Perspectives Impact On Multilingualism

Cambridge Assessment English
Perspectives
The Impact of
Multilingualism on
Global Education
and Language
Learning
Dr Lid King
The Languages Company
Executive summary
We live in a multilingual world. English serves as the lingua franca for education, trade and employment, and is
an essential skill for anyone wanting to succeed professionally or academically in the 21st century. English offers
enormous opportunities, and language policy rightly focuses on how to give more equitable access to high levels
of English language proficiency so that these opportunities can be inclusive rather than exclusive, open to all socio-
economic groups. But English is not enough.
Properly managed language policy can help to ensure that English can be taught effectively and incorporated into
society without having a negative effect on the first language, culture and local identity of the learners of English.
An understanding of English and multilingualism is especially important in an age of increased and rapidly growing
international migration. People migrate for many reasons – escaping oppression and war, searching for better
opportunities – but it is clear that the languages that they have access to or aspire to use can greatly influence the
pattern of migration and the success with which migrants are able to integrate and contribute to their host societies.
This underlines the need for a language policy worldwide which provides people with the languages and the language
skills that they need both at home and in future global destinations.
Education should provide a varied language repertoire and an understanding of which languages we should learn
for what purpose. This suggests a language policy that improves the quality of curriculum, teaching, and learning in
state education, as well as a policy that helps to position the role of the multiple languages in a more positive and
protected context.
The reality of the multilingual and multicultural society is that languages overlap and collide. The work on
translanguaging and code-switching demonstrates the often messy practice in our multilingual families, schools and
cities. From this lived experience we need to learn how to prepare people with the language skills they need for a
multilingual society, and how to train people to develop the necessary sensitivity towards the cultural and linguistic
needs of their fellow citizens.
The role of compulsory education is critical and we need a language education policy which both respects mother
tongue heritage and also prepares young people for a globalised world with English as a lingua franca. This has
implications for teacher education and curriculum design for state education at both primary and secondary level,
and it is clear that more research is needed to discover how to accelerate the development of high-level language
proficiency in young people, perhaps with new pedagogical models that avoid the low spoken proficiency outcomes of
many current foreign language programmes.
2 The Impact of Multilingualism on Global Education and Language Learning | © UCLES 2018
Contents
Foreward 4
Context 5
Section I: Multilingualism and plurilingualism 8
Section II: The multilingual landscape 10
Section III: The role of English 14
Section IV: Trends and issues in multilingual education 20
Section V: Recommendations for national systemic change 32
References 40
Some key reading 43
The Impact of Multilingualism on Global Education and Language Learning | © UCLES 2018 3
Foreward
Foreward
In this paper, Lid King gives us an overview of multilingualism in 21st century society and education and argues that
it is a positive phenomenon which needs to be encouraged and supported. By setting multilingualism in a historical
context, he reminds us that the challenges it poses are neither new nor insuperable.
The world has always been multilingual, and the ways that we develop language learning and teaching success must
take the multilingual realities of the world into account. We believe that English alone is not enough.
Multilingualism has always been the default context for human beings. Children in most parts of the world grow up with
two or more languages available to them, and increasingly young people in their studies and work move to locations
where other languages than their mother tongue are the norm, and they must learn to be bilingual or multilingual.
Business, employment and scholarship are increasingly global and multilingual, and citizens of the 21st century need
a new range of skills and strategies – like code-switching and translanguaging – to supplement their core language
learning skills.
In this paper we look at the definition and contexts of multilingualism, how this impacts education and language
learning, and how we can engage with the interaction between the prevalence of English language use and the
multilingual reality most of us find ourselves in.
We look at the need for changes in governmental policy and in educational approaches to cope with the new type of
multilingual cities that attract people from countries around the world.
Above all, we look forward to new ways to apply these ideas to the future of language learning, teaching and
assessment, to provide better learning outcomes for all students of all languages.
Lid’s paper is a stimulating overview of a topic which is of vital importance for society and it provides us with a timely
call to action. Cambridge Assessment English is delighted to publish this paper as a contribution to discussion of
multilingualism in policy and practice.
Dr Nick Saville
Director, Research & Thought Leadership
Cambridge Assessment English Language Assessment
Context
Context
We live in an ever more complex globalised world. This globalisation has a paradoxical effect on our lives. On the one
hand it increases conformity through the power of the market (products, tastes, culture); on the other it leads to ever
greater diversity (assertions of local and regional identities, social and cultural conflicts).
One striking feature of globalisation is the impact of multilingualism, and the related phenomenon of multiculturalism.
Very few contemporary societies can be considered homogenous; they are increasingly diverse, whether in the
languages spoken or in the ways that people live and express themselves (their cultures).
Multilingualism – the normal human condition. ‘Speaking two or more languages is the natural way of life for
three-quarters of the human race. [This] principle … has been obscured in parts of Europe as a consequence
of colonial history. We urgently need to reassert it, and to implement it in practical ways, for, in the modern
world, monolingualism is not a strength but a handicap.’ (David Crystal 2006:409)
In one sense, it might be thought that linguistic diversity is in decline. Some languages are dying out, some are spoken
by smaller numbers of people, and there are linguists who believe that the rise of English is accelerating this trend.
Despite this, however, one estimate suggests that there are still over 7,000 distinct languages spoken by substantial
populations as first or mother tongues, and many more countries than is commonly known need to operate in multiple
languages. At the same time, the rise in identity politics across the world appears to be supporting a renewed sense of
confidence in and wish to maintain local, regional and national languages.
On being Welsh ‘To be Welsh is an experience. To both be and speak Welsh is a related, more robust experience.
Each time we erase one of those options from the world of human experience, we lose an incomprehensibly
complex realm of knowledge. We lose a way of thinking about the world. We lose a way of being in our world.
For to live with a language is to live as part of an organic, long-developed tradition and identity.’ (Conor
Williams 2015)
Multiculturalism is less easy to define and can be a controversial term. If, though, we understand culture in a broad
sense as the way that people live their daily lives (the food they eat, the way they dress, their preferred entertainment)
and also the way that they see the world, we can say that different cultures coexist but also that cultures become
increasingly mixed. Language is an important aspect of this culture – especially as it determines identity. But language
and culture are not always identical.
Although these phenomena have existed since ancient times they are given greater focus by some of the key
characteristics of this globalised world.
Context
The new economy and new forms of communication

