Expanding Communicative Repertoires Through Plurilingual Pedagogies in International Branch Campus Classrooms in Qatar

Abstract

Neoliberal ideologies, policies, and practices have led to the internationalization and “Englishization” of education around the world. As part of this phenomenon, there has been an exponential growth of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in national universities and English-medium international branch campuses (IBCs). While EMI and IBCs continue to spread around the world, there has simultaneously been a multilingual shift happening in applied linguistics from monolingual pedagogies to translingual and plurilingual pedagogies. These pedagogical approaches view learners’ ability to draw on multiple resources for effective communication as an asset rather than a deficit. In our chapter, we will reflect on the monolingual biases of IBCs in the State of Qatar where we teach, and how we have shifted away from these biases to implement more plurilingual pedagogy which empowers our students. We will each share specific examples of writing assignments we have transformed over time to better tap into our students’ full linguistic and semiotic repertoires, with the goal being not only to improve their English proficiency but also to expand their full communicative repertoires.