Languages We Live By, by Katrin Ahlgren and Clara Molina, has just been published in Multilingual Matters’ Writing Without Borders series. In this post, the authors explain the ideas behind the book, and how it is designed to prepare educators and students to use the theoretical knowledge and practical tools that it proposes.
When we think about languages, we often think of them as if they had an existence of their own, independent of those who speak them. But that is not the case. It is we, the speakers, who bring languages to life every day — who shape them and give them meaning. Language is woven into every aspect of our lives: it permeates our experiences, our thoughts and our emotions, helping us understand who we are and how we relate to the world around us.
Once we begin to pay attention to our sociolinguistic repertoires—a critical concept in current sociolinguistic theory—we start to realize how closely they are intertwined with our life trajectories and broader social processes. Making these connections visible allows us to recognize how languages accompany key moments in our lives: moments that open or close doors, mark turning points, and shape our experiences. It also helps us reflect on how we relate to our linguistic resources (languages, varieties, sociolects), how we keep them apart or blend them together in our personal idiolect, and how we come to perceive them as assets or sources of shame.
Most people draw on multiple languages and varieties that together form a single, dynamic repertoire. Around the world, monolingualism is the exception, not the norm. Yet public attitudes toward linguistic diversity are often driven by misconceptions and prejudice rather than by linguistic knowledge. These beliefs influence institutions, education systems, and everyday interactions, often reinforcing social inequalities. Against this backdrop, this book is an invitation to learning about languages: the roles they play in our lives and societies, the emotions they trigger, the mechanisms they activate and how they intersect with individual and social relations. Our aim is both to foster deeper self-understanding, and to expose and challenge the inequalities that are frequently masked behind language.
Written to reach a broad audience, this volume makes sociolinguistic knowledge accessible beyond academic circles. Following an introduction to why languages matter and how they shape us, the book presents a set of analytical tools that can be explored in diverse educational settings—such as personal language family trees, linguistic self-portraits, and autobiographical narratives. These tools are illustrated through examples from our own research and accompanied by a step-by-step workshop, allowing readers not only to better understand the approach, but to make it their own. The book also contains a list of theoretical concepts that help to verbalize the sociolinguistic awareness gained through the activities.
In keeping with its commitment to the democratization of knowledge, Languages We Live By is published as an open-access book, freely available here to anyone who wishes to engage with the languages that shape their lives.