There is a direct link between the way we communicate today and the new economy of this globalised world.
According to Manuel Castells (2000), this economy has three salient features
• new economic processes which generate information
• economic production which takes on a global scale of organisation, (lowering national boundaries and eroding
the exclusive control of national economies)
• competition which is organised in networks that are themselves located globally.
These factors, which have certainly intensified and developed in ways not even imagined in the last decade, are
having a major impact on the way we communicate, and thus on language, making possible a major change in what
has always been assumed about ‘community’ and ‘communication’. Communication becomes both local (often
multilingual) and global (instantaneous and standardised). Local communication and global interaction ‘These new
economic processes allocate decision-making responsibilities to more local zones of production. This in turn
requires local communication and discussion and involvement. Local literacy and communication is needed to
produce effective coordinated actions across large economic enterprises. In growing numbers of multilingual
workplaces this necessitates multilingual communication. The new economy involves consistent interactions
across geographical locations. These exchanges and interactions are inconceivable without an instantaneous
and effective process for communication and standardised forms for coding and receiving information.’
(Castells 2000)
New technologies – electronically mediated communication

The technologies to facilitate communication further facilitate the globalisation of economies and communication.
Local sites are linked in networks, which need to agree on how to organise, talk and distribute functionally different
languages, and at the same time local sites are themselves multilingual as a result of migration. The potential of
technologies to transcend physical distance, also gives rise to the whole question of the distribution of language(s).
This was the case within the national state, with its defined territory over which a single standardised language would
prevail, but now this spatial distribution can be across national borders (between sites, universities and cities for
example) and the mode of operation is increasingly multi- rather than monolingual.
The most striking manifestation of this communication shift is in the development of electronically mediated
communication (EMC), most obviously but not exclusively the Internet. The phenomenal speed (and unpredictability)
of this change over the last 20 years has been vividly illustrated by many observers.
Electronic communication takes over the airwaves ‘In 1990 there was no World Wide Web; that arrived in
1991… Most people did not send their first e mail until the mid-90s. Google arrived in 1999. Mobile phones
(and)… text messaging at about the same time… Blogging as a genre did not take off until the early 2000s.
Instant messaging is another development of the early 2000s, soon to be followed by social networking
around 2003–5… In 2006 we encounter Twitter..… ‘If someone had said to me in 2005, that the next EMC
development was going to be a system where you were given an online prompt, ‘What are you doing?’ and a
limit of 140 characters for your reply, I would have written them off as deluded.’ (David Crystal 2010: 26)
It is not surprising that educational policy and social policy have lagged behind these unprecedented developments in
the practice of global communication. The traditional model for developing policy based on evidence of some kind and
seeking to reach defined and agreed goals is disrupted by the unpredictability of EMC. There is probably also an age
factor – EMC is the world of the young in particular, which is generally not the case for policy development.
Context
New mobility
In the new economy not only does technology enable networking across distance but the populations in each locality
are increasingly diverse. The flows of population and their impact are greater, and also the types of movement in terms
of gender, status, age and professional category are different from what has been historically the case. Although current
migrations can be seen as the continuation of a historical trend of population movement from the country to the city,
they also differ significantly in that they are global – multicultural, multilingual – and on an unprecedented scale. Also
different are the directions of movement, so that nations whose recent image is of emigration now are solidly nations of
immigration. Ireland and Italy are classic cases of this, but there are many others. (Castles and Miller, 2009)
So while the vast movements of people are highly differentiated, there are some common tendencies, affecting
virtually all parts of the globe. In particular, this movement is taking place at an accelerating rate, and it involves many
different kinds of population transfer (in terms of timing, motivations, legal status for example). This was the case even
before the current mass migrations from the Middle East and Africa.
The fifth-largest country ‘Over the past 15 years, the number of people crossing borders … has been rising
steadily. At the start of the 21st century, one in every 35 people is an international migrant. If they all lived in
the same place, it would be the world’s fifth-largest country.’ (BBC News Online 2009)
Migration also has a significant impact on general policy – both the idea of migration as well as its rate and numbers
provoke political responses, from planning and integration policies to rejection and hostility. This has become a major
challenge in Europe since 2012, but it is not limited to Europe.
Thus while the period of the consolidation of nation states involved making internal cultural patterns homogenous,
the combined effects of the Age of Migration with the Information Age, both motivated by the new economy, have
produced more communication-rich workplaces and communities, linked across multilingual spaces and themselves more
communication-dependent and multilingual. These changes are having a major impact on societies more generally.
The emergence of English as a lingua franca

If the new economy enables the proliferation of multilingual communication, it also greatly encourages and is in turn
facilitated by the development of a lingua franca. Most observers now agree that English has effectively become that
lingua franca and that its scale and influence is unprecedented in world history. There is of course debate about why
this has happened and about the extent to which this is to the detriment of other languages.
Without stepping far into that particular discussion, the reality of English as a lingua franca must be confronted today.
This reality is shown most clearly by the language choices being made worldwide.
Current economic and social realities

These ‘globalisation factors’ represent long-term shifts in the economy and in society and their impact on language policy
may as yet only imperfectly understood. There are also other important factors – it is to be hoped more short term –
which cannot be ignored. Of particular significance has been the economic downturn since 2008. The effect of this has
been at one level to reduce public support for various kinds of policy intervention, for example policies on Diversity and
Multilingualism, as those responsible for public finances will not necessarily see the point of funding such development.
At a deeper level, such economic pressures also impact on the social fabric, and this is likely to exacerbate the tensions
inherent in the longer-term social and cultural changes associated with the new economy. Mobility in particular – and
more specifically immigration – is becoming a major area of political controversy. Many previously accepted liberal
consensual views about multiculturalism and the role of the state in promoting inclusivity are being called into
question. Multilingualism and multiculturalism have become hot topics.
Section I: Multilingualism and plurilingualism

