ everyday life on- and offline affect their linguistic repertoires, in particular their heritage language use, and their family bonds. First, I focus on the three fields that this research builds on: Family language policy research (FLP), including critical perspectives, studies of online multilingualism, and works on online family-making in other domains than linguistics. Second, I provide an overview of the current state of the field, including theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions, bringing in examples from ethnographic research with Norwegian-Senegalese families. Finally, I suggest paths for future research.

The lecture, which took place as part of the university’s training week, attracted a great deal of interest. Participants had the opportunity to learn a few words of Wolof, and the plenary lecture was followed by a lively discussion.