Learning and Teaching of English in the Multilingual Classroom: English Teachers’ Perspectives, Practices, and Purposes

In many educational settings, the number of multilingual students is currently rising (Singleton and Aronin 2018). This increase has led to the investigation of multilingual education models (Hobbs 2012) to provide equal access to education, create opportunities for success, and improve educational outcomes for multilingual students. In response to such demands, national curricula across the globe have been revised, underlining the need for students to draw on their previous linguistic and cultural knowledge as valuable resources for learning. For instance, the core curriculum in Norway (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2020) includes multilingualism as one of its four core elements. Moreover, it considers the existing linguistic repertoires of the learners as an integrated set of beneficial resources for language learning. Similarly, India’s national curriculum framework (NCERT 2005) acknowledges the value of multilingualism and recommends recognizing the students’ linguistic repertoires as a resource. Likewise, the Finnish core curriculum stresses the importance of activating learners’ whole linguistic repertoires as crucial in promoting multilingualism (Alisaari et al. 2019).

As linguistic diversity and multilingualism are on the rise around the globe, English language classrooms are becoming linguistic third spaces (Gutiérrez et al. 2000) where multilingual learners and teachers interact. For learners, adding another language to their linguistic repertoires entails activating their existing linguistic resources, engaging in performative competence (Canagarajah 2013), and undergoing shifts in linguistic identity (Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004). Teachers, on the other hand, are increasingly expected to implement pedagogical approaches that recognize diverse linguistic and cultural practices as valuable resources (Bonnet and Siemund 2018), engage learners’ whole language repertoires (Cenoz and Gorter 2014), promote additive multilingualism, and forge opportunities for meaningful and equal participation and language development for all students (Leung and Valdes 2019).

Schools are vital sites, and teachers impact the construction of student identities (Forbes et al. 2021). English as an additional language (EAL) teachers’ perspectives, practices, and purposes represent an effort towards more systematic pedagogical interventions that positively influence learners’ language learning trajectories and their investment in developing multilingual identities (Forbes et al. 2021). Research calls for implementing broader, more structured, and sustainable multilingual approaches in EAL classrooms. A prevailing assumption that students can deploy their metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness without reflection or intervention from teachers, instructors, or researchers (Forbes et al. 2021) further corroborates this need. Teachers must equip students with tools to draw on multilingualism and their multilingual identities as a resource in increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.

Yet, while researchers and academics warmly embrace the multilingual shift in language education, empirical findings suggest that teachers find it challenging to implement pedagogies that meet their diverse and multilingual learners’ needs (Alisaari et al. 2019; Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al. 2020). Recent research studies reported the lack of appropriate pedagogical training on optimizing language learners’ learning experiences in multilingual settings (Raud and Orehhova 2022). For instance, the fact that teachers have little to no knowledge about the wide spectrum of mother tongues encountered in multilingual classrooms often hinders the implementation of flexible language approaches, which creates a barrier to multilingual development. Teachers, however, are important agents of change, and a full transition to multilingually oriented teaching practices cannot be enacted without them. In the classroom, teachers often decide to what degree they want to implement existing language policies; as a result, their actions can either support or suppress the multilingual practices of their students (Hornberger and Johnson 2007).

This Special Issue compiles papers examining English teachers’ perspectives, practices, and purposes on the current challenges in linguistically diverse classrooms. The ten contributions are grouped into four thematic categories: (a) the first four articles study pre- and in-service teachers’ perspectives on key aspects revolving around multilingual teaching and learning in the EAL classroom (Erling et al. 2022; Hoppin et al. 2023; Neokleous et al. 2022; Tishakov and Tsagari 2022); (b) the next three focus on multilingual practices implemented in the classroom and their impact on promoting and enhancing students’ English language skills (Ibrahim 2022; Kopečková and Poarch 2022; Schipor 2022); (c) the following two articles investigate pre- and in-service teachers’ understanding of multilingualism and the factors that shape language teacher cognition (Christison 2023; Möller-Omrani and Sivertsen 2022); while (d) the last contribution focuses on teacher education policy documents and their coverage of linguistic diversity (Bonness et al. 2022). The subsequent sections summarize the ten articles.

The article by Erling et al. (2022) presents the results of a study with six secondary school teachers of English as a third or additional language that aimed to examine teacher perspectives of multilingual learners from migration backgrounds. The participants worked at schools in small towns with above-average numbers of multilingual students. The study identified some deficit perspectives, including labeling multilingual learners as semilingual in German and their heritage languages, underachieving, and having limited literacy skills. Moreover, the studied teachers perceived the requirement for these migration background students to learn English as a third or additional language as another burden. Nevertheless, some “pockets of possibilities” were also identified, and the findings suggest that the teachers may be open to a shift towards a translanguaging stance that values multilingual teaching practices.

In their contribution, Hoppin et al. (2023) discuss how the shift to remote instruction impacted teacher trainees preparing to work with multilingual learners. The authors draw on data from nine participants completing elective coursework in an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program at a university in the United States and their perspectives on how to provide continuous, high-quality English instruction for multilingual students who have already experienced substantial stress and educational disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article examines the teacher trainees’ experiences with technology-assisted learning, the challenges multilingual learners encountered, and the participants’ confidence in their ability to meet the new needs within this digital environment.

Neokleous et al. (2022) focus on Norwegian pre- and in-service teachers and these teachers’ views regarding the use of learners’ mother tongues to support the development of English skills and the impact of teacher education on these views. The authors identify three main themes in the data gathered from questionnaires and interviews. First, an overwhelming number of the participants stated that the use of the target language should be maximized, while the use of mother tongues should be minimized. Second, while most participants believed that their teacher education program contributed to shaping their views about best pedagogical practices, nearly half received no instruction about the use of mother tongues, and many who did were instructed to either maximize using the target language or minimize mother tongues. Finally, while many participants credited their formal education for shaping their pedagogical practices, others named further sources of knowledge and inspiration, such as their own experiences as learners and classroom teachers.

