Plurilingual pedagogies at the post-secondary level: possibilities for intentional engagement with students’ diverse linguistic repertoires

ABSTRACT

This paper draws draw on conceptualisations of language as heteroglossic to examine whether and how multilingual practices and plurilingual pedagogies are enacted as instructional strategies in two multilingual English-medium universities in western Canada. Multilingual educational contexts have the potential to comprise ‘translanguaging spaces’ [Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30. doi:10.1093/applin/amx039], wherein educators and students mobilise a range of semiotic resources for teaching and learning purposes. From a monolingual paradigm, such practice is often seen as interference or deficit; however, from a multilingual paradigm, this practice is seen as legitimate and unrestricted, with students free to use their linguistic resources as they wish to their own benefit. To conceptualise and analyse engagement with multilingual practice, we draw on Cenoz and Gorter’s [(2017). Minority languages and sustainable translanguaging: Threat or opportunity? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(10), 901–912. doi:10.1080/01434632.2017.1284855] distinction between ‘spontaneous’ and ‘intentional’ translanguaging. To assist faculty to observe, act and reflect on implementation of plurilingual pedagogies, we propose a three-dimensional matrix comprising axes of (1) faculty- and student-initiated; (2) planned and spontaneous engagements with plurilingualism; and (3) plurilingualism as either a scaffold or a resource for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching methods
• multilingualism
• language minorities
• bilingualism
• immigrant learners

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Saskia Van Viegen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3748-1990

Sandra Zappa-Hollman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9042-3722

Notes

1 While we are aware that these terms have been proposed by different sets of scholars and most often used distinctively, we also see overlaps in what these concepts denote. For the purposes of this paper, to align with our use of plurilingualism as an analytic lens, we use the term plurilingual pedagogies; however, the term translanguaging pedagogies can also be used, drawing on translanguaging theories of language. These terms, while interchangeable at the level of classroom pedagogy, have different theoretical and historic genesis.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been partially supported by funding from a 2016 SSHRC Connection Grant: Mapping the Landscape: Colloquium on Language in the Canadian University [grant number CAS-SRQ-479480].