Plurilingualism in Teaching and Learning : Complexities Across Contexts

Book review of Plurilingualism in teaching and Learning: Complexities across contexts, Edited by Julie Choi and Sue Ollerhead, Routledge, New York, 2018, 244 pages, IBSN 978-1-138-22849-8

Plurilingualism in Teaching and Learning: Complexities Across Contexts aims to provide teachers and teacher educators with closer understandings of the possibilities and constraints in adopting "a plurilingual stance within the unique dynamics that constitute particular spaces of teaching and learning" (p.10).As it is increasingly reported that many mainstream teachers are insufficiently prepared to meet the language and literacy needs of diverse students, the authors in this volume argue that teachers need to be trained to take a plurilingual stance, that is, to "identify with the practice of drawing upon students' home languages as a resource for language and literacy teaching" (p. 6).The book stresses abandoning uncritical adaptation of trendy and new terms within the multi/plural movement and proposes context-sensitive understandings of plurilingualism.The volume contains 12 chapters, divided into four broad themes: (1) plurilingualism in language-in-education policies, (2) plurilingual student repertoire, (3) plurilingual classroom practices and teacher perspectives, and (4) plurilingualism in higher education contexts.
While setting the stage in the introduction chapter, Ollerhead, Choi, and French provide a detailed account of the ways "plurilingualism" has developed and what this concept actually means for them.The authors define a plurilingual stance from the perspective of translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2011): that languages are parts of a repertoire, meaning that a multilingual speaker utilizes a multi-linguistic resource to complete an immediate communicative task and make sense of the world.And teachers with a plurilingual stance acknowledge and activate their students' multiple linguistic and cultural resources and link existing knowledge to the learning of new knowledge.In order to underline their framework of a plurilingual stance, the authors draw on studies mainly from the United States and Australia.One important suggestion that the authors make is that we should take up a plurilingual stance by "understanding the complex socio-historical context in which students' language practices are formed and practiced" (p.8).
Chapters in Part 1 delve into plurilingual language-in-education policies and how plurilingual teaching and learning have been addressed in Australia and the Philippines.In Chapter 2, Bianco observes the Australian context with a focus on language education provision, policy, and reasoning in linguistically and culturally super-diverse societies.Bianco concludes that multilingualism is still perceived as a major social problem in Australia, and their language policy doesn't yet make provision for better performance in language learning; instead, English literacy policies and provisions are prevalent.In order to counteract such discriminatory policy and provision, and for the multilingual turn to actually happen, he further recommends developing engaged language policies with active participation of different social actors like researchers, teachers, educator, and policymakers.
In Chapter 3, while exploring perceptions, problems, and possibilities of mothertongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines, Cruz and Mahboob illustrate how the ideological dominance of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has obstructed the successful development of multilingualism in education.Such tend of EMI is, in fact, common in other contexts such as Nepal (see Sah & Li, 2018).As Cruz and Mahboob argue, such a dominant language ideology can be improved through scholars' and activists' support and advocacy for MTB-MLE.However, the authors point out that the value of local languages needs to be strong enough to convince people of the importance of local languages in parallel to English, if we envision a successful MTB-MLE.The chapter makes its particular merit with an interesting illustration of MTB-MLE-based lesson plans for teachers.
Similarly, Hetherington looks at the perspectives of Indigenous Australians toward their language education in Chapter 4. Drawing on the interview data from four Aboriginal educators, the author makes a case for translanguaging pedagogies, similar to the plurilingual stance the author defined in the introductory chapter, claiming them as a vehicle for transforming language education for minoritized communities.While the chapter illustrates the ways in which the interviewees are already practicing translanguaging, determining whether it can contribute to social justice for Aboriginal people is yet to be determined, as the author acknowledges.
Part 2 focuses on a narrower theme of plurilingual student repertoires, multiple linguistic and cultural repertoire.In Chapter 5, Otsuji and Pennycook examine the metrolingual practices-the negotiation of multiple languages in relation to the linguistic landscape of metro cities-of students at two universities in Tokyo and Sydney, focusing on both their out-of-class and in-class language use.The chapter demonstrates the ways in which multilingual university students use their linguistic and multimodal repertoire in their learning, which, as the authors argue, contemporary educators should be aware of in order to create a plurilingual space in the classroom.What could be an interesting take-away for teachers is to rethink how they need to "not merely to open up learning spaces where students can engage in translingual practices, … but rather to consider how to make use of such practices in the transformation of the language and learning ideologies of the classroom and the institution" (p.86).
