Can Digital Communication Help Prevent Minority Language Loss?

We recently published Heritage Languages in the Digital Age edited by Birte Arendt and Gertrud Reershemius. In this post the editors introduce the book.

Heritage Languages in the Digital Age: The Case of Autochthonous Minority Languages in Western Europe explores the intricate relationship between technology, language policy and cultural identity, presenting case studies of digital communication in smaller languages such as Breton, Gaelic, Faroese, Frisian, Lombard, Low German and Welsh. The book’s central focus is on minority languages which are facing a declining number of speakers and a loss of communicative domains in an increasingly globalising world.

Heritage Languages in the Digital Age asks whether digital communication can help to prevent language loss of minority languages and offers insights for educators, activists, policymakers and researchers navigating the challenges faced by smaller languages in today’s interconnected world. The languages examined in this book are still spoken by a considerable number of speakers, and while their overall numbers of speakers may be declining, their significance in identity construction and cultural commodification processes is growing.

As the global discourse on language diversity and cultural preservation gains momentum, this book serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding and addressing the multifaceted challenges and opportunities facing minority language communities. It aims to support stakeholders such as teachers, language activists, planners and researchers who re-evaluate traditional media strategies, language policies and teaching methodologies to counteract language shift trends. Media studies in the field of smaller or endangered languages always differ rather fundamentally from media studies in general due to their specific focus: here, the dominant question raised by researchers and language planners tends to be how the media can be used to support a language and its speakers. Researchers are stressing both the opportunities and the pitfalls of digital technologies for smaller languages. The view has been expressed that effective use of computer-mediated communication could be the mainstay of successful maintenance efforts in the future.

The book also discusses how online communities influence language usage and cultural exchanges for speakers of minority languages and advocates for adaptive language policies and innovative teaching methods to support minority languages and bilingualism while fostering linguistic pride and identity.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Agency in the Peripheries of Language Revitalisation edited by Mary S. Linn and Alejandro Dayán-Fernández.

Exploring the Multifaceted World of Prescriptivism

This month we are publishing New Horizons in Prescriptivism Research edited by Nuria Yáñez‐Bouza, María E. Rodríguez‐Gil and Javier Pérez‐Guerra. In this post the editors explain the book’s key themes and consider future research directions.

How does the book approach the study of prescriptivism and what are the key themes it explores?

In this volume, prescriptivism is examined in a rich and varied manner, spanning historical perspectives and contemporary analyses. The chapters illuminate the role of language norms, social influences and speech communities in shaping prescriptive attitudes. This multifaceted approach is achieved by delving into various aspects of prescriptive practices, such as language norms in historical manuals and sociocultural values in literary texts and scripts. It also looks into how members of speech communities – of mainstream English, varieties of English and other languages –perceive the notion of ‘correct’ and ‘standard’ language.

How does this volume contribute to ongoing research in the field of prescriptivism?

New Horizons in Prescriptivism Research offers a fresh perspective to the study of prescriptivism by presenting innovative approaches and interdisciplinary themes. The research questions in the chapters address the main topics of the evolving landscape of the field and the authors’ insightful analyses offer valuable contributions to current trends, sparking new ideas and motivating further inquiry. Each part of the volume is concerned with different facets of prescriptivism. Part 1 traces the roots of linguistic prescriptivism in (historical) British and American English, and also examines the legacy of historical norms in contemporary language attitudes and usage. Part 2 reflects on the interdisciplinary nature of prescriptivism, with chapters combining linguistic assessment with literary enquiry in order to trace norms and language identity across genres, from poetry to TV shows. In Part 3, the authors look into prescriptivism in the context of New Englishes, touching on Indian English, Hong Kong English and Australian English. And Part 4 addresses the ideological stance of prescriptivism in languages beyond English, broadening the geographical coverage and paving the way for future comparative analyses in other national languages, such as Icelandic, Greek and Dutch.

What is the future of research on prescriptivism?

