הרשות למחקר ולהערכה

About Us: (brief description, aims, projects), people (group leader, group members with a link to their brief CV (one page +pictures)

The Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Research Group, led by Dr. Susan Joffe, is a group of Oranim faculty members whose areas of expertise include language teaching and  the intersection of language, education, and society.

•   Researching language and society.

Increasing and improving intercultural communication and understanding in our society.

•   Promoting multilingualism and multiculturalism in our schools and institutions of higher education, to better meet the needs of multilingual children and their teachers.

•   Promotion of the use of authentic texts for teaching which emphasize both the similarities and differences between languages, societies, and cultures

•   Providing  undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to engage in research group projects.

•    Organization of meetings and workshops

•    Advocacy to promote multilingual and multicultural education in Israel

•    Improvement of intergroup relations through language teaching and learning

Abutbol-Oz, H. and S. Joffe. (2011). “Language Proficiency, Social Integration, and Ethnic Identity among Russian-Hebrew and English-Hebrew speaking preschool children.” Hed Haulpan Hachadash, Volume 98, Spring issue. In Hebrew.

Armon-Lotem, S., S. Joffe, H. Abutbul-Oz, C. Altman, and J. Walters (2014). Language exposure, ethnolinguistic identity and attitudes in the acquisition of Hebrew as a second language among bilingual preschool children from Russian- and English-speaking backgrounds. In T. Gruter and J. Paradis (Eds.) Input and Experience in Bilingual Development (pp. 77-98). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Avirbach, B. (2020). "Arabisms in R. Judah Ibn-Tibbon's translated and original writings". In: Bar-Asher Siegal, E. and Ya'akov, D. (eds.). Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic: Studies in Language and Grammatical Thought: 67–90 (in Hebrew).

Avirbach, B. (forthcoming). "Five Roses: a comparative linguistic discussion in four Hebrew translations of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne". To be published in Al-Hassad, 10 (in Hebrew, 24 pages).

Dubiner, D. (2019). ‘Like a blind man’: Sociolinguistic perspectives of an intercultural encounter in Israel. In Espinosa Ramírez, A. B., Espinosa Villegas, M. A., & García Arévalo, T.M.  (Eds.), Encuentros interculturales en sociedades multiculturales: inmigración, multiculturalismo y multiculturalidad (pp. 193-213). Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada.

Dubiner, D. (2018). ‘We don’t think about it, we just mix’: language choice and ethnolinguistic identity among Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2018.1452893

Meir, N., Joffe, S., Shabtaev, R., Walters, J. & Armon-Lotem, S. (forthcoming). Heritage Languages of Israel: a multilingual tapestry with Hebrew threads. In Polinsky, M. & Montrul, S. (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics.

Schwartz, M. (2020). Strategies and practices of home language maintenance. In A. C. Schalley & S. A. Eisenchlas (Eds.), Handbook of Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Development (pp. 194-217). Mouton de Gruyter.

Schwartz, M., Deeb, I. & Dubiner, D. (2020). "When they act, they speak more": Strategies that encourage language production in a bilingual preschool. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

Schwartz, M., Kirsch, C., & Mortini, S. (2020). Young children’s language-based agency in multilingual contexts in Luxembourg and Israel. Applied Linguistic Review.

Zeevi, I. & Dubiner, D. (2016). Outdoor signage as a trait in the linguistic landscape during Operation Protective Edge. Linguistic Landscape: An international Journal (2)1. 80-103.

Avirbach, Barak. "The nominal sentence in R. Judah Ibn-Tibbon's translation of Duties of the Hearts". The 46th annual conference of the Israeli Association of Applied Linguistics. Gordon Academic College, Haifa, October 22, 2019.

Avirbach, Barak. "Medieval Hebrew Insufficiency: Was it Such a Dramatic Deficiency?". The Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University, August 6-10, 2017.

Dubiner, D. (2017). Intercultural Encounters in Israel: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Talk given in the scientific meeting “Multiculturalism, intercultural encounters and migration: us and them”. Instituto Universitario de Investigación de la Paz y los Conflictos Dept. of Semitic Studies. University of Granada, Spain. May 22-24, 2017.

Dubiner, D. (2016). Language in a Multicultural Reality. Invited talk and workshop, Safed Academic College, February 2016.

Dubiner, D. (2015).  Identity and multi-diversity reflected in the LL of a Druze town in Israel. Linguistic Landscape 7, May 7-9, UC  Berkeley, California.

Joffe, Susan. "An adult migration model of second language motivation" paper presentation at Conference on Multilingualism, Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, University of Reading, June 23-25, 2020.

Joffe, Susan. "Identity, Motivation, and Language use among Spanish-Hebrew adult bilinguals in Israel" poster presentation at Scientific and Societal Contributions of Research in Multilingual and Multicultural Communities Conference, Bar Ilan University, June 4-6, 2018.

Joffe, Susan. "Immigration without integration: Ultra-orthodox immigrants to Israel" paper presentation at 11th International Symposium on Bilingualism, University of Limerick, Ireland, June 11-15, 2017.

Schwartz, Mila. “Creating Language-conducive Context in Preschool Multilingual Education” invited keynote speaker at the International Conference of Multilingual Awareness and Multilingual Practices, University of Tallinn, Estonia, November 22-24, 2018.

Schwartz, Mila. “Towards a Better Understanding of Child's Agentic Behavior in a Novel Language Learning” invited keynote speaker at the International Conference of Multilingual Childhoods: Education, Policy and Practice, University of Hamar, Norway, May 14-16, 2019.

Bilingualism Matters (Israel)

Center for Applied Linguistics

Israeli Association for the Study of Language and Society

International Association of Multilingualism

Multilingual Childhoods

Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies