The affordances of Code-Switching: A systematic review of its roles and impacts in multilingual contexts

This Teaching and Learning Guide is intended to provide instructors of courses in Sociolinguistics some guidance in incorporating the topic of multilingualism in educational contexts into their syllabi. Although schools the world over are increasingly serving multilingual populations, awareness of this reality has not, in many cases, sifted through to public consciousness, and incorporation of this topic into the sociolinguistic curriculum is a crucial step in addressing this gap in awareness. The incidence of multilingualism in educational contexts has increased greatly in the last few decades in a number of critical ways. First, while multilingualism has long been the norm in educational settings in places such as India and some countries of Africa, widespread multilingualism has only recently begun to be seen as a factor in education in many parts of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Second, in addition to there being more regions of the world that have multilingual populations of schoolchildren, the demographics of these populations are also changing. There are increasing numbers of middle class professionals moving to countries in which immigrants were previously overwhelmingly citizens of poor countries who came to work unskilled jobs. Third, not only have different patterns of immigration led to a broader range of regions and social groups becoming multilingual, but the ability to speak more than one language is increasingly seen as desirable for those who stay put. Bilingual education or intensive language study for the children of majority language populations is gaining popularity in Europe, the United States, and Asia. What this amounts to is that multilingualism in schools is becoming more common, and the situations in which it occurs are as varied as the languages involved. This article addresses the social issues of language ideologies and identity construction in this context.

In times and contexts where multilingual classrooms and educational settings are the norm, attention to medium of instruction (MOI), and to practices around language use in teaching and learning, is unavoidable. Prioritising one language as the MOI over others arguably has a profound impact on all languages and their various stakeholders in multilingual contexts. MOI policy decisions, their enactments, and how these realise broader geopolitical and socio-political agendas in multilingual contexts present another layer of complexity in questions regarding MOI in multilingual education. MOI is deployed as policy and promoted as practice to pursue diverse objectives, but enactment in classrooms often provokes unexpected outcomes and multilingual practices that illustrate the creativity and resourcefulness of language users. As language users—teaching practitioners and their students—respond to fluidity and complexity in language ecologies of the current multilingualism (Aronin in Learning and using multiple languages: current findings from research on multilingualism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, pp 1–28, 2015), researchers are in turn responding to investigate and analyse rich sources of data that can reveal the realities of moment-to-moment practices and that can offer new or alternative approaches and responses to the needs of diverse stakeholders. This chapter foregrounds how these challenges and complexities interact in relation to choices, implementations, and enactments of MOI in multilingual settings. It also explores how they impact on educational processes, developments and outcomes, as well as broader social and (geo)political agendas, and contributions researchers make to understand these.

English is being taught in diverse contexts around the globe. Teaching of English in multilingual and multicultural contexts in Nepal is one of the major challenges in ELT. The majority of classes in Nepal consist of linguistic and cultural diversity where students need to have different learning materials, methodologies and learning styles which help them minimize the problems of interaction and comprehension. This article presents both challenges and opportunities of teaching English in multicultural and multilingual contexts. The problems created by linguistically heterogeneous learners and attitude of parents towards multilingual education are the major challenges for its effective implementation. Moreover, the problems of teachers and students are being addressed in this article along with some suggestions for teachers to solve them and make ELT more effective, better and easier.