The future of research on prescriptivism is rich and diverse, with wide scope for scholars to continue scrutinising its complexities. In a globalised and digital world, prescriptive language use and language attitudes continue to evolve, attracting increasing attention. Interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-cultural perspectives will broaden our knowledge of prescriptivism in various linguistic, literary and social contexts. In this regard, this volume provides glimpses of future trends in the field by revisiting the principle of suppression of optional variability in the selection of a standard form, by exploring the diversity of strands of prescriptivism which have been institutionalised by various social forces and in varied linguistic or literary contexts, by tracing the process of linguistic democratisation as opposed to strict prescriptive norms, or by offering new readings of the ways in which social relations are constructed based on how errors and stigmatised features are perceived.

What is the main takeaway from this book?

In essence, this book invites readers to embark on a journey of exploration. The diverse range of perspectives and analyses here presented help to elucidate the complex relationship between language norms, social change and the choices made by individuals. Collectively, and addressing historical practices as well as contemporary attitudes, the chapters investigate the social role of prescriptivism, its portrayal in literature and its values in speech communities. By presenting innovative approaches and varied methodologies, the volume enhances our understanding of the significance of prescriptivism in shaping language history and society. It reflects the dynamics of the field with stimulating insights and avenues for deeper inquiry.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Language Prescription edited by Don Chapman and Jacob D. Rawlins.

10 Tips for Teaching and Using Multimodal Activities with Multilingual Writers

This month we are publishing Digital Multimodal Composing by Matt Kessler. In this post, the author gives us some advice for leveraging multimodal writing activities to teach multilingual students and learners of additional languages. 

With continued advancements in digital technologies, the practice of being a language teacher and a language learner has fundamentally changed. In particular, in both academic and professional settings, students are now expected to be able to produce digital genres such as social media posts, slideshow presentations, infographics, portfolios, digital posters, and more. Notably, such digital genres require the use of multiple modes beyond text, including the purposeful use of images, colors, graphs, and audio. To better prepare students to succeed in this digitized world, here are 10 tips teachers might consider for leveraging multimodal writing activities with both language learners and multilingual students:

1. Be aware that multimodality – which refers to the simultaneous use of multiple meaning-making resources such as text, images, sound, and gestures – is an important and common practice in today’s world.
2. Don’t avoid multimodal activities in your classroom by focusing only on traditional literacy skills such as reading and writing.
3. Recognize that pushing students to develop multiliteracy skills is not only crucial for their future success, but also for their current success.
4. View multimodal activities as a means of translanguaging, or the systematic use of two or more languages so that students can both understand and be understood.
5. Learn what your students’ needs are in terms of the digital genres that they will need to produce in the future.
6. Consider teaching those genres that many students will likely encounter such as slideshow presentations, infographics, and digital posters.
7. Take the time to train your students on how to use the tools or platforms they will need in order to successfully complete the activity.
8. Set clear expectations about the specific modes (e.g. text, images) that students need to use when creating their assignments.
9. Experiment with different activities, and consider implementing those activities in-class, out-of-class, or a combination of the two to meet your needs and the time you have available.
10. Help spur students’ motivation to invest in the activity and to perform well by making their final work publicly available (e.g. a blog available to the broader public).

Matt Kessler, University of South Florida

kesslerm@usf.edu

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Multimodal Literacies in Young Emergent Bilinguals edited by Sally Brown and Ling Hao.

The Language Journey of Korean-English Bilingual Children

This month we published Korean-English Bilingualism in Early Childhood by Sunny K. Park-Johnson. In this post the author explains the importance of the longitudinal nature of the study.

When studying bilingual language development in early childhood, we often rely heavily on snapshots: these data come from just a day or two of their lives. Sometimes we see children in labs for a study, and then we never hear from them again. That is why a longitudinal study is so important. Following children’s language development across time gives us a perspective that is both expansive and specific, capturing moments in development that we sometimes miss in snapshots.

This book does just that. We get to see two-and-a-half years’ worth of data, observed monthly, that provides a rich picture of four Korean-English bilingual children’s language journey. The children in this book are acquiring both Korean and English during early childhood, a rich time of language development that has many nuances, small changes, and subtle shifts. And because the data is collected in the child’s home, we’re able to capture naturalistic, spontaneous language “in the wild”.