Definitions of ‘multilingualism’ can be tricky. The term can be applied to people who have competences in a number
of languages or to places where many languages are used. It is probably helpful, therefore, to use the Council of
Europe’s distinction between multilingualism as the characteristics of a place – city, society, nation state – where
many languages are spoken, and plurilingualism as the attribute of an individual who has a ‘plurilingual repertoire’ of
language competences (Council of Europe 2007).
Multilingualism refers to the presence in a geographical area, large or small, of more than one ‘variety of
language’ i.e. the mode of speaking of a social group whether it is formally recognised as a language or not; in
such an area individuals may be monolingual, speaking only their own variety.
Plurilingualism refers to the repertoire of varieties of language which many individuals use, and is therefore
the opposite of monolingualism; it includes the language variety referred to as ‘mother tongue’ or ‘first
language’ and any number of other languages or varieties. Thus in some multilingual areas, some individuals are
monolingual and some are plurilingual.
Even this more precise definition has its problems as is illustrated by many accepted descriptions of the cosmopolitan
city – a major locus for multilingualism There is a common narrative which defines such urban multilingualism in
terms of the number of languages spoken and used, including particularly the linguistic background of school children,
but also the workforce’s competence in foreign languages, the use of languages for trade and in business and the diverse
appearance of the urban landscape. However, this ‘headcount of languages’ may not be a convincing indicator of effective
multilingualism. At best it is a blunt measure. Even in the major multilingual cities this celebrated multilingualism often
means multiple separate monolingual or bilingual communities. A more valid test of multilingualism might be the extent
to which there is interaction between linguistic communities, the degree of public acceptance of and support for linguistic
diversity, and the ways in which this ‘multilingual capital’ is part of the political and economic infrastructure, including in
the all-important area of education. Multilingualism is not just a question of numbers.
Multilingualism is often invisible. Even in the great multilingual cities a large number of languages are used principally
in the family or the community (the private sphere) and emerge in public only on special occasions. Then they may
indeed become a part of the lived urban experience of many people, including those from other linguistic groups. In
other ways, too, citizens experience multilingualism almost unconsciously in their daily lives. The most ubiquitous
example of this is commercial – as in the local shop run by different language communities (Bengali, Turkish,
Kurdish, Chinese, Polish, and Italian) but serving the whole local community, and increasingly preferred over national
supermarket chains. There are many other local and community initiatives (cultural, sporting, educational and
religious) which constitute practices which become an accepted and essential part of the daily fabric of urban life.
A less positive distinction in people’s understanding of multilingualism is the distinction between what might be
termed ‘valued’ and ‘non valued’ languages. With some exceptions the relatively invisible, non-valued languages still
tend to be the languages of relatively recent immigration, which are seen as ‘different’ (less valued) than the super-
central languages of communication such as French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and above all English.
Multilingualism is often interpreted to mean having a population who know or use one or more national languages plus
one or two major languages learned in school. The provision of multilingual services can often mean use of the national
language with English alternatives, on the assumption that most visitors will speak English. On the other hand, in some
African countries children are multilingual before beginning primary school, learning one language at home, one or more
in the surrounding community and then a third or even fourth as a school language, a medium of instruction.
Attitudes to multilingualism
Just as the realities of multilingualism are diverse, so too is its image. In many places there is a strong aspiration to
see multilingual identity as a marker of global vitality, something of which to be proud. Utrecht in the Netherlands,
for example, presents itself as a ‘multilingual hotspot’, where individuals speak more languages than anywhere else in
Europe and the administration of the city presents this as a positive thing and sign of a better way of life.
Melbourne, as home to people from more than 140 countries, describes itself as a richly multicultural city, whose
history, economy and current identity are intimately connected to migration. This image is vividly articulated in the
Sandridge Bridge development in Melbourne’s city centre which illustrates the history of all of the nations and people
who have shaped the city’s (and state’s) current identity.
Across the world, cities from Johannesburg to Kuala Lumpur are pleased to proclaim their multilingual assets – ‘Kuala
Lumpur is an ethnically diverse city with well-educated, multicultural, multilingual inhabitants.’ – although the
importance of English in this equation is also stressed: ‘Even if the official language is Bahasa Malay, most people
speak good English. The English language is a compulsory subject in all schools.’ (Visitkualalumpur.com)
It is undoubtedly significant that many cities now claim to promote some degree of multilingualism as a positive factor
in a globalised world. Other places – usually more recent arrivals to the globalised table – are not, however, considered
by their inhabitants to be multilingual in the same way as more typically diverse cities such as London, New York,
Mumbai or Melbourne. Even though they may encompass many languages, this can be regarded as almost incidental, or
even temporary, by people living there.
In general, also, individual inhabitants may have a less settled view than the city authorities. To take the most
emblematic example of a European cosmopolis, London, for many people it is the quintessential vibrant, cosmopolitan,
creative city of over 200 languages. It is the place where they want to live, and language diversity plays a part in that
choice. For some, however, it is an uncomfortable place where so many languages are heard on the train that it makes
them feel ‘slightly awkward’. For others, though, as shown in David Block’s book Multilingual identities in a global city:
London stories, multilingualism becomes part of their new and broader identity: ‘And sometimes I say to myself, Oh
my God, she’s so rude … and in fact it’s because I’m used to the English way of talking and sometimes when I
go back to France, in the supermarkets, for example, I say to myself “they are so rude” because they never say
“sorry”.’ ‘I think in both languages English and Bengali, together they make me truly me.’ ‘When you speak a
different language … you immerse yourself into a completely different person.’ (David Block 2005)
What this underlines, perhaps, is that while the massive and rapid effects of globalisation – new mobility, new
communication modes, new ways of working – have often been accepted and welcomed as creating an exciting and
dynamic space for work and living, for others the very speed of change has been a rather more disturbing phenomenon.
This applies to the newcomers who feel ‘lost in the cities that would not pause even to shrug’ (Monica Ali in the novel
Brick Lane) as well as to the inhabitants for whom change has come too rapidly and who find diversity disconcerting.
At a time of economic crisis like the present, such feelings of loss and uncertainty are also fuelled by the simplistic
promises of nationalism and extremism of all kinds.
One thing, though, is certain, and that is that such diversity is becoming the norm and if anything it will become more,
rather than less, complex.
Section II: The multilingual landscape

