Linguanomics - by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Globalization, the Internet and an era of mass travel have combined to produce a world with a language mix on a huge scale. Linguanomics explains this multilingualism in a material, economic and cultural sense.

What is the effect of this multilingualism on society, organizations and individuals? What are the economic benefits and drawbacks? Should we invest in language skills? Should there be interventionist policies, and if so, at what level? Should there be a global lingua mundi? The debate surrounding multilingualism is often clouded by emotion and misconception. With an analysis devoid of rhetoric, Gabrielle Hogan-Brun takes an objective look at this charged area.

The result is Linguanomics: a major step towards a clearer understanding of the market potential of multilingualism, its benefits, costs and points of contention. Asking significant questions of profound concern to the future of global collaboration, Linguanomics is an essential guide to students, teachers, policy makers and politicians and anyone who cares about the role of language in the modern world.

Review Quotes

[Linguanomics] offers the reader a broad and varied picture of the interplay and interconnection of economy and multilingualism. Hogan-Brun's conviction that society can benefit from language diversity is well-based on a plethora of data and examples that make the book an interesting and informative reading.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics

Hogan-Brun is on a mission to convince her readers that they should be more alert to the market [and social] potential of language learning ... [and] this is a laudable aim ... Linguanomics asks worthwhile questions.
Times Higher Education

With cities like London now counting 300 languages among their residents, the globalization of trade, and empirical evidence of the cognitive value for young and old of bilingualism, one might wonder why one needs to argue for the learning and teaching of languages. But there is clearly such a need, and Gabrielle Hogan-Brun provides a lively, readable and wide-ranging survey of the value of multilingualism to individuals and nations.

About the Author

Gabrielle Hogan-Brun is at the University of Bristol, UK. She has written widely on language and education, with a particular focus on addressing and accommodating cultural and linguistic diversity in Central Eastern Europe.