The longitudinal study is also important because it compares children to themselves over time. We know there is much individual variation between children; by observing children’s development longitudinally, the comparisons are within the child’s own self. This inherent consistency is immensely valuable when studying the picture of children’s language development.

The book takes readers through the development of morphology and syntax of Korean and English separately, then discusses code-switching and interplay between the two languages. Then, as an epilogue of sorts, there is a chapter that reports on an interview with two of the children, who are now young adults. It is a unique experience to hear from the very same participants a decade later as they reflect back on their bilingualism and language journey.

Perhaps most importantly, as a Korean-English bilingual myself, I was welcomed into the lives of these families: not just as a researcher, but as an extended family member. Thus, the book has an insight, context, and weight that goes beyond grammar; it is imbued with the responsibility and care of an insider that understands and loves the community. The value of those relationships cannot be understated.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Multimodal Communication in Young Multilingual Children by Jieun Kiaer.

Uplifting Indigenous Mexican Languages and Identities in Schools

We will soon be publishing Culturally Responsive Schooling for Indigenous Mexican Students by William Perez and Rafael Vásquez.  In this post the authors set the stage for their book and discuss its importance.

Last June, Griselda Zarate, a young Indigenous Mexican-origin student, spoke to Spanish-language television about the racial discrimination she and her sister faced while attending the Santa Rita Union School District in Central California USA. The racism that students like Griselda face often spreads by other Mexicans and manifests by language-shaming for the way Indigenous Mexicans speak. Popular culture ridicules Indigenous languages as dialects, holding unequal power relationships against Spanish and English. As a result of these aggressions, the school district passed a resolution to prohibit the disparaging terms “Oaxaquita/o” and “Indito” which translate to “little Oaxacan” and “little Indian” referring to the widely held belief that Indigenous people from Mexico’s Guerrero and Oaxaca states are racially inferior. The district will also establish the first Indigenous Mixtec after school program so that children can have access to learning their language.

California is considered the state with the largest concentration of Indigenous Mexicans. By one estimate, about 800,000 Oaxacans have settled in Southern California and are mostly Zapotec peoples. These communities come from diverse cultures and often speak at least one of the 68 Indigenous languages of Mexico. Despite their rich social, cultural, and linguistic practices, they face many challenges in healthcare, the labor force, education, and other institutions due to historically lived discrimination.

After decades of living among and working with Indigenous communities in Los Angeles, we decided to conduct a study in Southern California with over 150 Indigenous youth from three groups: Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and P’urhépechas. We wanted to find out what happens to Indigenous students who attend schools but largely go unnoticed, or when noticed, face scrutinization. In our book, Culturally Responsive Schooling for Indigenous Mexican Students, we ask: how do Indigenous students experience school, given the traumas many have faced in Mexico for being labeled Indigenous, for speaking Spanish ‘with an accent’ due to the ‘inhibiting’ Indigenous ‘dialects’ they speak, or for coming from ‘underdeveloped’ communities and where society regards them as intellectually ‘inferior’? And how can schools be responsive and address the need to leverage Indigenous students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds to make meaningful connections to their schooling experiences so they can achieve equitable educational opportunities?

To answer these questions, we looked at students’ multilingualism from the perspective that languages interact with each other and the places they are spoken. Since many Indigenous youth experience language across and in between borders, we introduce a transcultural and translingual approach to illustrate the dynamic and intersectional processes that Indigenous youth engage to construct their identities and linguistic practices in social and educational settings. We emphasize adolescents’ agency in actively negotiating and constructing their identities and the influence of their non-Indigenous Mexican peers and teachers. Despite the verbal abuse youth face, the development of transcultural practices often serves to reinvigorate a sense of who they are and creates strategies to actively debunk anti-Indigenous beliefs. Therefore, the book intends to inform supportive environments that affirm Indigenous identities and languages, foster critical consciousness, and value the transnational experiences of Indigenous Mexican youth.

