Plurilingualism inTESOL: Promising Controversies

Abstract

he idea for this special issue grew out of the editors’ involvementin TESOL’s ESL in Bilingual Education Interest Section (BEIS).As we respectively took leadership roles within BEIS, we took part inBEIS’s record of “pushing the boundaries to make way for a more mul-tilingual TESOL” (Taylor, 2009, p. 310). While Shelley co-conducted asurvey of TESOL members regarding the need for a multilingual lan-guage policy within TESOL (Taylor, Smith, Daniel, & Schwarzer,2009), Kristin spearheaded a resolution regarding Deaf learners’language rights that subsequently became a TESOL (2009) positionstatement. These activities were rooted in the belief that learners’linguistic repertoires have a crucial role to play in learning English.This special issue’s focus on plurilingualism, or multilingualism at thelevel of the individual (Council of Europe, 2001), is intended tofurther illuminate the role and value of learners’ and teachers’ firstlanguages (L1s) and additional languages, and policies that supporttheir plurilingual repertoires in relation to TESOL’s mission ofadvancing excellence in English language teaching in a highly diverse,multilingual world.As we undertook the work of this special issue, we were aware thatwe were promising controversies on several fronts. Since the 1950s,TESOL has faced controversies regarding the status of languages otherthan English within the organization (Fishman, 2009). From a practi-tioner’s perspective, the idea of including a learner’s L1 in the class-room is still viewed cautiously, as a recent online discussion on “Whatis the Role of L1 in L2 Teaching?” on TESOL’s LinkedIn platformshows (Aftat, 2013). Bilingual education remains so marginalized inconcept and practice that plurilingualism is a radical notion in manyrespects (Garc!ia, personal communication). As with other radical