The Disconso Lab focuses on Discourse, Context and Society!


Discourse Analysis in Context’ works on rethinking how identities, events, and concepts are (re) (de) constructed through our interactions, whether these interactions are spoken or written, whether they are face-to-face or digital (cf. Goffman concepts of interaction, face, representation etc.).

We study, research this (re)(de) construction within our team, within our research projects, our training, our conferences and workshops. We work on various data including educational setting, online exchanges, political speeches and private conversations etc. In particular we focus on the role of emotions in this construction of identities adopting a critical positioning (Fairclough 2003 inter alia). We also investigate the various conceptualisations, definitions, dimensions of and diverse disciplinary approaches to multilingualism and plurilingualism at the individual, societal and (teacher) education levels.

As a result of increased migration across the world, there is on-going debate regarding bilingual and multilingual people’s proficiency and native-like use of languages due to the complexity of the issue, which includes the interaction of languages, mono-, bi- and multilingual norms at individual and societal levels, the purpose, situation and domain of use, language registers and varieties, different (functional and inclusive) conceptualisations, and definitions of multilingualism and plurilingualism. The different language ideologies and views on multilingualism and linguistic diversity are related to social roles, power and language prestige, as well as to majority, minority and immigrant languages, and language mix and overlap.