Plurilingualism in ‘Monolingual’ Classrooms

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How can I implement plurilingual pedagogies in classrooms that are not linguistically diverse? 🧠

Implementing plurilingual pedagogies has gained increasing interest and support in recent decades. Rejecting monolingual approaches and relying on plurilingual pedagogies integrates the entirety of learners’ linguistic and cultural repertoires, including their partial knowledge of additional languages (Galante et al., 2019; Lau & Viegen, 2020; Piccardo, 2013). Plurilingual pedagogies encompass learning strategies that are not solely geared toward plurilingual learners.

According to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), plurilingual pedagogies help to develop an intercultural competence and cultivate communicative competencies to use in different social situations (Council of Europe, 2001). Consequently, implementing plurilingual pedagogies is also beneficial in classrooms that are not linguistically or culturally diverse by creating a flexible learning environment and fostering a growth mindset in all learners.

Moreover, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) focuses on how plurilingual pedagogy shifts away from monolingual perceptions toward plurilingual perspectives—how learners use language(s)—and how they speak and write inside and outside the classroom. Canagarajah (2011) explains that “even the so-called ‘monolinguals’ shuttle between codes, registers and discourses” (p. 4). Thus, even in situations that are perceived not to be linguistically and culturally diverse, learners are exposed to other languages and cultures in their personal, social, cultural, or home environments, and can also be exposed to other languages and cultures inside the classroom. For example, educators can ask students to write a literacy memoir or self-identified questionnaire at the beginning of the term asking them to describe their language and writing practices inside and outside the classroom: reading, social media, gaming, music, and digital (multi)media to explain the role that language(s) play in their personal, social, and cultural lives. 

Next, plurilingual pedagogies promote a metalinguistic awareness of how languages and cultures intersect. Implementing plurilingual pedagogies in classrooms that are not linguistically and culturally diverse shares several aims and goals, specifically (1) to develop a meta-linguistic awareness of how language(s) work in specific social or school settings, (2) to cultivate intercultural competencies, and (3) to understand other linguistic, cultural, and social practices. More importantly, plurilingualism questions monolingual assumptions about linguistic homogeneity. As a result, including plurilingual pedagogies in classrooms that are perceived to be monolingual and/or monocultural challenges hierarchical and colonial views about language, writing, and identity. Such views include deficit perspectives on language learners, who are often tasked to perform like first language speakers of the target language. In contrast, pedagogies that rely on cross-linguistic, cross-cultural comparison, or multiliteracies focus on the interplay between languages and cultures to help students, monolingual or otherwise, to develop the competencies and skills needed to interact in various academic and professional settings with fellow additional language learners. 

In short, although a classroom may seem not to be that linguistically or culturally diverse, developing an awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and cultivating plurilingual and pluricultural perspectives prepares all students, irrespective of their linguistic or cultural backgrounds. By including plurilingual pedagogies in non-diverse classrooms, students can learn how to manage, navigate, and communicate in a variety of linguistic and cultural contexts while drawing from varieties of their first and target languages. Plurilingual pedagogies promote the view that linguistic and cultural diversity is a valuable resource to study and to work in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. Below are prompts to implement plurilingual approaches across disciplines.

Prompts to create and integrate plurilingual pedagogies in “monolingual” classrooms 💡🔠

  • Invite a plurilingual guest speaker (and ask students to prepare questions to ask about plurilingual and pluricultural practices (in academic and/or professional contexts).
  • Invite international students and multilingual/plurilingual faculty to discuss how they use their linguistic or cultural repertoires in different academic or professional contexts.
  • Integrate resources such as plurilingual videos, blogs, or interviews, among others. For example, watch current events and do research in a few languages using translating apps to see whether more information or perspectives are available on the topic).
  • Discuss the use of vocabulary in English or another dominant language that stems from others and therefore is pronounced/spelled according to that language’s grammar rules.
  • Include plurilingual perspectives on course themes and topics, e.g., videos, podcasts, etc.; for example, McGill University’s Plurilingual Lab has several resources on plurilingual pedagogies such as cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparisons, translanguaging, translation as mediation, and pluriliteracies: Cross-linguistic analysis, Cross-cultural comparisons, Translanguaging, Translation as mediation, Pluriliteracies 
  • Relying on cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison approaches, assign a text that includes multiple languages to examine issues related to plurilingual and pluricultural perspectives and communication. Ask students to analyze how the author uses multiple languages to explore plurilingual and pluricultural identity. Focus on how characters exist between different linguistic and socio-cultural contexts. Students can analyze excerpts or passages where the characters “switch” between languages (e.g., Spanish and English). Explain why they believe that the author chooses to “switch” between languages at specific plot elements in the text and how the use of multiple languages reflects the characters’ conflicts and the readers’ textual perceptions.

See, for example, in the “Plurilingual guide: Implementing critical plurilingual pedagogy in language education”, the assignment based on the text, “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros from The House on Mango Street. The author uses both Spanish and English—using linguistic hybridity, or “code-switching”, to convey themes related to personal, social, and cultural identity. 

References 📝

Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for language (CEFR): Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge University Press. https://rm.coe.int/1680459f97

Council of Europe. (2020). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Companion volume. Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/common-european-framework-of-reference-forlanguages-learning-teaching/16809ea0d4

Canagarajah, A. S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110239331.1

Galante, A., Chiras, M., Dela Cruz, J. W. N., & Zeaiter, L. F. (2022). Plurilingual guide: Implementing critical plurilingual pedagogy in language education. Plurilingual Lab Publishing.

Galante, A., Okubo, K., Cole, C., Elkader, N. A., Carozza, N., Wilkinson, C., Wotton, C., & Vasic, J. (2019). Plurilingualism in higher education: A collaborative initiative for the implementation of plurilingual pedagogy in an English for Academic Purposes program at a canadian university. TESL Canada Journal, 36(1), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1305

Lau, S. M. C., & Van Viegen, S. (2020). Plurilingual pedagogies: An introduction. In S. M. C. Lau & S. Van Viegen (Eds.), Plurilingual pedagogies: Critical and creative endeavors for equitable language education (pp. 3–22). Springer.

Piccardo, E. (2013). Plurilingualism and curriculum design: Toward a synergic vision. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 600–614. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.110

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