This study examines the discourses of educators in Pakistan through the lens of Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) to demonstrate how their lack of critical awareness reinforces and reproduces subtractive language policies and practices in a diverse multilingual setting. CMLA stands for the understanding of the social, political and economic struggles surrounding the use of languages (García, O. 2009, Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective, 302. Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell). Drawing on data collected through interviews and a questionnaire survey, the study analyses why most educators tend to manifest the following orientations/tendencies: monoglossic ideologies, devaluing native languages/cultures, normative assumptions about contemporary sociolinguistic order, English-medium fever, and fallacious folk theories about plurilingualism and multilingual education. The study suggests some policy measures that could foster CMLA, which could in turn help create ‘ideological and implementational spaces’ for multiple languages, literacies, and identities in classroom (Hornberger, N.H. 2003. Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research, and Practice in Multilingual Settings. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, Hornberger, N.H. 2016. Researching the continua of biliteracy. In Research Methods in Language and Education, ed. K. King, Y.-J. Lai and S. May, 1–18. Cham: Springer International Publishing). We propose that deprescriptivisation and conceptual reorientation of educators could be crucial in this direction. This entails deconstruction of socially constructed folk theories about languages and language use, developing an awareness that ‘language is socially created, and socially changeable to give voice and educate all students equitably’ (García, O. 2017, Critical multilingual language awareness and teacher education. In Language Awareness and Multilingualism, ed. J. Cenoz, D. Gorter and S. May, 263–280. Cham: Springer International Publishing). We propose that language activists and critical applied linguists could play their agentive role as public intellectuals to deconstruct negative views about the role and value of the native/indigenous languages as pedagogical resources, and create ideological and political openings for inclusive perspectives, policies and practices. This could be achieved through scholarly activism, advocacy campaigns, and public awareness programs.

Academic literacy, as a representation of required skills in the academic community, has gained increasing prominence and attention over the past decade. It has been the focal point of many studies in different contexts drawing on different perspectives. However, the way academic literacy development is researched and practiced in multilingual and multicultural settings is limitedly clarified and dealt with in second/foreign language contexts. Moreover, the role of different developmental trends of this research strand on EFL teachers in multilingual milieus has been overlooked, to date. To shed more light on the construct of academic literacy development in multilingual and EFL contexts, the present review article takes a global vision and explicates the past, present, and future trends in researching and practicing this significant construct. In so doing, it defines the concepts and presents the dimensions of academic literacy and academic literacy development. Then the role of academic literacy in multilingualism has been elaborated on using empirical evidence. Finally, the study provides and explains some implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, curriculum designers, and scholars, who can update their information about academic literacy development in multilingual contexts with particular nuances.

Feedback, further known as assessment in this research, is critical to learners’ growth and learning. This study is grounded in verbal and written peer experiences acquired throughout peer evaluation in a multilingual context. This study aims to determine the problems of Grade 11 EFAL learners with peer assessment and how to develop peer assessment practices in a multilingual setting at the high school level. There were 27 learners in the class. Designated three learners gave three demonstrations on various matters premised on a requisite Grade 11 literature set book and were graded by their classmates. The perspectives of the learners who were assigned to work in groups were elicited by requesting them to respond to open ended questions in writing after their classmates’ presentations. According to the findings, some peer assessments can be subjective depending on the bond between the assessor and the assessed. The learners had a natural feeling of inadequacy in their assessments. When giving feedback in a multilingual setting, it becomes important to give it in a language they are most comfortable with. Similarly, helping students relate new information from peers to the knowledge that they already have helps them to understand and organise information in meaningful ways.

Feedback, further known as assessment in this research, is critical to learners’ growth and learning. This study is grounded in verbal and written peer experiences, acquired throughout peer evaluation in a multilingual context. This study aims to determine the problems of Grade 11 EFAL learners with peer assessment and how to develop peer assessment practices in a multilingual setting in the Further Education and Training phase. There were 27 learners in the class. Designated three learners gave three demonstrations on various matters, premised on a requisite Grade 11 literature set book, and were graded by their classmates. The perspectives of the learners who were assigned to work in groups were elicited by requesting them to respond to open ended questions in writing after their classmates’ presentations. According to the findings, some peer assessments can be subjective depending on the bond between the assessor and the assessed. The learners had a natural feeling of inadequacy in their assessments. When giving feedback in a multilingual setting, it becomes important to give it in a language they are most comfortable with. Similarly, helping students relate new information from peers to the knowledge that they already have helps them to understand and organise information in meaningful ways. Thus, the learners are comfortable with feedback that addresses the known that is then linked to the unknown. This calls for prior knowledge activation by other learners or even the teacher because new information is better integrated with existing information.Once students are used to peer assessment and have overcome their initial fears and hesitations, reliability is likely to be quite high, not that different from teacher reliability

