Multilingual Practices Research Articles

Introduction to the special issue

Abstract This special issue of Multimodal Communication is devoted to seven papers studying social interaction at the intersection of multimodality, multilingualism and identity. The goal of this special issue is to provide a platform to discuss how this intersection enables us to gain a better understanding of multimodal and multilingual practices in action as well as critically engaging with the current theories in the field that provide the lens for us to do so.

Multilingualism of Ukrainian Elites in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Lazar Baranovych

The article examines the multilingual practice of Lazar Baranovych in the context of the sociolinguistic situation of Ukraine in the early modern period. Multilingualism is inherent in border societies, including Ukrainian society in the seventeenth century, and the choice of language in each case depends on a combination of factors – religious, pragmatic, communicative, cultural, and artistic/stylistic. The study analyzes the phenomenon of codeswitching on the example of Baranovych’s own marginal notes, made in Polish, Ruthenian (prosta mova) and Church Slavonic. The Ukrainian recension of Church Slavonic reflects the influence of spoken Ukrainian, which can be traced in texts from the cultural centers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and later the Russian Empire. This is illustrated by the language of the collection of sermons Трубы на дни нарочитыя праздникɷвъ [Trumpets for Major Feast Days] (1674), which Lazar Baranovych could not publish in Moscow not only for political reasons but also because of the peculiarity of the language.

“Can I speak that यहाँ पे (here)?”: Emergent bilinguals navigating intersectional inequities with relational multimodal multilingual practices in elementary school

ABSTRACT This paper highlights the stories of two grade 2/3 emergent bilinguals, Jay and Pari, to underscore the need for more inclusive listening for the experiences of marginalized learners and to offer relational, multimodal, and multilingual pedagogical designs. Framed by theories of intersectionality, translanguaging, and multimodality, I present moments from a collaborative multilingual photo project, Something/Someone I love, and center Jay and Pari’s identities – newcomers marginalized as ELLs, racialized students from low-income families – and their gendered experiences. The children negotiated the identity categories within the classroom’s social and academic worlds and shifted their deficit identities. Jay took up writing in Spanish and digitally editing a favorite car photo; Pari shared a photo of her stuffy, reflecting multiliterate competencies in her Hindi and English narratives. Jay and Pari drew on their communicative repertoires for connection and achievement, transitioning their languages, experiences, and emotions as valued resources. Yet this shifting of identities was not straightforward and normative English-only discourses were apparent. Three themes connect their stories: bridging multimodal and multilingual practices to celebrate capacities; focusing on relational and emotional processes to invite children’s experiences; and challenging dominant language ideologies for equitable learning. Implications center on redesigning the relationship between children’s lived experiences and school practices toward more inclusive listening for equity and relationality.

Review of Boas & Höder (2021): Constructions in contact 2: Language change, multilingual practices, and additional language acquisition

Review of Boas & Höder (2021): Constructions in contact 2: Language change, multilingual practices, and additional language acquisition

Monikielisyyden ja yhdenvertaisen osallistumisen tukeminen varhaisessa englannin opetuksessa opettajien kokemana

One of the aims of early language learning is to guarantee equal access to language learning for all children and to develop their plurilingualism. Studies on multilingual practices in early foreign language learning and teaching are, however, scarce. This study fills this gap by examining Finnish teachers’ experiences of the possibilities and obstacles for the development of pupils’ plurilingual repertoire and equal participation in the teaching of English starting in the first grade. The data comprised 550 teacher responses to a questionnaire on the practices of early language learning. Qualitative thematic analysis of the data revealed that teachers saw as supportive factors positive attitude towards language learning, children’s courage to interaction, development of linguistic and cultural awareness, teacher’s bilingual practices, and peer support. Problems in the skills of one’s first language and the school language and in teaching arrangements were seen as challenges.