Studying Indigenous educational experiences and the critical issues these students face is significant to developing innovative approaches in Latinx cultural and linguistic heterogeneity and intra-group ethnic/racial relations. Educational researchers and policymakers will find the book of tremendous value, as it is the first book to our knowledge that examines the academic pathways and identities of Indigenous Mexican students. The findings of this study have the potential to inform local, state, and national policies affecting Indigenous migrant students. Adolescent development scholars will also find the book useful since few studies have been done examining migrant Indigenous youth identity development. We hope that our book contributes to education justice initiatives so that Indigenous students are invisible no more.

Please let us know your thoughts.  We’d like to hear from you.

Rafael Vásquez (rafael.vasquez@cgu.edu) and William Perez (william.perez@lmu.edu)

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Overcoming the Gentrification of Dual Language, Bilingual and Immersion Education edited by M. Garrett Delavan, Juan A. Freire and Kate Menken.

Language Use in a Multilingual Workplace

This month we published Domestic Workers Talk by Kellie Gonçalves and Anne Ambler Schluter. In this post the authors introduce the book and explain what inspired it. 

This study of Shine (a multilingual cleaning company) was inspired by the dearth of sociolinguistic work carried out in domestic labor contexts and blue-collar workplaces more generally. As Kellie had close familial ties to Magda, Shine’s owner, we were able to gain access to all employees (migrant women who speak Portuguese and Spanish) and several of Shine’s Anglophone clients who reside in an upper-class suburb of New York City. As such, we were able to talk to the company owner (Magda), all of her employees and several clients in order to better understand how communication is achieved in a small private business where European Portuguese serves as the company internal language despite the company’s geographical location in the US, where English is the dominant language.

Our study had a strong ethnographic component to it meaning that we were also able to observe how the company hierarchy was structured and how daily business was carried out. As both Kellie and Anne are speakers of English, Portuguese and Spanish (at different levels), we were able to witness first-hand how different languages and different language varieties were valued, mixed, and used among domestic workers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

At the same time, we were also able to observe the diverse, creative linguistic and embodied resources drawn on to facilitate communication among domestic workers and their Anglophone clients. Because Magda, the company owner, is a multilingual speaker, she often facilitated communication between her employees and clients thus serving as the main language broker of the company. This fact coupled with domestic workers’ ability to use both Portuguese and Spanish in Newark, NJ (where many domestic workers reside) diminished most domestic workers’ need and even motivation to learn English while simultaneously allowing Magda to control and micro-manage communication between her employees and clients. English was therefore not a prerequisite for employment at Shine.

Due to Magda’s professional background in finance, as well as her managerial and multilingual skills, we also investigated the complex power relations among her, her migrant female employees as well as her Anglophone clients. While we found Magda’s managerial style to be very direct and authoritative, she also had a very soft side to her with regard to both her employees and clients resulting in little turnover of her staff and a high demand for Shine’s cleaning services.

Overall, the book traces the story of Magda as a migrant domestic worker herself, who left Brazil in the 1970s to work as a live-in nanny for an upper-class Brazilian family in New Jersey up until the establishment of Shine in the mid 1980s. We collected data for this project beginning in 2011 until shortly before the book was published in order to provide readers with an accurate and up to date account of how Shine was created and successfully run until Magda’s retirement in 2019 shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic.

We believe our study adds to the growing body of research on language and domestic work by taking embodied sociolinguistics, posthumanism and emotional intelligence into account while simultaneously maintaining a critical perspective on multilingualism, the feminine gendered nature of domestic work as well as the inherent power relations between majority and minority language speakers, where issues of class, gender and citizenship prevail.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Exploring (Im)mobilities edited by Anna De Fina and Gerardo Mazzaferro.

Negotiating Identities, Language and Migration in Global London

This month we published Negotiating Identities, Language and Migration in Global London edited by Cangbai Wang and Terry Lamb. In this post the editors reveal what readers can expect from the book.