There is a widespread view, for example in parts of Europe and in the USA, that monolingualism is normal and
multilingualism is therefore a challenge to that normality. In fact historically and globally quite the opposite is the
case. It was only with the development of European nationalism, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, that the
identification of language and nation became ‘normalised’.
National monolingualism – a recent phenomenon ‘It is easy to forget that multilingualism is historically the
norm and that national monolingualism has been of relatively short historical duration in certain parts of the
world only: the reason we talk about pluralism (in the city) as though it is disrupting something is because we
have normalized the idea of that “something” being the national state.’ (LoBianco 2014)
Historical multilingualism
There is evidence for multilingualism in ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman times, including languages such as
Hebrew, Aramaic, Egyptian, Lycian, Greek and Latin. The emblematic Rosetta stone itself is evidence for this.
There are even tantalizing suggestions in the written archives of the strength of spoken multilingualism, for example
in this story from the Old Testament: ‘When those Ephraimites which were escaped said “Let me go over”,… the
men of Gilead said unto him. “Art thou an Ephraimite?” If he said “Nay” then they say unto him, “Say now
‘Shibboleth’”: and he said “Sibboleth”: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and
slew him at the passages of Jordan.’ (Judges 12:6)
42,000 of them failed to pass this “first phonetic test in recorded history” (Blanc, 2008) and were put to death.
In the Roman Empire, internal governmental communications from the Emperor and other official documents were in
Latin. Until the beginning of the 7th century it was also the language of the army but generally speaking the Romans
did not impose their language on others. In the Eastern Roman empire, laws and official documents were regularly
translated into Greek from Latin. Latin–Greek bilingualism was characteristic of the Roman and Greek intellectual
elites and both languages were in active use by government officials and the Church during the 5th century. From
the 6th century, Greek culture was studied in the West almost exclusively through Latin translation. Bilingualism and
trilingualism were also common in regions where languages other than Latin or Greek were spoken such as the western
(Gaulish, Brithonic), eastern (Aramaic), northern (Germanic) and southern (Punic, Coptic) parts of the empire. Roman
citizenship was given to nationalities throughout the Empire (with no test of linguistic competence and no
10 flag to salute) and the movement of people – in the army, administration and for trade – was extensive. Perhaps
not surprisingly therefore we have evidence from across the enormous Empire of a relaxed and non-controversial
multilingualism – memorial stones for example attest to marriage (and other relationships) between communities
and may be written in several languages. While continuing to use their own languages, illiterate people all over Europe
learned Latin, even without the help of language teachers and interactive whiteboards.
Regina and Barates – a mixed couple from the North East of England ‘For a real glimpse into the kind of
complexity you find on the northern frontier (of the Empire) ... this tombstone is absolutely extraordinary. It is
a tombstone to a woman called Regina and she is an ex-slave … and she’s the wife … of a man called Barates,
who wants us to know that he is from a long way away.… He is a man of Palmyra.in Syria. ‘She came from down
south … a member of the Catalauni tribe, somewhere around St Albans now. Interestingly underneath [the
Latin inscription] we’ve got another text written ... in Palmyrene.… It says “Regina, the ex-slave of Barates.
How much I miss her!” ‘I wonder … how a poor girl from the Catalauni tribe ended up being the slave of a
Palmyrene and eventually married him, ending up here on Hadrian’s wall.… Did the couple stick out or did
they blend in with a lot of other people enjoying very mixed relationships? What language did they speak at
home? … This looks to be an absolutely perfect example of the kind of clash of cultural identity, the merging
of cultures ... in the community ... here.’ (Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire without limit Episode 3 28.47-
32.09; BBC 2016)
Outside Europe – in India, China, Africa and the pre-conquest empires of America – multilingualism was the norm
and in many cases continues to be so to this day. Although in the past dominant languages and linguae francae
developed (Quechua, Nahuatl, Urdu, Hindi, Swahili and classical Chinese) this was not generally to the detriment of
other languages and dialects. In the 21st century, official multilingualism – both India and South Africa being striking
examples – is relatively non-controversial in much of the world.
In Europe itself until the 19th century a dominant form of political entity was the multiethnic and multilingual
monarchic empire such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. These empires
were ruled by one ethnic group, but were generally characterised by ethnic, religious and linguistic tolerance. Much of
the administration of the Ottoman Empire, for example, was in the hands of the Greek-speaking Phanariots.
The ideology of monolingualism

It was really with the formation of European nation states, beginning in the 15th century but associated especially with
the French Revolution and the nationalist movements of the 19th century, that the idea of ‘one language, one nation’
took hold. This was itself facilitated by an earlier communications technology – the printing press – which underpinned
the standardisation and diffusion of the vernacular languages of Europe. These movements often took place in conflict
with the great empires and eventually, for example, led to the unification of Germany and Italy.
Language and nation ‘Has a people anything dearer than the speech of its fathers? In its speech resides its whole
thought-domain, its tradition, history, religion and basis of life, all its heart and soul.… The best culture of a
people cannot be expressed through a foreign language; it thrives on the soil of a nation most beautifully and
may I say, it thrives only by means of the nation’s inherited and inheritable dialect. With language is created the
heart of a people.’ (von Herder 1784)
This process continued after World War I across central and Eastern Europe and more recently with the formation of
several nation states in the Balkans following the break-up of former Yugoslavia, where the language question continues to
have a major influence on ideas of identity. For example, the language once known as Serbo-Croat now has three variants
– Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian – mutually comprehensible but each linked to a different nation state.
Nationalist rhetoric and policy have left a strong and lasting legacy of ideological monolingualism in Europe and
elsewhere. This has also resulted in linguistic hegemonies.
Linguistic hegemony ‘Thus English elbowed Gaelic out of Ireland, French pushed aside Breton, and Castilian
marginalised Catalan.’ (Anderson 1983:78)
Monolingualism has been promoted by dominant groups and has posed a great challenge to the languages
of indigenous, regional, local and immigrant minorities worldwide. Despite the existence of several thousand
languages across almost two hundred countries, a majority of countries recognise only one language for legal and
official purposes, and even where several languages are officially recognised, one is usually dominant carrying
‘disproportionate amounts of social, economic and political power’ (Edwards 1994: 2f).
The vitality of contemporary multilingualism

There is an undeniable vitality to multilingualism. The increased complexity of our diverse globalised world increases
rather than reduces this vitality, as the experience of any of our major cities will confirm. Running counter to the idea
of ‘one language one nation’ is not only the reality of great cities from Kolkata to São Paulo, but an opposing ideology
of ‘unity in diversity’. It would, however, be counter-intuitive to expect that this diverse identity could be represented
by a single and simple model of multilingualism. Not only does the weight of history influence present-day realities, so
too do current economic and political tensions, and the social and cultural consequences which ensue have an impact
on how we see ourselves. The model therefore is not one of ‘the multilingual entity’, but of a more complex typology
of places – states, cities – which share some common characteristics, but which are essentially distinct and rooted in
particular landscapes.
The Cosmopolis and the world