Tishakov and Tsagari (2022) conducted an online survey with English teachers in Norway to investigate their language beliefs and self-reported classroom practices and how demographic factors, such as age, gender, and education, shaped their language teacher cognition. They found that monolingual and multilingual ideologies appear to coexist, creating uncertainties and tension between beliefs and practices. Furthermore, the participating teachers reported difficulties overcoming monolingual language ideologies in their English language teaching practices, possibly due to their rootedness in teaching materials, policies, society, and experiences as learners and language teachers. The authors conclude that teacher beliefs appear to be in transition. Yet, more research on teacher cognition is needed, and pre- and in-service teacher education must provide space for teachers to reflect on multilingualism and try multilingual teaching practices.

Ibrahim (2022) reports on a project with pre-service English teachers that employed Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) to help participants engage with their multilingualism by creating DLC artifacts. This art-based approach allowed the pre-service teachers to creatively visualize their DLCs, reflect on multilingualism as dynamic and shifting, and re-examine and transform their identities as future teachers of multilingual learners. Ibrahim concludes that by participating in the hands-on task, the participants embarked on the self-identification process as multilingual individuals, which is the first step to embracing learners’ multilingualism as a resource for additional language learning and becoming open to adopting multilingual teaching practices. The paper offers practical suggestions on how teacher education programs can help decenter the monolingual bias in language education and help future teachers move towards multilingual ideologies.

Kopečková and Poarch’s (2022) work presents a step-by-step design and application of FREPA-based plurilingual activities for primary and secondary English learners. The authors developed these activities as part of an obligatory pre-service teacher seminar on learning and teaching English as an additional language at a German university. This contribution connects theoretical knowledge with practical applications and discusses the experiences and reflections of pre-service teachers involved in the creative process of developing teaching materials and testing them in a classroom setting. The authors underline the importance of going beyond theoretical input by applying newly acquired knowledge during teacher education in the English language classroom to experience how multilingual activities can be delivered and further improved.

Schipor’s (2022) study draws on data from a professional development project to enable teachers to work in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms. She zooms in on two primary school teachers with approximately 30 years of teaching experience in Norway. The professional development offered to the teachers included lectures and mentorship meetings for eight months. Overall, this study demonstrates how teachers can create their own multilingual activities and affirms that activating home languages alongside Norwegian and English can promote multilingualism in the classroom. Nevertheless, Schipor (2022) concludes that successfully implementing the multilingual practices learned during professional development requires more than passively attending lectures. Active teacher involvement and activity adaptation for specific groups of learners is necessary, in addition to further support, e.g., via professional development provided by higher-education institutions.

The paper by Christison (2023), also based on data collected from pre-service teachers, examines beliefs, self-efficacy, and emerging ideologies of pre-service teachers preparing to work in multilingual contexts dominated by structured English immersion. The findings suggest that participants experienced a certain degree of anxiety about their future teaching assignments, implementing appropriate teaching practices for multilingual learners, classroom management, and understanding the politics of public schools. Most participants identified as monolinguals and were concerned about their ability to teach multilingual learners alongside native English speakers in the same classroom. This paper contributes to the fundamental discussion about shaping teacher education programs to help pre-service teachers develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed for working with multilingual learners.

The contribution by Möller-Omrani and Sivertsen (2022) taps into the readiness of pre-service English teachers in Norway to support and foster multilingualism and life-long language learning in the EAL classroom. The authors administered a questionnaire with open-ended and closed items to investigate pre-service teachers’ understanding of multilingualism and their experiences and views on including languages other than English when teaching English. Most participants valued the impact of English in supporting the development of the students’ multilingualism and showed an openness to including strategies in their teaching that foster additional language learning. However, the authors also observed a concern among pre-service teachers that adopting multilingual teaching practices would reduce target language input. Nonetheless, the study acknowledges the participants’ generally positive attitudes and reflective awareness as promising and helpful starting points that license the necessity for teacher education programs to systematically implement multilingualism and pluralist teaching approaches.

Bonness et al.’s (2022) article examines ethnic and linguistic diversity in two classroom settings characterized by complex linguistic landscapes. Through a comparative analysis of two key teacher education policy documents in Norway and New Zealand, this paper investigates the incorporation of teacher language awareness in initial teacher education documents and how the examined documents converge and diverge in their treatment of language awareness. The objective is to contribute to the discussion on the composition of teacher language awareness and its place in policy documents guiding initial teacher education.

Acknowledging the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity and the need for stronger bridges between language, educational research, and pedagogical applications, this Special Issue is devoted to examining English teachers’ perspectives about multilingualism and teaching English in multilingual contexts, implemented or planned teaching practices, and the purposes teachers want to attain. The research presented in this Special Issue focuses on views of pre- and in-service teachers in a range of contexts. Overall, the findings suggest that teachers continue to experience tensions between monolingual and multilingual ideologies and need continued support in adapting to the ever-evolving teaching contexts. While researchers and philosophers of language have been calling for a multilingual shift in education, teacher education and professional development programs lag behind in revising their curricula. Therefore, due consideration must be given to the teachers; they are the agents of change, but they are also experts and professionals, and their views, knowledge, and pedagogical aims must be treated with respect. Many of the articles presented here illustrate that collaboration and mentorship between school and university partners can be fruitful, creative, and rewarding. We conclude this editorial with a call for more opportunities for teachers and researchers to work in tandem to implement multilingual pedagogies that foster equal educational opportunities for all learners across different ages and stages of language development.