Every bit of language we accrue throughout life matters-Multilingual education

Monolingual ideologies remain alive in mainstream education, though the amount of evidence pointing to the benefits of multilingualism is increasing. Against this background, this paper aims to explore the importance of multilingual practices in multilingual classrooms, teacher input in enhancing multilingual practices in classrooms and assessment in multilingual classrooms. A systematic review of the literature was done to gather data. The findings revealed that the use of dominant national languages and/or colonial languages does not sufficiently account for the multilingual nature of the learners in the classrooms and their respective communities. Teachers need to allow any references to languages by their learners of which they have only basic knowledge or no knowledge at all. One way is to leave the role of expert to learners with home languages while taking on the role of learners of new languages. Also, in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms, unintended bias in any assessment aspect can negatively affect learners whose home language is not the language of assessment. The study recommends that policymakers should establish official guidelines on interpreting competence aims for multilingual education, ensuring clarity and consistency across schools. Teachers should adopt collaborative teaching strategies that encourage learners to use their home languages in classroom activities. Partnerships between researchers and educators are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of multilingual pedagogies and refining teaching approaches. Assessment practices should be adapted to reflect learners’ diverse linguistic backgrounds, ensuring fair and valid evaluations of their competencies. Teacher training programmes should include modules on multilingual education, equipping educators with the necessary tools to manage linguistically diverse classrooms.

Starting small: Engaging young learners with literacy through multilingual storytelling

In Australian schools, approximately 20% of young children are emergent bilinguals, who are simultaneously developing their home languages while learning through English. While many teachers recognise the benefits of multilingual teaching approaches in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, there remains a significant level of uncertainty about how to enact them. These approaches depend heavily on teachers’ ability to leverage young learners’ cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge, as well as to apply pedagogies that engage the full range of their linguistic abilities. To effectively develop these strategies, many teachers require additional support. This paper presents a study in which researchers collaborated with a classroom teacher to initiate a multilingual storytelling project aimed at children aged six to seven. The objective was to explore the potential of multilingual storytelling to engage young emergent bilingual learners in early reading and writing activities. Our findings indicate that this pedagogical approach, rooted in the principles of translanguaging, significantly enhanced the students' engagement with literacy. By validating their home languages and cultural identities, the project provided strong support for their oral language development, demonstrating the effectiveness of integrating multilingual practices in the foundational years of education.

Schoolscaping in a Multilingual Area: An Example of a Hungarian College in Western Ukraine

Abstract Transcarpathia is one of the westernmost counties of Ukraine with a century-long multilingual tradition. The biggest minority group in the region is formed by Hungarians whose main educational and cultural centre is the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education. The linguistic landscape of the region has been analysed several times, but the same cannot be said about schoolscape studies. Therefore, the present paper aimed to solve this research gap and investigate how a minority higher education institution can implement current educational and language policies in its linguistic landscape. The study employed a qualitative approach to show the symbolic significance of the languages used in an educational setting. Altogether 394 pictures were taken in the corridors of the main building of the Transcarpathian Hungarian College, in the Philology Campus, in several classrooms, and in the near environment of the institution. The pictures were divided into eight distinct categories, ranging from bottom-up to top-down initiatives: decorations, symbolic inscriptions, advertisements, instructions related to crises, names of rooms, educational documents, library signage, and other signs and announcements. In addition, the official website and the social networking sites of the Transcarpathian Hungarian College were analysed briefly as part of a virtual schoolscape analysis. Based on the results, the Rákóczi College follows a strong bilingual tradition by making everything available in at least two languages (Ukrainian and Hungarian), but the bottom-up domain is also subject to monolingualism. Furthermore, the online schoolscape of the institution is multilingual because everything is published in three languages (Ukrainian, Hungarian, and English). The research can be further expanded with the help of the aforementioned qualitative approach of schoolscaping in other Transcarpathian Hungarian educational institutions to get a deeper insight into the applied multilingual practices in a war-torn country.

Visualizing identity: multimodal and multilingual practices in international student organizations’ on-campus artifacts

Abstract Contributing to previous research on schoolscape, this study explores artifacts crafted by international student organizations (i.e., flyers and roll-up banners) across a U.S. university campus. Specifically, drawing on elements from geosemiotics (i.e., visual semiotics, place semiotics, and interaction order), the authors examined (1) how the producers convey their identities through both multilingual and multimodal practices, and (2) how the artifacts interact with the surrounding space. Considering the ephemeral nature of the artifacts under scrutiny, pictures of the actual artifacts were collected over a two-month period in 2024. The findings show that the sign makers constructed their identities through varied semiotic resources, including text, images (e.g., national flags, natural elements, historical landmarks), typography (e.g., typographic mimicry), colors indexing ethnocultural and/or national identities or university affiliation, code preferences, and linguistic choices creating multiple interaction orders. Regarding the emplacement of the artifacts, different patterns emerged, including a preference for authorized spaces over those associated with transgressive semiotics, and, more generally, a shift towards digital spaces for organizational promotion.