London as a global city has been a ‘contact zone’ of multiple flows of people, cultures and ideas from around the world. While there are numerous studies of individual migrant communities in London and the UK, surprisingly, so far very few have investigated the nexus between mobility, cities and languages in London across different migrant groups. This edited volume is an attempt to address this gap by bringing together contextualised and cutting-edge research on a wide range of London-based migrant communities. It seeks to bridge segregated research into migrant groups, stimulate intellectual dialogues between academic and migrant communities, and lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary and comparative research into migrants in London and beyond.

The publication is the result of the collective efforts of HOMELandS (Hub on Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces), an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Westminster. Located in central London and with many of its members coming from different countries and being migrants themselves, since its launch in 2014, HOMELandS has dedicated itself to promoting theoretically informed, interdisciplinary-oriented and language-based research on migration and diaspora in the global context. As a superdiverse urban space and a ‘migration laboratory’, London has naturally become one of the major sites for HOMELandS research. Instead of treating the city as a static physical container or an abstract geographical location, we see it as an ongoing set of possibilities in which the city’s meanings and potential uses are negotiated and released by the activities of migrants as transnational urban dwellers. We pay particular attention to the creative agency of migrants who endeavour to reconfigure existing discursive categories and power relations and engage with the social and political (re)construction of place and identity. The book in a way defines who we are as a research centre and gives a glimpse of the future and potential of London-based research into migration and diaspora that we are doing and will continue to do.

Another distinctive feature, and contribution, of the book is its interdisciplinary ambition in unpacking the complex relations between migration, cities and languages. We use ‘languaging’ as the central concept to integrate relevant research on migrants in applied linguistics, performativity and critical heritage studies. We define ‘language’ in a broad and metaphorical sense, referring to various kinds of material and immaterial practices that give voices to individuals and communities, enabling them to hear and be heard, and to communicate. Three distinctive ‘language spaces’ are identified and used to structure the book. The first one is ‘metrolingual space’ where people engage creatively with cultural translation to represent identities and values; the second one is ‘performative space’ where people of migrant background resort to various art forms to articulate a sense of being and belonging and to search for empowerment; the third one is ‘heritagisation space’ where the diasporic past is remembered, treasured and transmitted to the public and to the next generation, not only through the medium of words but also the silent ‘talking’ of objects. These three ‘language spaces’ are by no means static and mutually exclusive. Rather, they interact with each other in generating valuable opportunities for identity negotiation and opening up new spaces for the future through the very act of languaging.

This book makes a compelling case for mutual constitutiveness of migrants and cities –the city is not external to the identities and belongings of migrants in the same way as migrants are not external to the fabric and the ethos of the city. Migrants and cities produce and reproduce each other through multiple forms of everyday and ongoing negotiations in the intersection of the global and the local. In addition, we hope the publication of this book could further promote ‘language-based’ or ‘language-sensitive’ research as a tool for data collection and ethnographic fieldwork, which is crucial for generating fresh and in-depth insights into the issues of identities, belonging and inclusion that bear broad implications for the studies of migration and societies in post-Brexit Britain and beyond.

Cangbai Wang

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Exploring (Im)mobilities edited by Anna De Fina and Gerardo Mazzaferro.

How can Transcultural Pedagogies Support Learning in Superdiverse Classrooms?

This month we published Transcultural Pedagogies for Multilingual Classrooms edited by Rahat Zaidi, Umit Boz and Eve Moreau. In this post Eve discusses how critical multilingual and transcultural pedagogies are used to address the superdiversity in classrooms today.

Teaching in superdiverse classrooms might be trumpeted as one of the great educational challenges of our times. How students straddle distinct cultural and linguistic worlds to make meaning of curricular content has never been more intricate and complex. With technological innovations and the rapid emergence of accessible media content, teachers and learners can, in a sheer instant, connect with people and places who are far beyond the local providing them with a scope of the world that is unlike anything that has existed in education before. And yet, in our current social climate, the divisions that are constructed along stiff identity markers are reinforcing beliefs about separateness among people and fueling discriminatory and violent behaviors in schools and beyond. New ways to address interconnectedness amongst students’ complex networks of difference has become imperative.