One obvious result of this ‘unity in diversity’ is that political and social priorities relating to languages may vary
significantly from place to place. In what has been characterised as the ‘Cosmopolis’ (Sandercock1986, LoBianco 2013) –
the cities which others have called hyper-diverse, such as New York, São Paulo, Mumbai and London – the major linguistic
issues concern on the one hand the impacts of immigration and settlement and the consequent diversity of languages
used in the urban context, and on the other the demands of the global market in relation to trade and exchange.
This also involves a significant interest in ‘temporary’ migrants such as tourists and students, who now constitute a
major part of the city’s ecology and economy. These issues have an effect both on language policy planning – in health,
public services and above all education – and also on peoples’ attitudes to the image of the city – whether largely
positive or negative.
Preparing for diversity

In other places the linguistic priority may be to prepare for globalisation by increasing plurilingual competence among
the indigenous population, and creating better conditions for welcoming visitors, whether for trade or tourism. In these
cases policy may be directed firstly towards language education at school and university, in particular in relation to
the major languages of international communication, and secondly towards the provision of multilingual services and
information for visitors. Significantly these cities and states will often choose to use English as the recognised ‘hyper-
central’ language.
The languages of immigrants may remain largely invisible, even though they are usually present. Indeed in a number of
places, in particular those which until relatively recently were cities of emigration rather than immigration, there may
be no systematic response to the linguistic challenges of immigration or the needs of new migrants since immigration
is still regarded as a temporary phenomenon which might pass. Many cities have moved from having inbound
immigrant flows to outbound emigrant flows in times of economic difficulty and then back again to net immigrant
flows as the economy improves (e.g. Buenos Aires, São Paulo).
The language of my neighbour

Another noticeable variant in the diversity spectrum is the importance for some places – in particular those close to
national borders – of the position of historical minorities and of the languages of close neighbours. Such concerns
may be a result of an historical juxtaposition of language groups, predating the growth of 19th century nationalism,
for example in the multilingual Ottoman Empire, or they may be consequences of 20th century wars, population
displacement and the redrawing of borders. Policy in this domain is not only a matter of equity and equal access
to information and resources, but very importantly about the maintenance of national or ethnic identity and the
resolution of conflicts, including quite recent ones.
In comparison with the ambiguous and rather lukewarm attitudes of many countries and international institutions
towards supporting immigration and ‘migrant’ languages, support for these ‘national minority languages’ is quite
explicit and widespread in Europe, although such support may often be not much more than lip service.
These are three examples of the range of reactions to mobility and globalisation and three different types of priority
which ensue. They are not solid and impermeable categories. For example, many of the characteristics mentioned
in relation to the Cosmopolis are also relevant for other, less developed jurisdictions. In some cases it is a matter of
degree. Nonetheless there are important variations which lead to different degrees of visibility for languages (and so
institutional and legal support) and different views on the vitality of multilingualism.
In most cases, nonetheless, the English language is present and plays an important role. We consider this further in the
next section.
Section III: The role of English

Most observers now agree that English has effectively become the global language and that its role is unprecedented in
world history. There is of course debate about why this has happened and about the extent to which this is or will be to
the detriment of other languages (Philippson 2004, De Swaan 2004, for example ). It is probably not too controversial
to say that English has acquired this ‘hyper-central’ role not because it is a superior or intrinsically more useful
language, but as a reflection of geo-political realities.
A historical contingency ‘The predominant position currently enjoyed by English is a historical contingency
arising from the mercantile and colonial expansion of the British Empire which was followed by American
economic and technological hegemony.’ (Umberto Eco 1995)
Nevertheless it is the reality of English as a lingua franca that we must confront today. How does this relate to the apparent
paradox that at the same time as the dominance of English has grown, our world has become more not less multilingual?
Language choice favours English

This reality is shown most clearly by the language choices being made across the world. When a representative group of
students from mainland Europe (none of them specialist linguists) were interviewed in 2010, the dominant role of English
was for them beyond question (King et al. 2010). According to Eurostat, already in 2006/7 within the countries of the
European Union, ‘In the great majority of cases, English was the language that all pupils have to learn’ (Eurydice 2008
p. 45). Worldwide it has been estimated that some 2 billion people – one-third of the human race – are learning English.
China and India are described by many observers as being in a competition to invest in the teaching and learning of
English (LoBianco, Orton & Gao 2009; Graddol 2006, 2010), and English is said to be the first foreign language in 100% of
secondary curricula, including in countries which have been opposed to US hegemony, such as Iran.
There are also major initiatives to make English the language of instruction. This has had a considerable effect on
university-level provision, influenced undoubtedly by the role of English as a vehicle for research. In the 2015 Shanghai
Jiao Tong index of universities, for example, 19 out of the 20 top-ranked universities were American or British; 69% of
the top 100 were located in English language settings.
English dominating university rankings ‘These university rankings favour universities … from English language
nations because English is the language of research … non-English work is published less & cited less ...
Americans tend to cite Americans.’ (Simon Marginson 2007)
The effect of this on the university sector is to accentuate a tendency towards English becoming a major vehicle for
the transmission of advanced knowledge, notably in the fields of science and technology. There are many successful
examples of such Anglicisation of the university curriculum, although these can also have a rather less propitious
impact on the integrity of national languages as vehicular languages. Inevitably this has also affected school level
provision, and in a number of countries there has been a significant growth of ‘English medium’ education but with
rather more mixed results.
A qualitative change – English as a basic skill

The significance of such a massive and unprecedented development of English language learning is not simply a matter
of degree. What seems to be happening is on the one hand the emergence of more than one ‘English’, and at the same
time a new orthodoxy is being developed which sees English – or possibly Englishes – as no longer a ‘foreign language’
but as a necessary communication tool for study and work – in other words as a basic skill to which all people aspire.
David Graddol (2010) describes a paradigm shift in English language learning from the traditional ‘English as a foreign
language’ progression route, which although it will vary from learner to learner and country to country is a fairly
recognisable description of foreign language learning progress. to a new model for the ‘global English curriculum’
which, although still aspirational for many and in many ways idealised, marks a qualitative break with the old paradigm
and reaches the higher levels of proficiency at much younger age groups:
This new model is far more critical for teachers and learners, mainly because a sufficient level of English is required
not solely for its intrinsic value (access to Anglophone culture, commerce, etc.) but as a condition of employment and
higher education within national as well as international contexts.
Many observers have commented on these changing objectives of English language learning. Current practice gives
primacy to language in use, not least for employability, often linked to such essential ‘soft skills’ as teamwork, creative
thinking, communication and presentation skills. (Graddol 2010, LoBianco 2011). Increasingly, a specified level of
English is an entrance requirement for university. The consequence of all of this is a tendency to begin teaching in
English in primary schools, to include teaching part of the curriculum in English at secondary level and at the very least
to expect university students to be able to access information and knowledge in English.
New expectations for English ‘The relationship between age and expected levels of proficiency in English has
shifted – with major implications for textbooks, curriculums, methodologies and assessment. English learning at
basic – and sometimes intermediate – levels is becoming a childhood matter across the world.’ (Graddol 2010)
English has in many countries become no longer the preserve of an elite but an aspirational language for all. Just as our
European students assume that English is an inevitable part of their linguistic repertoire, so too in India a 2009 poll
showed that 87% of those surveyed felt that ‘knowledge of English is important to succeed in life’ (Graddol 2010).
In Armenia it is commonly said that ‘every mother knows that for children to succeed they need just three things:
computer literacy, a university education and English. (Council of Europe 2009).
The realities of provision and performance