Multilingual Realities and English Teacher Construction in Indonesian Pesantren: A Narrative Inquiry

This study aimed to explore the construction of English teacher identity within the multilingual and religiously oriented environment of Indonesian pesantren through a narrative inquiry approach. Applying narrative inquiry, the study examined how teachers negotiate their religious and professional identities while balancing multiple language ideologies embodied in this educational context. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, providing rich narratives of teachers' experiences, challenges, and strategies in navigating their roles. Three key themes emerged: balancing language ideologies, the interplay between religious and professional identities, and multilingual practices in the classroom. The findings reveal the dynamic, context-responsive nature of teacher identity development within pesantren, highlighting how educators align religious values with pedagogical goals. This study addresses a critical gap by focusing on identity formation in faith-based multilingual education settings, offering new insights beyond secular or formal institutions. The implications contribute to broader discussions on teacher identity, multilingual education, and the intersection of language, religion, and teaching practices.

Translanguaging, Literary Multilingualism and Exophony in Translation

This article focuses on the new term of ‘translanguaging’, first developed in applied linguistics and then critically discussed in critical multilingualism studies. The term foregrounds language use as opposed to language competence. In this way, translanguaging is understood as shaking up the commonly received ideas about standardised language. With such a term, new avenues of thought and research open up to better understand multilingual practices. The new proposed way of regarding multilingual practices as more ‘energeia’, processual, and varied – instead of a fixed entity or tool – takes centre-stage in this article. I analyse the term ‘translanguaging’ by way of two practices, literary translation on the one hand and exophony on the other hand. In choosing these two practices, I ask how can translanguaging help bring down old-established epistemic walls such as clear-cut ideas about Jakobson’s intra- and interlingual translation. These terminologies will thus be analysed by way of multi- and translingual texts to discuss the extent to which translanguaging practices can challenge current ideas about literary translation and multilingualism. In my discussion, I focus on two Brazilian authors; firstly, on Wilson Bueno’s Mar Paraguayo alongside its translation Paraguayan Sea by Erín Moure, and secondly, on Geovani Martins’s O Sol Na Cabeça alongside its translation The Sun on my Head by Julia Sanches. I show how a translanguaging approach does justice to the way in which these authors and narrators speak in their own languages as well as in and between other languages than their own (exophony). I draw on examples showing how the translators have gone about these particularities, at once reflecting on the process of creative writing and literary translation as an open-ended practice.

An analysis of teacher’s multilingual practices uses in teaching EFL students

The aim of this study was to analyze the multilingual practices and predominant languages used by an English teacher during classroom activities. It also sought to assess students' reactions to the teacher's language use and to determine the rationale for the teacher's choice of each language in the English language classroom. Six observations were conducted in the three selected classes to assess the use of Indonesian, English, Kluet, Jamee and Acehnese in classroom activities. A total of 48 student respondents from three classes completed the questionnaires, with the English teacher at Junior High School 1 Kluet Timur serving as the sample. The results showed that Indonesian was the most dominant language used in the classroom with a rate of 47.1%, followed by English, Kluet Jamee and Acehnese. The responses to the questionnaire showed that the students believed that using Indonesian and local languages in learning English could help them to understand the material presented by the teacher. In addition, the study showed that the teacher's reason for using Indonesian and local languages was to enhance students’ comprehension of English materials, which ensure effective learning.

Examining English learning students’ experiences related to home language use in a Physical Science and Language Development classroom

Research suggests that by allowing English Learner (EL) students to use their home languages in science class, they can better express their thinking and build content knowledge through underlying crosslinguistic awareness between languages. However, EL students’ educational backgrounds and home languages are incredibly varied. In this case study, we employ grounded theory to explore students' perceptions of their experiences in the context of a Physical Science and Language Development class [10]. We use a phenomenological approach to describe how the students experience their home language within this model of a science and language development class. Observation data, online video assignments, and small group, semi-structured interviews were used to find themes related to experiences of using home language in science class. The findings indicate varied student perspectives on the use of their home languages in science class. Some students preferred to use class time to practice using English, while others found value in using their home languages to help better understand science concepts. Student ideologies regarding English-only or multilingual practices for EL students varied. The findings also indicated that providing an opportunity for EL students to use their home languages in an asynchronous online communication platform outside of class was an effective strategy to allow time for students to practice English during science class, yet provide an opportunity to translate between home languages and English.

