Introduction

Abstract

The global spread and diversification of pluricentric languages with supra-regional standards poses important questions and challenges for language education and its goals in the 21st century. At the same time, the diversity of these languages and the consensus among linguists about the equal value of their different varieties question several long-standing principles of second/foreign language teaching, such as the adherence to idealized standard varieties and their associated cultural conventions as the only target varieties in teacher education and the language classroom. This chapter introduces the volume and its 13 individual contributions which map out the pedagogical implications of the global spread and diversity of pluricentric languages for language education; document, compare, and evaluate existing practices in the teaching of these languages; and showcase new approaches that take account of the said languages’ linguistic diversity and variability.