Transcultural Pedagogies for Multilingual Classrooms: Responding to Changing Realities in Theory and Practice is a timely, cutting-edge collection of research studies from across the globe from some of the top scholars in multilingual and transcultural education. It explores the ways in which transcultural pedagogies can support learning and literacies in critical, creative and socially just ways. By exploring the value of affirming cultural and linguistic fluidity in classroom teaching, the researchers describe hopeful practices that harness the diversities of students as a rich resource for learning and interrelating.

Each chapter provides a different and innovative perspective with respect to reimagining language and literacy pedagogies in conjunction with students’ diverse literacies and resources. Presenting a collection of classroom and community-based research, the book addresses the intersections of plurilingualism, identity and transcultural awareness in various contexts, including schools, universities, as well as local and Indigenous communities. These settings have been deliberately chosen to profile the range of research in the field, showcasing transcultural, plurilingual, translanguaging and community-engaged pedagogies, among others.

Eve Moreau

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Languaging Myths and Realities by Qianqian Zhang-Wu.

How Can We Meet the Language Learning Needs of Refugees?

We will soon be publishing Meeting the Needs of Reunited Refugee Families by Sarah Cox. In this post Sarah introduces her book.

This book explores the gap between policy, practice and academic literature within language learning for refugees. Both policy and academic literature recognise the benefits of multilingual approaches to language learning, however language classes are often based on monolingual pedagogies which centre on the need to use the target language as much as possible.

The book explores the language learning needs of a small group of refugee women and their children who had recently arrived in Scotland through family reunion. The book is based on a 5-month teaching study, using critical participatory action research to develop a multilingual approach, which combined translanguaging principles (where people use all their linguistic resources to learn) with decolonising methodology. The book is set within the context of arrival in the host community which is often a period of disorientation and profound change.

To draw the recommendations for multilingual approaches into teaching practice, rather than teaching and researching solely in English, I became a learner of the participants’ languages (Tigrinya, Tamil, Farsi and Arabic) to explore how teachers and researchers might use a multilingual approach even when they don’t speak the same languages as their learners/research participants. The translanguaging ‘stance’ we adopted meant embracing an openness to other languages and using them as much as possible in the research. In the book I talk about how this approach can be part of ‘linguistic hospitality’ which complements the principle of two-way, mutual integration laid out in Scotland’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

The book centres on three key findings:

1. The first is that decolonial, collaborative learner/teacher relationships bring particular benefits in terms of empowerment and confidence-building for refugee women during the initial stages of refugee arrival. These relationships were enhanced by the shift of power created by the teacher participating as a learner and by researching and teaching multilingually.
2. The second is the importance of the physical environment and the connections people have with their new physical surroundings as they develop a sense of belonging. In the book I draw on ecological approaches to language education and human geography to illustrate language learning as orientation to a new physical environment in a human and embodied way.
3. Thirdly I explore the ‘languaging’ within ‘translanguaging’ as a two-way dialogical process which valorises the full linguistic repertoire and encourages learners and teachers to draw on all their linguistic resources to learn. I consider ways that learners’ home languages can be harnessed in the classroom and detail our experiences of using translanguaging pedagogy. We found multilingual strategies brought particular benefits at the very beginning of learning English so soon after arrival.

The book illustrates how policy, practice and theory might be brought closer together as part of a decolonial approach to language teaching that shifts the balance of power in the classroom, repositions the roles of teacher / researcher and learner / participant and addresses inequality between languages by reducing the dominance of English. The themes of mutual integration and language learning as solidarity are at the heart of the book.

I hope the book will be relevant for anyone interested in ESOL, refugee integration, language teaching, language policy or researching multilingually.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Decolonising Multilingualism by Alison Phipps.

