Winner of the UKLA Academic Book Award 2024 This book challenges monoglossic ideologies, traditional language pedagogies and dominant forms of knowledge construction by foregrounding multilingual and multicultural students' language narratives, repertoires, and identities. The research is based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of a sociolinguistics course at an English language university and the language narratives produced by the first-year education students. The study was borne out of a need to create a critically inclusive course that would engage a cohort of students from socially and linguistically diverse backgrounds in contemporary South Africa. Drawing on data from over 5,000 students who have journeyed through this course, this book shows how a narrative heteroglossic pedagogy harnesses students' multilingual strengths. A close analysis reveals complex identity work by students located in the Global South. The authors argue that decolonising language education is about reconceptualising language, reconfiguring what knowledges are valued in the classroom, and reshaping pedagogy.

The book proposes a round the world exploration of the way our traditionally monolingual school systems are being challenged by students from diverse language backgrounds, forcing educationalists to question entrenched ideologies of language and challenging teachers in their everyday classrooms to rethink their relationships to language learning and the issue of diversity.

This book explores the ways in which transcultural pedagogies can support learning and literacies in critical, creative and socially just ways, highlighting research initiatives from across the globe. 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.

In this volume, the results of a number of empirical studies of the development of narrative construction within a multilingual context are presented and discussed. It is explored what operating principles underlie the process of narrative production in L1 and L2. Developmental relations between form and function will be studied across a broad range of functional categories, such as temporality, perspective, connectivity, and narrative coherence. Moreover, a variety of language contact situations is considered with broad variation in the typological distances between the languages in order to enable cross-linguistic comparison. The analysis of learner data in various cross-linguistic settings may thus offer new information on the role of the structural properties of unrelated languages on the process of narrative acquisition. In the present volume, an attempt is also made to find out how transfer from one language to the other is facilitated. Finally, the effects of input on narrative construction in children’s first and second language are examined in several studies.

Classrooms are increasingly multicultural in their social composition, and students are increasingly connected, through digital media, to local and global networks. However, pedagogy has failed to take full advantage of the opportunities these resources represent. Multilingual Digital Storytelling draws attention to the interfaces between learner engagement, creativity and critical digital literacy, as well as addressing the multilingual within the multiliteracies framework. Addressing a significant gap in the field of multiliteracies by focusing on multilingualism, this book explores new digital spaces for language learning and methods of extending understandings of youth literacy in an increasingly interconnected world. Drawing on innovative and multi-site research projects based in mainstream and community schools in London and overseas, this book discusses how young people become engaged creatively and critically with literacy by demonstrating how digital storytelling can be used as a tool for language development. The book begins by considering linguistic, cultural, cognitive and social dimensions of language learning from a theoretical perspective, whilst the second part focuses on practical case studies that reflect and illustrate these theoretical principles. Offering a powerful new perspective on multiliteracies pedagogy, Multilingual Digital Storytelling will appeal to researchers and academics in the fields of education, applied linguistics, sociology and youth and community studies. It will also be an invaluable resource for teachers, teacher educators, curriculum planners and policymakers.

Multilingual learners (MLs) students spend most of their school time with their teachers, who often feel professionally unprepared to meet their linguistically diverse students' needs. As such, preparing teachers for increasing numbers of multilingual learners (MLs) has become a critical factor in promoting equity and success for all students in our global society. This book explores and highlights the reflective narratives of teacher educators, in-service, and preservice teachers. It shows how these narratives are grounded in their personal lives, professional training, and daily teaching, and how they can unfold the complexities in their various experiences and the rich implications for MLs teaching and teacher preparation. The book presents papers that utilize teachers' reflective narratives to prepare and train teachers who are or will be working with MLs. It discusses the challenges and implications of teaching groups of MLs made up of diverse learners, including immigrants, refugees, and learners with disabilities. 'This book seeks to change the narrative of some of our most vulnerable student populations by giving voice to the experiences, challenges, success, and best practices encountered in the international education landscape. The power contained within each chapter is the systematic and intentional reflections that bring the marginalized stories to the center of the discussion. Anyone seeking an understanding of how reflective narrative can build equity and social justice for multilingual learners will appreciate the breadth of experience described. This understanding is critical for culturally and linguistically diverse teaching and learning.' Jordan González, Ph.D., St. John's University, NY