Innovation in Language Learning

A number of scholars have touted the advantages granted to language learners when the learning environment gives them the opportunity to draw on all their linguistic resources as appropriate (as opposed to confining them to one “target” linguistic code). Additive multilingualism and translingualism are two approaches that seek to mitigate or reverse the harms of a strictly monolingual language education, particularly in second language writing classrooms. However, many classroom teachers find it difficult to employ these approaches meaningfully in the classroom.
The authors have both taught college composition courses dedicated to multilingual students, and the goal of this project is to illustrate some of the ideological and practical obstacles to teaching a multilingual or translingual writing course at a university where one language (English) dominates. A variety of artifacts from both the classroom (e.g. syllabi, assignment prompts, instructor feedback, etc.) and from the institution (e.g. language policies, mission statements, course requirements, etc.) will be analyzed and based on these analyses, practical suggestions will be made as to how teachers may move further away from a monolingual standard.

Keywords: Translingualism, multilingualism, monolingualism, second-language writing, higher education;