Multi- and plurilingual professional communication – a model

Abstract

Abstract On the basis of a general model of professional communication which differs from concepts of professional language, a new model is developed which consistently integrates their multilingualism. This takes into account various individual languages such as German, English or Chinese as well as professionally relevant varieties such as every day and educational language including various languages for specific purposes in individual professions or professional contexts as well as the corresponding competences of the people working in these professions or contexts. Such a model not only provides an exhaustive and detailed coverage of plurilingual professional communication for itself, it also allows for numerous applications in the fields of language planning, language policy and language didactics.