Models and practices of the introduction of multilingualism (comparative sociological analysis)

ABSTRACT The relevance of this research lies in the fact that models and practices of the introduction of multilingualism are an important cross-cutting problem that concerns the social, cultural, economic and, consequently, educational spheres, which contribute to the promotion of rarer languages. It is important to assess the cultural value of linguistic diversity at all levels of education and training, while simultaneously spreading information about the multiplicity of languages and their importance in the world. The purpose of the study is to consider the models and practices of the introduction of multilingualism in the context of education in the Republic of Kazakhstan through comparative sociological analysis. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used: sociological, statistical, and comparative. The research findings highlight the importance of multilingualism in personal and societal development, emphasising the need for incorporating multilingual practices in educational policies and teacher training. Additionally, the introduction of multilingualism in Kazakhstan, particularly the trilingual approach involving Kazakh, Russian, and English, is influenced by global processes and the prestige associated with different languages in society.

Dealing with Multilingualism and Non-English Content in Open Repositories: Challenges and Perspectives

Several organizations and initiatives have recently called for more support of multilingualism in research to promote epistemic plurality and raise awareness of the adverse effects of an anglocentric research ecosystem. But this support for and practice of multilingualism and linguistic diversity cannot happen in a digital or technological vacuum. Open repositories can play an important role in ensuring that research infrastructures have the ability to implement and promote multilingualism at scale in an Open Science environment. This implementation, however, is complex and does not come without its own theoretical and technical challenges. One of these challenges is to recognize that the implementation of multilingualism in open repositories can hardly be dissociated from wider concerns of discoverability, research assessment practices, and the anglocentric nature of digital infrastructures and metadata standards or protocols. Drawing on the COAR (Coalition of Open Access Repositories) recommendations report produced by the COAR Task Force on Supporting Multilingualism and non-English Content in Repositories, this article presents and critically examines how and why three particular recommendations of this document are particularly well suited to support a decolonial trajectory for the management of multilingualism in open repositories. More specifically, this article discusses the decolonial aspects and praxis underlying guidelines such as declaring the language(s) of the resource and of its metadata, writing personal name/s using the writing system used in the deposited document while providing a persistent identifier to disambiguate author/s identification and, overlapping with the latter, enabling UTF-8 support so as to promote use of the original alphabet / the writing system whenever possible, without negating the possibility to transliterate metadata by means of recognized standards (e.g. ISO). In so doing, we argue that these recommendations enable a multifaceted technology and politics of recovery that promotes a form of linguistic revitalization and strengthens linguistic diversity.

Complementary schools as ‘breathing spaces’: identity, multilingualism and critical pedagogies in heritage language education

Whilst mainstream schools in England may encourage multilingualism by insisting on the study of foreign languages, multilingual children are not always provided with support for the maintenance of their heritage languages and cultures. In response to this shortcoming, communities organise themselves to support their young members by setting up extra-curricular education institutions or associations, also called complementary schools, which contribute to the cultural and linguistic maintenance of minority communities. Through emblematic extracts from a fourteen-month ethnographic research in an Italian complementary school in London, this article examines how HL learners engage in and reflect on their multilingual practices and how they develop agency in their learning environment. The findings illustrate how critical modes of teaching and learning that make space for multilingualism can provide children with unique opportunities to discover, explore and experiment with their multilingual and multicultural selves, which, in turn, permit them to access linguistic resources and legitimise multilingual learner identities. Expanding on Fishman’s notion of ‘breathing space’, the article suggests that complementary schools represent a space where minority languages but also pedagogical practices can breathe and develop.

