A Plurilingual Approach to Language Education

Abstract

English education around the world is moving in a communication-based and task-oriented direction. Plurilingualism principles state that non-native language varieties should be used in the classroom along with encouraging students to freely mix and code switch between languages in order to facilitate communication from the students and raise motivation to use language. The suggestions for language classrooms include welcoming the students' home language into the classroom, actively encouraging students to use knowledge of other languages besides English or the student L1, and focusing on preserving the flow of conversation by allowing students to mix languages freely when speaking. The authors provide several snapshots of how they utilize plurilingualist principles in their own classrooms. Classrooms that are included in the snapshots range from high school to an after-school elementary student program for teaching English. While the observations come mainly from EFL classrooms in Japan, the hope is that the suggestions can be applied in classrooms in other countries.