Presentation by Gabriela Meier at the Education and Migration: Language Foregrounded conference at Durham University 21-23 October 2016, part of the AHRC funded Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State project.

1. Dr Gabriela Meier, Senior Lecturer in Language Education
Durham, October 2016:
Education and Migration: Languages Foregrounded”.
The multilingual turn:
A critical movement in
education

2. The way we understand languages, the
learners and learning...
... Determines what teachers and learners do in
classrooms – and indeed when making sense of the
world more generally

3. My own linguistic repertoire and experience
 a Swiss-German dialect + 4 languages
In my education
 No links made between the curricular languages
 extra knowledge of bi/multilinguals ignored
 BA translation: teachers use target language only
As a language teacher
 Felt inadequate because I was not a ‘native speaker’ of any
standard languages I was teaching (German, English,
Spanish)

4. The multilingual turn: Why ‘turn’?
Turns seem to identify trends in society
and recognise theoretical shifts
From social reality…
… to theorising this change

5. Documentary analysis:
Thematic decomposition analysis
Data set: 21 chapters (documents) in two books
Research question:
 In what way are language(s), learners and language
learning conceptualised in the two books?

6. Findings:
Conceptualisations of
1. Language(s)
2. Multilingualism
3. Learners
4. Learning
5. Teachers
6. Critical perspective
7. Challenges

7. 1) Language(s)
Previous view
 stable, standardised, discrete and
separate native-speaker models
Expanded view
 as deterritorialised mobile resources
 (multi)literacy as power
 owned by users
 consist of varieties

8. 2) Multilingualism
Previous view
 a problem, and exception to be
avoided
Expanded view
 as a desirable goal
 as a resource for learning
 contextual and personal reality
 normal condition

9. 3) Learners
Previous view
 being confused by bi/multilingualism
 being empty vessels or trainable
 single stable identities
 essentialist categorisation (NS, NNS,
bilingual)
Expanded view
 (emergent) bi/multilingual persons
 with cognitive advantages
 with multiple, dynamic identities
 as multilingual social practitioners
 with diverse (linguistic) knowledge (funds of knowledge)
 in a multilingual eco-system

10. 4) Learning
Previous view
 sequential, separate
monolingual process with a
native-speaker goal and native
speaker role models
to
 as multilingual social practice
 as empowerment for learners
and teachers
 as development of
unpredictable and varied ling.
repertoires.

11. 5) Teachers
Previous view
 As monolingual native-speaker role models
Expanded view
 empowered as bi/multilinguals
 as bi/multilingual role models
 as language learners

12. 6) The multilingual turn
 Consistently critical perspective (all chapters)
 goes beyond SLA
 problematises knowledge and power relations
 straddles literacy, second, minority, migrant and foreign
language learning
 emphasises role of languages in all learning.
 Critical movement in education (not just language
education)

13. 6) Challenges:
Ingrained monolingual norm
 Native speaker aim, sequential acquisition myth, etc.
 Perpetuation of this in schools
Lack to teacher guidance
 Recognition in practice and theory

14. The way we understand languages, the
learners and learning...
... Determines what teachers and learners do when
learning languages – and indeed when making sense
of the world more generally
Do we need to rethink
the message we create
through our education
policies, curricula and
practice?

15. Time to rethink (language) education
 The process has started – how can we build on this?
 Challenges remain – what can we do about these?

16. Potential to address division between
linguistic and social groups
 Continue transdisplinary work EAL, MFL,TESOL, lang.
varieties  interdisciplinary
 Linking languages across subjects as important tools for
learning.  crosscurricular
 Reflect and discuss our assumptions with students and
colleagues to weaken the monolingual norms. (Meier
2016)  awareness of consequences.
 Tolerating and celebrating linguistic diversity, variety
and multilingualism in education and in all people
(emergent plurilingualism)  valuing all languages

17. Potential to value different biographies and
trajectories and strengthen multiple identities
 We need to develop and recognise
partial, multiple and potential
language skills (linguistic repertoire)
to strengthen social and professional
identities.
 We need to understand that not all
develop the same linguistic
repertoire in a predictable and
sequential way
 We need pedagogies that support
the development of unpredictable,
dynamic and different linguistic
repertoires in one classroom
 We need a society that values all
multilingual repertoires.

18. Next steps: Language status planning
 Need to challenge the monolingual mindset/norms
Example from Wales
Marketing ‘multilingualism’ as a must-have good
for all
making multilingualism fashionable, normali-
sation of multilingualism (See Twf Gymraeg campaign in
Wales)

19. Task for whole society
 Recognise and mediate fears associated with multilingualism in
a climate of multiple uncertainties.
 “the ultimate success of any attempt to imagine multilingual
schools depends on the extent to which advocates of
bilingual [or multilingual] education are able to
communicate their case to families” (Edwards/Pritchard
Newcombe 2006: 148).

20. Conclusion
The multilingual turn...
... does NOT advocate a laissez-faire attitude!
but my analysis of the chapters...
... emphasises the importance for stakeholders to
understand the consequences of our assumptions, as
they may lead to different expectations, actions and power
distributions of which stakeholders are sometimes not
aware.

21. Framework for reflection
 Meier, G. (2016 forthcoming). "The multilingual turn as a
critical movement in education: assumptions, challenges and a
need for reflection." Applied Linguistics Review.
and / or

22. Contact: g.s.meier@exeter.ac.uk
University of Exeter, Graduate School of Education:
MEd, EdD, PhD inTESOL, incl. bilingual/multilingual approaches

23. Literature
 Maalouf,A. (2008).A Rewarding Challenge: How the
multiplicity of languages could strengthen Europe. Proposals
from the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set
up at the initiative of the European Commission, Commission
of European Communities.
 Meier, G. (2016 (forthcoming)). "The multilingual turn as a
critical movement in education: assumptions, challenges and a
need for reflection." Applied Linguistics Review.
 Edwards,V. / Pritchard Newcombe, L. (2006): Back to
Basics: Marketing the Benefits of Bilingualism to Parents.
In: Garcia, O. et al. (eds.): Imagining Multilingual Schools:
Languages in Education and Glocalization (Linguistic Diversity
and Language Rights). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 137-
149.