Supporting Increasingly Diverse Student Populations in Schools

We recently published Centering Multilingual Learners and Countering Raciolinguistic Ideologies in Teacher Education by Jeff Bale, Shakina Rajendram, Katie Brubacher, Mama Adobea Nii Owoo, Jennifer Burton, Wales Wong, Yiran Zhang, Elizabeth Jean Larson, Antoinette Gagné and Julie Kerekes. In this post Jeff explains how the book contributes to the field of teacher education and multilingualism. 

“I feel like you’re judging…I don’t know if judging is the right word, but you’re marking somebody on the way they speak. Then, if you hear another person in a different situation, who’s not an English language learner, you might find the same things…[but] then they’re not marked or judged differently…It feels like you have to jump like an extra hoop, like through an extra hoop, you know, constantly.”

Luciana, a multilingual future teacher of math for Grades 4-10, expressed these concerns about assessing English learners in an interview with our research team. Luciana was referring to the English-language assessment tool used in Ontario, and the activities she had been asked to complete with this tool in a required seminar called “Supporting English Language Learners” in the teacher-education program at OISE, University of Toronto. Throughout the conversation, Luciana reflected on her own experiences of constantly having to prove her proficiency in English (as a student in Mexico, where she grew up; to attend university; to get permanent residency in Canada). These experiences led Luciana to question the purpose of assessing English learners, whether it had anything to do with actual language practices, or if the goal were rather to mark certain learners, to make them “jump through an extra hoop, you know, constantly.”

Luciana’s concerns provide powerful examples of what Daniels and Varghese (2019) theorized as white institutional listening, namely how teacher-education programs normalize the raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa & Flores, 2017) about Whiteness and standardized English that dominate in Canadian schools. In our book, we analyze how teacher candidates – especially those like Luciana who speak languages racialized in Canada – make sense of new knowledge about supporting multilingual learners in relation to this racial and linguistic ordering. We traced the dynamic shifts in thinking and practice as participants drew on their personal, professional and academic experiences to interpret what it means to work with multilingual students in the classroom.

Our book makes three important contributions to the growing scholarship on teacher education and multilingualism. The first is its analytical scope. At times, we zoom in on interviews with teacher candidates or the major assignments (e.g. lesson plans) they created for the required seminar mentioned earlier. We also provide close analysis of their learning based on Me Map videos we co-created with multilingual youth, in which youth told us about themselves, their friends and family, their ambitions in school, and their languages and cultures. Other times, we consider the 500+ responses we received from teacher candidates in our program on a pedagogical content-knowledge test about supporting multilingual learners. Complementing this broader perspective are interviews with ESL teachers and teacher-leaders, as well as teacher educators in Ontario’s other pre-service programs. Finally, we situate these various levels of analysis within a reading of the policies that govern teacher education in this province. The breadth of this research design allowed us to identify clear connections between different levels of policy appropriation: the policies themselves, teacher-education curriculum, course design, and the lived experiences of multilingual youth, teacher candidates, and teacher educators.

Second, our book identifies the siloed divisions in scholarship of language, race/racism and teacher education. Few applied-linguistic studies of multilingualism and teacher education frame their inquiry in relation to race/racism or (de-)colonization, although this is starting to change. Similarly, critical anti-racist and decolonial scholarship on teacher education only rarely considers multilingualism or language education. In the book, we reflect on how these disciplinary divisions impacted our own study. We describe the shifts in our own thinking and offer them as an example of teacher-education research that takes the relationship between language and race/racism seriously.

Finally, our book makes an important intervention about the ethics of publishing research. There is growing interest in the ethics of doing applied-linguistic research (e.g. de Costa 2016; Pinter & Kuchah, 2021). But how scholars disseminate our work in ethical ways is not often considered. Ours was a complicated study. We were lucky to have a talented group of doctoral-student researchers on the project for almost its entirety. Far from just ‘carrying out’ the work that I as PI, or Antoinette and Julie as co-PIs had conceived, the entire team was responsible for designing, conducting and analyzing the data. The only ethical choice for us was to honour this collective work and share in the writing of this book. It made the writing process a bit more complicated with 10 co-authors! But we think the result is more robust and interesting. We hope you agree.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Antisocial Language Teaching by JPB Gerald.