Language teaching in multilingual contexts

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Multilingualism and multiculturalism are present in many parts of the world today. We cannot deny that we live in societies that are constantly drawing on and using multiple languages. As language teachers and scholars of language education, we know that the presence of multilingualism challenges a traditional view of language education – one language learned before another as first and additional (second or foreign) languages. Language teaching in multilingual contexts, the theme of this special issue, may take a diversity of forms and apply to a variety of ideas. This introduction highlights some of these forms and ideas. When we read the phrase “language teaching,” we may think of the questions, Which language? What is language? How is this particular language being taught? Who are the students being taught? Who is the teacher? What are the relationships between teacher and students? What is the language focus? What skills are being taught? Where is the language taught, in the classroom or in other contexts? If the particular language is English, the language focus of most of the articles in this special issue, we may ask, what variety of English is taught? At the same time, when we read the phrase “in multilingual contexts,” we may ask, What are these multilingual contexts? What languages make these contexts multilingual? What languages are represented in these contexts and why? What does it mean to say that a context is multilingual? What historical and political aspects of this context are we talking about? Why have we chosen the word multilingual instead of bilingual? What are the consequences of this word choice? These are all questions that the articles in this special issue consider.