TEACHER MULTILINGUAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM: IMPLICATIONS FOR COURSE DEVELOPMENT

The CEFR and the Companion Volume to the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001, 2020), as the main language policy documents in Europe, intend to improve the standard of language teaching, learning and assessment. These documents among other things proclaim students’ diverse linguistic repertoire as an asset in the language classroom. In this light, the promotion of multilingual education initiatives and enhancing students’ plurilingualism is an educational requirement. Teachers, language teachers included, are seen as agents of change who can foster multilingual approaches in their language classrooms (Krulatz et al., 2022). Although previous studies have found that many language teachers hold favourable views on multilingualism, they face challenges when implementing multilingual approaches in the (foreign) language classroom. Teachers’ beliefs on multilingualism in (foreign) language teaching and learning and how these impact their teaching practices have not been investigated in the Ukrainian education context, which has always been multilingual. The purpose of the article is to share and discuss the results of a quantitative study designed to investigate Ukrainian teacher beliefs in learning English and whether these beliefs are reflected in teaching practices. Data were collected using an online questionnaire administered to 73 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers from 12 Ukrainian universities. The research questions were ascertained using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. The collected insights helped to identify areas that require a more careful consideration in the multilingual education in Ukraine. The outcomes reveal complex and uneven relationships between teacher multilingual beliefs and the implementation of multilingual practices in EFL classrooms in Ukraine, with discrepancies in their perceptions and practices. The main finding suggests that the majority of Ukrainian language teachers have a favorable perception of multilingualism, yet they lack the required expertise and confidence to effectively build on their students' linguistic resources in teaching English. In addition, there are some critical gaps in teacher understanding of fundamental concerns about multilingualism. Suggestions will be made for a scenario-based approach to a teacher professional development course.

Why do Mandarin speakers code-switch? A case study of conversational code-switching in China

Multilingualism is becoming increasingly common worldwide, with multilingual studies becoming more popular and accelerating interpersonal language contacts; however, it remains controversial and ambiguous in China. The current study aims to explore code-switching (CS) patterns and factors among Mandarin-dominated mainland Chinese speakers and investigate multilingual development in China through CS, as it is a multilingual practice. Conversational analysis was conducted to analyse daily interactions in short videos posted online, categorise language varieties and frequencies, identify CS patterns, and examine the factors influencing CS patterns. The results revealed that foreign languages and dialects other than Mandarin were spoken by Mandarin-dominated speakers. Three of four CS patterns were also pinpointed regarding language practices in China. Insertion was the most predominant pattern, followed by backflagging and alternation. The CS patterns employed by Mandarin-dominated mainland Chinese speakers were influenced primarily by participant-related factors, followed by linguistic-related factors, sociopsychological factors, convenience, and situational factors. The prevalence of the insertional CS pattern and the influence of personal factors suggest that China’s Mandarin-speaking community is in an early phase of multilingual development.

„... dass sich halt keiner ausgeschlossen fühlt.“ Wahrnehmungen von und Einstellungen zur Verwendung nicht-deutscher Erstsprachen im Unterricht

Abstract This article examines perceptions of and attitudes towards the use of non-German languages in Austrian schools from the perspective of students and teachers. By differentiating between teachers, students with exclusively German L1 and students with a non-German L1, different perspectives on code-switching in group work situations are examined. For this purpose, data was collected via online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions between students. The results show that switching to another language in group work settings is perceived as inappropriate, in particular by those students who have no competence in a language other than German. Moreover, they associate switching with poorer performance in class and interpret the use of a language other than German in class to be antagonistic or talking behind the back of people who do not speak that language (“gossiping”). In contrast, – and contrary to the assumption that they evaluate language switches in the classroom more negatively due to stricter normative views – teachers show a consistently more positive perception of code switching behaviour and its multilingual speakers. It can be concluded from the findings that multilingualism in the school context and its overall benefits should not only be addressed in teacher training, but that it would also be useful to raise students’ awareness of multilingual practices.

(Re)countering multilingualism and refugee-background students in Australian compulsory education

Compared with nations around the world, Australia has one of the highest rates of refugee resettlement per capita. Approximately 40 per cent of newly arrived refugees in Australia in 2018–19 were under the age of 18 and close to 90 per cent spoke a language other than English. Given that education is compulsory until the age of 16 in most states and territories of Australia, young people labelled as refugee-background students (RBSs) are tasked with navigating the English-only education system, in which their multilingualism is often viewed as a barrier; however, there are increasing calls for research to focus on the positive, affirmative practices of RBSs through a strengths-based approach in education, to counter a ‘damage-centred’ and deficit discourse. Thus, this article presents a systematic literature review of studies conducted in Australia with RBSs between 2010 and 2022. Specifically, this review explores the strengths-based multilingual practices of RBSs in compulsory education in Australia. Inspired by RefugeeCrit theory, we seek to highlight strengths-based examples of RBSs multilingual practices as examples of counter-narratives to the prevailing deficit discourse, while remaining attentive to issues of trauma, agency and multilingualism.