Part I Multidisciplinary perspectives on multilingual education: a global perspective on multilingualism and multilingual education, G. Richard Tucker psycholinguistic perpsectives on multilingualism and multilingual education, Jasone Cenoz and Fred Genesee. Part II Educating towards multilingualism: curriculum decision-making in content-based teaching, Myriam Met immersion pedegogy and implications for language teaching, Roy Lyster cultural identities in multilingual classrooms, Michael Bryam teacher education for multilingual contexts, David Nunan adnd Agnes Lam. Part III Case studies in multilingual education: Luxembourg and the European Schools, Charlotte Hoffman multilingual education in the Basque country, Jasone Cenoz teaching in two or more languages in the Philippine context, Andrew Gonzalez policy, possibility and paradox - indigenous multilingualism and education in Peru and Bolivia, Nancy Hornberger and Luis Enrique Lopez Eritrea - developing a programme of multilingual education, Nadine Dutcher.

This chapter discusses some of the language issues and challenges that deaf and hard of hearing students (DHH) face in the school environment and argues that successful bilingual and multilingual education programs are necessary for DHH students, including professional training in deaf education around of the world. The chapter includes subtitle topics such as the historical development of bilingual education, deaf learners and deaf bilingual education, multilingual and multicultural education. The author concludes the chapter by making recommendations regarding the effectiveness of bilingual and multilingual education for DHH students. The goal is to support educators and professionals in the deaf education field to pay attention to bilingual deaf education through teacher professional development based on the field needs.

This study addresses the challenges faced by pre-primary teachers (specialists and non-specialists in additional languages) in multilingual settings, with a specific focus on attention to diversity. Nowadays, schools are becoming more diverse both linguistically (Robinson-Jones, Duarte & Günther-van der Meij, 2022) and through the inclusion of special educational needs (SEN) students (Ramberg & Watkins, 2020). This study aims to identify the teachers’ needs in these contexts and to bring to light emergent topics on multilingualism and diversity. Ten focus groups were conducted for this purpose, and participants (pre-primary teachers) were asked to reflect on their competencies to address groups of young learners in multilingual settings. The participants originate from five different locations in Spain, characterized by different linguistic and social realities. The discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the software MAXQDA was used to facilitate the content analysis of the obtained data. Information was gathered from two perspectives: specialists and non-specialist teachers of additional languages. The findings reveal the complexity of adopting and incorporating the tailored approaches required by the increasingly linguistically diverse students and by those with special educational needs. Several key findings emerged, including the difficulties of the teachers when adapting to changing educational contexts, the lack of guidelines to facilitate teaching in multilingual contexts, and the teachers’ concern about diverse students. The results of this research underscore the importance of providing pre-primary teachers in multilingual contexts with multifaceted support (specific legal framework, training sessions, and classroom assistants, among others) to facilitate the inclusiveness of diverse young learners. The research, embedded in a national research project on pre-primary teachers’ competencies in multilingual contexts, contributes insights into teaching strategies in diverse multilingual settings.

Empirical research on L3 teachers' beliefs has gained momentum in the last decade since teacher cognition is paramount for understanding teaching practices in multilingual settings. Yet, many of these works deal with experienced language practitioners (e.g. [Otwinowska, A. (2017). English teachers' language awareness: Away with the monolingual bias? Language Awareness, 26 (4), 304–324]) and focus on the impact of instruction about multilingual pedagogies (e.g. [Gorter, D., & Arocena, E. (2020). Teachers' beliefs about multilingualism in a course on translanguaging. System, 92 (102272)]. Less attention has been awarded to pre-service content teachers ([Portolés, L., & Martí, O. (2020). Teachers' beliefs about multilingual pedagogies and the role of initial training. International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(2), 248–264; Schroedler, T., & Fischer, N. (2020). The role of beliefs in teacher professionalisation for multilingual classroom settings. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8 (1), 49–72]) or to the effect of individual factors other than teacher training on their beliefs. To address this research gap, the present paper examines whether external and internal factors affect 121 teacher trainees' cognition about multilingualism in Infant and Primary education. Although no significant differences across groups are found, results depict a teacher's profile more inclined towards implementing multilingual policies.