Analogous to the previous chapter, Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno, and García provide a case study of a Chinese emergent bilingual sixth-grader in the U.S., who was found to be using his own linguistic repertoire fluidly and flexibly and deployed the output of machine translation software (Google Translate) in his writing activities.The authors call such events "social actions," in which language users embody their semiotic resources to practice languaging.Although the chapter seems to be successful in the authors' aim of advocating for redefining translanguaging that incorporates all semiotic repertoires and multimodality (artefacts and technology), it surprisingly does not discuss much on the possibilities of mislearning through machine translation in translanguaging pedagogies.
Chapter 7 explores the possibilities and complexities of participatory visual research using photography with children who do not go to school, from two different communities in northern Ghana.The author highlights the role of literacy in plurilingualism and the ways children switch between different literacies and languages across contexts.The chapter uniquely offers understandings on using participatory digital photography, both as a method of data elicitation in language and literacy research, and a pedagogical tool for students to reflect on their own communicative practices, through which we can understand when and how children make use of their plurilingual repertoire.However, the issues of ethics, representation, ownership, and interpretation create complexities that need to be addressed in such practices.
Chapters in Part 3 focus on plurilingual classroom practices and teacher perspectives.In Chapter 8, Ollerhead, Prinsloo, and Krause explore the agency of teachers and their understandings in terms of translanguaging practices in English-medium classrooms through a multi-sited study in Australia and South Africa.In both cases, despite students bringing multiple linguistic resources to the classroom, teachers' dispositions were guided by the ideology of standard language requirements, and students' existing linguistic resources were underused in the classroom discourses.Piccardo and Galante also underline the issues of agency in language learning and teaching in Chapter 9.This chapter makes its contribution to the volume by presenting an intervention of "dramatic action-oriented task" (language activities that are performed in a form of drama) through a plurilingual lens as pedagogical practices for adult multilingual learners.As the authors claim, employing a plurilingual stance in dramatic action-oriented activities provides students with opportunities to navigate between multiple linguistic and cultural repertoires as well as identities in the process of learning.Chapter 10 explicates similar issues from Australian and New Zealand contexts, where there exist contradictions between students' multiple linguistic resources and monolingual habits in language policies/practices.In both these contexts, the biased monolingual English as the medium of education has objected students from utilizing their plurilingual resources and abilities.The authors argue that teachers can have a significant role in challenging such monolingual policies, but very few teachers in both countries are positive toward students' plurilingual practices in the classrooms.
The last part specifically brings to the fore the use of plurilingualism in higher education contexts.In Chapter 11, Newman presents the ways in which university-level educators from Timor-Leste develop micro-level language planning for their classrooms through their conscious and unconscious decisions about language use in their classroom discourses.The chapter encourages teachers, teacher educators, and language planners to activate teachers' agency in developing a plurilingual language policy.Hendricks and Fulani, in Chapter 12, provide critiques of English-medium instruction in multilingual South African universities, where the domination of English in education has influenced the constitutional principles of multilingualism, and the authors recognize translanguaging as a tool for challenging the hegemony of English in higher education as it creates a multilingual space in education.They advocate for facilitating bilingual students' access to epistemic knowledge by allowing them to utilize their full linguistic repertoire.Distinctive from all other chapters, Andrews, Fay, and White, in the final chapter, focus the discussion on researcher education and how researching multilingually can support research per se.Drawing on their own research experiences, the authors make a case for developing a translingual researcher mindset.
In conclusion, this book compiles a wide range of studies and contextual discussion on the complexities of plurilingual education and informs applied linguistics researchers, policymakers, teachers, and teacher educators of modern perspectives and insights for incorporating a plurilingual stance in language planning, curriculum, classroom pedagogy, and language and literacy research.Contributors provide useful recommendations grounded in their own unique contexts, but readers should cautiously take up the recommendations by considering the dynamics of their own inimitable contexts.Most chapters have cited translanguaging as a counter to monolingual language policy and practices, but it would be the reader's decision how they interpret the suggestion of translanguaging as a liberating pedagogy with an understanding of their unique contexts.

Pramod K. Sah
The University of British Columbia Canada