Such lofty aspirations do not always correspond to the realities of language provision, particularly in the school sector.
There are a number of aspects to this.
The most obvious is the educational challenge of developing appropriate pedagogies for what has become a mass
demand, often in educational systems which have traditionally been elitist and formal in their approaches. This may be
a particularly challenge for language teaching and learning.
There are also issues of capacity. This includes actual resources – budgets and infrastructure, for example. These are
challenges in the developed world (Europe, Australia, Canada), but they are particularly acute in developing countries
where the potential numbers of learners are so great and facilities and teacher competence often only rudimentary. In
general there is a major issue of teacher supply for teachers of languages; competence in English (and other languages) is
a marketable asset beyond education and this can make the recruitment and retention of teachers particularly difficult.
Implementation is also a major challenge. This includes the ways that resources are used and the management and
monitoring of projects for which expertise is often limited. It also involves making use of appropriate delivery routes
and mechanisms involving central government, devolved and local authorities, individual institutions and in some
cases the very important voluntary sector. Managing change faced with this diversity can be difficult and frustrating.
Language policy is not only a question of effective pedagogy, resources or implementation; it is also a political and
ideological issue about power and identity and access to opportunities. It is therefore particularly subject to political
influences – changes of policy by new governments or different linguistic interest groups, for example. It is sometimes
difficult to engage in calm and well-informed debate about such issues as language choice when the political and
cultural stakes are so high. As recent history in England shows, this is not a problem only for developing countries.
The National Strategy for Languages (England) 2003–2011 ‘In 2003 the UK Government announced a national
strategy aimed at improving language performance in English schools. Key elements of the strategy included
the introduction of languages into the primary sector, increasing take up post-14 and developing more effective
curricula and assessment tools. By 2008 the annual budget for the strategy had reached £55million. This
policy was effectively ended by the new government elected in 2010 which removed all targeted funding for
languages and terminated all of the initiatives developed as part of the strategy.’
A major consequence of the dislocation between aspiration and reality is that standards of language competence in the
school sector do not generally reach the levels expected or in some cases claimed. Most of the European jurisdictions
that have reviewed their language education policy identify shortcomings in both quality and standards at school level,
in all languages including English (Byram, in Council of Europe 2009). A similar disjuncture has been identified in Asia,
often related to the size of the challenge: ‘Most of the school teachers in Shanghai have their BA, while English
teachers in remote areas cannot speak English correctly.’ (Bai Mei 2012) and from India: ‘Even in the active
classrooms, pupil achievements were very poor. Teaching methods are dominated by mindless rote learning, for
example, chanting endless mathematical tables or reciting without comprehension. It is therefore not surprising
that children learn little in most schools.’ (The Hindu 2009 (cf. PROBE report (1999) & De et al (2011)) Despite a
common assumption that English is widely spoken in India, it has been estimated for example that about two-thirds of
Indians are below the A1 (basic) level of proficiency (Graddol 2010).
English and diversity