An individual who is able to speak, write, or comprehend more than one language is said to be multilingual from the perspective of the notion. It encompasses the utilization of two or more languages in a large number of different settings and for a wide range of different purposes. The purpose of this research is to investigate the difficulties that arise while teaching English in classrooms that have students who speak more than one language. Through the use of a study of the relevant literature, this paper investigates the various perspectives that scholars have on the subject at hand. Within the scope of this study article, the implementation of multilingual education in a number of different countries is investigated. The difficulties that are encountered by individuals who are interested in implementing multilingual education are also explored. English teachers face a big problem when they are tasked with teaching English in a multilingual setting because of the language diversity that exists within classroom areas. Due to their reluctance to make mistakes, pupils who speak more than one language frequently lack confidence when it comes to utilizing English. There is a possibility that the curriculum is not appropriate for improving students' English language skills. According to the findings of the study, a strategy that is centered on the student and takes into account the unique requirements and experiences of each learner is what is required for effective language instruction in classrooms that contain several languages

ABSTRACTCharacterised by its nomadic traditions and multiethnic composition, Inner Mongolia exhibits unique linguistic diversity and intercultural exchange. Within such multilingual contexts, learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) may be influenced by emotional factors such as foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language learning burnout (FLLB). Therefore, this study investigates how FLE, FLLB and WTC interact within the context of multilingual education among Mongolian‐speaking university students in China. Drawing on the Broaden‐and‐Build Theory and Control‐Value Theory as conceptual frameworks, this quantitative study employed three validated questionnaires, completed by 246 students learning English as a third language, with 244 valid responses analysed. The results of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and structural equation modelling (SEM) were obtained using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 24.0. The results indicated that FLE is a significant positive predictor of WTC (β = 0.39, p < 0.001), and FLLB is a considerable negative predictor of WTC (β = −0.17, p < 0.05). Moreover, 26.8% of variance in the WTC can be explained by FLE and FLLB jointly. It was also revealed that there is a negative correlation between FLE and FLLB (β = −0.5, p < 0.001). Based on the results, it can be concluded that FLE in multilingual students promotes their WTC, while FLLB inhibits their WTC. The study offers theoretical and pedagogical implications for enhancing learner motivation, reducing emotional fatigue, and designing emotionally responsive classroom practices in multilingual education settings.

This paper focuses on teaching techniques for language learning as related to student satisfaction on multilingual compulsory education in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), where Basque and Spanish are official languages and English is taught as a foreign language. Using a multilingual approach, the paper discusses similarities and differences between the relationships found for the teaching techniques and the satisfaction levels in the three languages (Basque, Spanish and English). The results of the T-test analysis show significant differences between the three languages in the use of teaching techniques and levels of satisfaction. Additionally, the patterns of relationship between the teaching techniques and the language learning satisfaction levels show some weak relationship in the three languages, being learner-centred teaching techniques related to satisfaction levels. Results are explained according to some assumptions in language acquisition, and related to the context of the study. Finally, we discuss some opportunities for language teaching in multilingual contexts with a minority language.

ABSTRACTThe current study examines how and why speakers of English from multilingual contexts in Asia are identifying as native speakers of English. Eighteen participants from different contexts in Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and The Philippines, who self-identified as native speakers of English participated in hour-long interviews probing language backgrounds, language use and constructions of native speaker identities of both English and other native languages. The study employed Leung, Harris and Rampton’s [1997. ‘The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities.’ TESOL Quarterly 31 (3): 543–560] constructs of affiliation, inheritance, and expertise to analyse how the participants defined native speaker in multilingual contexts. Findings indicate that speakers of English in Asia do not identify themselves as native speakers in comparison with or contrast to inner circle speakers of English but rather view themselves as native speakers in their own right. As such, defining native speaker in multilingual contexts appears to be a localised, self-reflexive practice.