English as an intra-national language in Switzerland

Extract

In recent years, many researchers have been studying the spread of English in our globalized world, while others have focused on multilingualism. For Stępkowska the question of multilingualism in Europe is intimately linked with English, and Switzerland represents the perfect place for understanding how these relationships evolve. Her book treats sociolinguistic questions at a macro-level and provides the reader with three main elements: a broad consideration of English (Chapter 1), a discussion about language contact (Chapter 2), and new data on the Swiss language use obtained in the canton of Zurich in 2011, which leads to the development of a ‘Swiss paradigm’ conceptualizing the role of English in Switzerland (Chapter 3).