Christina Cole

Although recent calls have been made for a plurilingual shift in language learning, particularly in countries with linguistically and culturally diverse populations, teachers are still unsure about how to apply plurilingualism in the classroom. There remains a paucity of studies investigating the disconnect between the theory and implementation of the plurilingual shift. This quasi-experimental study addressed these challenges by implementing plurilingual instruction in one English language program in a Canadian university and examining teachers' perceptions of this type of instruction compared to English-only. Seven teachers, all co-researchers of the study, taught two groups of students with different approaches: One group received plurilingual instruction, and the other group received English-only instruction. A deductive analysis of semistructured interviews with the teachers and an inductive analysis of classroom observations were conducted. Results show several affordances of plurilingual instruction , such as engaging students in language learning, advancing agentive power, and developing a safe space. Moreover, although none of the teachers had received training in plurilingualism, they unanimously reported preference for plurilingual instruction. Challenges resulted mainly from teachers' history with the English-only teaching tradition. This study is significant because it pioneered research aiming to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of plurilingualism, contributing pedagogical directions in TESOL.

Technology use in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes is seen as a strategy to support pedagogical innovation and intensifying growth in post-secondary international student enrolments. This article discusses government-funded research documenting the largely undefined use of technologies in post-secondary North American EAP programmes. This study surveyed EAP teachers and administrators in over 40 universities and colleges across North America using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Site visits involving classroom observations, interviews with teachers and administrators, student focus groups and student surveys were then conducted to deepen understanding of the affordances of technology-mediated EAP approaches from stakeholder perspectives in situated post-secondary contexts. Findings reveal widespread enthusiasm about emerging technologies to engage learners, develop autonomous learning, instructional pathways and transferable 21st century skills. However, despi...

Previous literature on higher education suggests the inclusion of pedagogy that is linguistically and culturally inclusive in settings with increasing multilingualism, which is the case in Canada. Yet, little is known as to how the implementation of such pedagogy can take place, particularly in language programs. This article reports a researcher-instructor collaboration that aimed at implementing plurilingual practices, such as translanguaging, plurilingual identity, comparons nos langues, and intercomprehension over 4 months in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program at a university in Toronto, Canada. Seven EAP instructors collaborated with a researcher to implement weekly plurilingual tasks: They conducted an environment analysis, examined the logistics of implementation, and collaboratively examined the tasks. The article presents the process of implementation of the plurilingual tasks and proposes a framework for collaboration with four key elements: administrative supp...

Perception problems arise because speech is fast and transient; utterances are spoken quickly, and they disappear. We don’t pause to separate speech into distinct words; instead it comes out as a stream of sound. Also, words don’t usually sound the way they look in writing. Thus, even if our learners are familiar with the printed form of a word they may not recognize its pronunciation, particularly in connected speech. It is also difficult to predict the content of speech and guessing from context is highly over-rated (Douglas, 2013).