Another factor which might help us to understand this dislocation between aspiration and reality is the relationship
between English and other languages. English as desired lingua franca and multilingual realities do not always coexist
in harmony.
In countries where general levels of education and literacy are low, there are major challenges, particularly among the
rural population and the urban poor, to introduce basic literacy without which operational competence in another
language (English) is unlikely beyond a very elementary level. At the same time there are growing expectations fuelled
by modern mass media that education (and the English language) are keys to progress and desirable for all. If English is
seen as an alternative to first language competence, the results are likely to be confusing at best. Even in jurisdictions
with relatively high levels of education, unless basic mother tongue literacy is secured, overall linguistic progress is
impeded. We discuss this question in greater detail in Section 5. It is a dilemma which has caused confusion and policy
changes in a number of countries in recent years.
One example is Malta, where there are two official languages – Maltese, the national language, and English. There is
much concern about standards of literacy, often linked to when and how to introduce mother tongue literacy and
to concerns about the common practice of code-switching. Outside Europe, in Rwanda the government policy of
switching the official language (and so language of schooling) from French to English had to be modified when it was
understood that neither French nor English was the first language of most learners and that they needed to become
literate in that first language before they could acquire another language of instruction. This is a debate which is taking
place in many parts of Africa and South Asia.
CASE STUDY – Rwanda ‘The Government wanted to switch the national official language from French to
English, and gave the teachers one year to prepare to teach in English from grade 1. All 54,000 teachers were
given a three-week course each November (in their school holidays). It became clear that the teachers were not
all highly proficient in French, let alone English, and the same was true of students. For most learners, L1 was
Kinyarwanda, and they were not fluent in French or in English.
‘Rwandan society had used French, and was now using English, as some kind of common public language but
only a small elite is fluent in this official language, English. The majority of the population has a first language,
possibly an African or regional second language (e.g. Swahili). The ‘official’ language of instruction – whether
French or English – is a foreign language, not a significant part of their plurilingual repertoire.
When it became clear that the learners needed to become literate and confident in their first language(s),
before learning any language of instruction which was in fact a foreign language, the government decided to
push English as a language of instruction back to Grade 4.’ (Michael Carrier 2016 (and cf. British Council 2011))
More broadly there can be a tension between the diverse linguistic realities of the world and the expectation that
English is the key to education and economic progress. That this does not need to be the case is illustrated by our
European students for whom on the one hand English was vital, but who also saw no benefit in English replacing their
national language or indeed other languages.
European identity ‘The most crucial part … will be to make people understand that speaking multiple languages
and having interest and respect for other cultures is very important. Even though every country in Europe has
its own identity, Europe has to develop an identity for its own to become a unity, comparable to one single
country with a lot of official languages.’ (‘Tamara’ in King et al. 2010)
However, both in the countries where diversity has been mainly the result of mobility and immigration, and in
countries like India with over 1,000 identified mother tongues and 22 ‘scheduled’ or official languages (not including
English) there is a clear hierarchy of languages which sees English as the language of power and status, and where
the language of ‘lower’ classes or immigrants are regarded as inferior. One consequence of this is that these other
languages can be undermined, with negative effects on cognitive development.
One complicating factor arising from this widespread support for English language learning is that it also becomes an
ideological issue – and policies become driven by what people believe rather than by any objective reality. It is very
difficult to stand in the way of ‘what every mother knows’, even if in the real world there are not enough teachers or
textbooks. There is therefore a risk of dislocation between the believed value and efficacy of the English ‘panacea’ and
the realities of provision which may be minimal.
Impact of the lingua franca on English speakers
So far we have considered mainly the effect of English as lingua franca on the speakers of other languages. It has also
had a major impact on both the thinking and the language competence of first language English speakers and on the
educational policies of Anglophone countries.
Life in the Anglobubble ‘Well, it’s that part of the world, with a concentration of monolingual English speakers,
that operates in English, thinks it only natural that everything should happen in English and should logically be
experienced and understood in English. Of course, in this worldview, everything is always best in English too.
Sometimes it’s just plain crazy thinking.… English is often said to open up the world for you. And while that is
certainly true in many respects, it’s amazing what you don’t see and what you can’t do when you only speak English.
‘Where is the Anglobubble exactly? Well, when you’re ensconced in it as a monolingual English-speaker, it feels
like the entire planet. For those with a more discerning eye and ear, it’s particularly concentrated around the
US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. But its reach is certainly huge and in many respects
global.” (John Hajek, University of Melbourne)
It is now a cliché and a subject for jokes to equate English native speakers with monolingualism. Yet behind the caricature
there is an important truth. Provision for language learning in most anglophone countries is less than in other parts of
the developed and in some cases developing world. Proficiency has also been consistently measured at a lower level, in
particular among school children, many of whom have only marginal competence. This monolingual default position
which is by no means confined to the UK and USA, has if anything become accentuated as competence in English has
increased in other countries. It is also affecting some non-anglophone countries, where levels of English competence are
particularly high. English becomes regarded as the only important second language to the detriment of other languages,
including languages of international communication such as French, German and Russian.
A major consequence of the assumption that ‘English is enough’ is to exclude both individuals and organisations
from access to the multilingual world described in Section 1. The employment market is multilingual and employers
increasingly require levels of language competence and intercultural sensitivity in addition to high levels of English and
native language competence. The world and its cultures are also diverse and increasingly the ‘Anglobubble’ is excluding
itself from those cultures. The result is not only impoverishment of the spirit but a lack of understanding of and useful
engagement with other peoples and cultures.
A problem of identity
Finally in this context we need to be aware of the cultural and indeed psychological impact of English on national
identities. In the anglophone countries this underpins misplaced attitudes of cultural and even racial superiority, which
find an echo in political attitudes and actions. In other countries the dominance of English can be perceived as a threat to
the national language – seen as important for the unity of the nation.
Even in some major European countries this has become an issue for some academics and governments who have
sought to stem the tide of anglicisation. In other places there are concerns about linguistic confusion – the place of code
switching, for example – and uncertainty about how to respond to the phenomenon. Such debates have taken place
not only in Europe but in South Africa and Asia where this has been a matter of considerable debate. In response to the
‘English question’ there have been policy shifts in Malaysia (Guardian online 2009) and it is still a matter of controversy in
countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and India. Even where there is no perceived threat to the national language – as in
China – an identity issue has been reported in relation to the position of English, leading to rejection and antipathy.
Hatred of English learning ‘When I interviewed an outstanding freshman of China Central Academy of Fine Arts
on English learning, the No.1 art university in China, I can feel the feeling of hate toward English learning in her
voice. It seems to her learning English is totally waste her life, and it is just a way to entry the university. When I
interviewed the university lecturers in English in the Mongolia Technology University, two lecturers even cannot
help to crying because of the embarrassment and feeling of failure on using English. I was very shocked at the
moment, but at the same time I deeply understood them.’ (Bai Mei (and see also LoBianco, Orton & Gao))
At the very least any proposals to support and develop English language learning should take account of these sensitivities
and seek to ensure that English can be a support for other languages and literacy and not a threat. The corollary of this is
an understanding that to be a fluent native speaker of English is not sufficient if we are to understand and participate in
the world. This implies that we should consider the ways in which English can become not a replacement for diversity but
a key component of the diversity which seems to be an enduring characteristic of humankind. What kind of education will
enable our future citizens to develop as global citizens with a plurilingual repertoire, open to the world, its cultures and its
possibilities, where English is necessary but not sufficient?
Section IV: Trends and issues in multilingual education

The language of schooling – a complex issue
The role of language and communication in the educational process is rightly seen as a critical issue. It has long been
a preoccupation in the English-speaking world. In 1975 the influential Bullock Report (A Language for Life) argued that
language was more than just a subject in school but in fact the key to learning across the whole curriculum. Language
is used in every subject area both to impart and acquire knowledge and understanding. In that sense it was said by
Bullock that ‘every teacher is a teacher of language’. The Bullock Report has had significant impact on educators and
policy makers in the English-speaking world
Canadian reflections on Bullock ‘In all subject areas, the use of language involves the student in the formation
of concepts, the exploration of symbols, the solving of problems, the organisation of information, and
interaction with his or her environment. Teachers need to recognise and reinforce the central role of language in
this learning process.’ (Ontario Ministry of Education 1977: 5)
The discussion was taken further by researchers and educators such as Douglas Barnes in England, Jerome Bruner in the
US and Jim Cummins in Canada, to name but a few. In essence they all argued that ‘there can be no learning without
communication and that our knowledge is inseparable from the language that we use to express, store and access it’
(Little, in King & Carson 2010). One important aspect of this argument, which is of particular relevance for today’s diverse
classrooms, is the distinction between ‘action knowledge’ – the knowledge which learners bring with them into the school
environment – and ‘school knowledge’, which uses the more formal and abstract language of the curriculum.
Barnes on school learning ‘We partly grasp it, enough to answer the teacher’s questions, but it remains
someone else’s knowledge, not ours. If we never use this knowledge we probably forget it.’ (Barnes 1976)
According to Barnes, unless learners are able to access this ‘school knowledge’ and incorporate it into their view of the
world (action knowledge) they will only half understand it and will be unable to progress. This is a major challenge for
all teachers.
The distinction was developed further by Jim Cummins in Canada who contrasted what he called ‘BICS’ (basic
interpersonal communication skills) and ‘CALP’ (cognitive academic language proficiency), later simplified to
‘conversational’ and ’academic’ language proficiency. ‘Conversational’ language is the language used for informal
communication outside the classroom. It is highly contextualised and is the means by which children first experience
the world, and indeed assimilate other languages, apparently instinctively.
Conversational and academic language ‘The playground situation does not normally offer children the
opportunity to use such language as: “if we increase the angle by 5 degrees, we could cut the circumference into
equal parts.” Nor does it normally require the language associated with the higher order thinking skills, such as
hypothesising, evaluating, inferring, generalising, predicting or classifying. Yet these are the language functions
which are related to learning and the development of cognition; they occur in all areas of the curriculum, and
without them a child’s potential in academic areas cannot be realised.” (Gibbons 1991: 3)
By contrast, ‘academic’ language proficiency depends on linguistic rather than contextual clues, and to make sense of
it the learner needs to be able to decipher more complex meanings. In addition, different subject areas have their own
‘academic language’, whether in science, geography or the arts. Some mastery of academic language is therefore critical
for all learners, and indeed in wider society beyond school it can be regarded as an important life skill. Without it citizens
are unlikely fully to understand and assimilate abstract meanings – scientific, cultural, social and indeed political.
Language proficiency misleading ‘The children seem to have much greater English proficiency than they
actually do because their spoken English has no accent and they are able to converse on a few everyday,
frequently discussed subjects. Academic language is frequently lacking. Teachers actually spend very little
time talking with individual children and tend to interpret a small sample of speech as evidence of full English
proficiency.’ (Vincent 1996: 195)
Understanding this distinction has a particular relevance in a multilingual classroom, where there are many home
(conversational) languages and where a level of conversational fluency may be acquired in the national language – the
language of schooling – which disguises the learner’s difficulty in accessing more abstract, academic language.
In recent years the Language of Schooling has been a particular concern of the Council of Europe which since 2005 has
organised conferences and seminars and developed a number of tools and guidelines to support teachers and learners
across the curriculum, both in the context of speakers of the national language and second language speakers.
Council of Europe and Language of Schooling ‘This project deals with the language(s) of instruction in school
which is most often the national or official language(s) and also the mother tongue of the majority of students; in
a number of contexts this language is of course their second language where they have a different mother tongue.
Within the wider concept of plurilingualism and respect for linguistic diversity, the project … also address[es] the
needs of these learners with regard to competence in the national/official language.’ (Council of Europe)
Yet despite the recognised importance of the language(s) of schooling, since 1975 very few countries have developed a
clear and coherent policy for language across the curriculum. There is certainly an interest at policy level, as evidenced
by the profiles on national language policy carried out by the Council of Europe since 2003, but very little has been
carried though systematically in practice.
Why is this case?

There are two major issues – challenges – which may have a bearing on this policy void:
• a policy vacuum in relation to languages
• confusions over the dominance of English.
Perhaps understanding these will create a better context for supporting English in a multilingual world and for
maintaining diversity.
A policy vacuum
In most jurisdictions there is little explicit policy on languages in general. The stress is increasingly on the importance
of the national language and only lip service is paid to multilingualism, with the exception of English (as a second
language). The general issue of languages across the school curriculum or in society is rarely addressed.
More generally, the traditional or common sense way of thinking about language policy – an approach which we
could call ‘language planning’ – involves an explicit differentiation between different aspects of language. In one
comprehensive categorisation of language policies throughout the world (LeClerc 1999), language policies are
characterised in many different ways (for example ‘assimilation’, ‘non-intervention’, ‘bilingual’) but interestingly
there are few if any models of state-level language policy which are truly comprehensive. Instead, there are policies
concerning the national language, there are policies about foreign language teaching, there are policies to support
or restrict minority languages. At this point in the 21st century it would appear that in the political sphere at least,
language is viewed as if composed of a set of different and not always connected phenomena – national language,
second languages, foreign languages, minority languages – each with a separate policy framework.
This general perspective is confirmed by the experience of the Language Education Policy Profiles carried out under the
auspices of the Council of Europe (Council of Europe 2009). We may therefore conclude that although conceptually
there is a clear interrelationship between language in all its manifestations, in most realities there is a range of
language policies and these policies can be – and often are – contradictory.
Despite an emphasis on the importance of literacy and communication skills, the realities of a communication in a
multilingual world tend to be ignored, and their significance underestimated.
Confusion about English as a lingua franca

It seems just a small step from recognising the importance of English as a lingua franca to supposing that ‘English is
enough’. The difference, however, is critical. English will not replace the world’s languages and the dominance of English
does not obviate the need for other languages. On the contrary: the world is likely to become more not less multilingual.
As a result of this confusion, as we have outlined in Section 4, there remain a number of unresolved questions about
the relationship between English and national languages. There are examples of a wholesale and relatively sudden
switch from the national language to English as the favoured language of schooling. For a number of reasons – not
least teacher competence – this can prove problematic. In particular it ignores what we know about the acquisition of
literacy and access to the ‘academic’ language of learning, initially through the mother tongue.
There can also be a false dichotomy between English and other languages, whether major languages of communication
or regional and minority languages. Research and observation tell us that the human brain is capable of using
more than one language and in fact suggest that speakers of more than one language can often achieve more than
monolinguals. There is no inherent conflict therefore between an emphasis on English as the first foreign language
or even as a language of schooling and the promotion of plurilingual competences. It is almost a truism to say that
‘the more foreign languages you learn, the easier it becomes’. And despite the undoubted educational challenges
for children whose first language is not the national language, the evidence shows that they too are able to flourish,
linguistically and academically. A striking example of this comes from the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London,
where a majority of pupils speak English as a second language.
The Example of Tower Hamlets, London ‘Fifteen years ago, the schools in Tower Hamlets were derided as the
worst performing in the country. Things were so bad that Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, insisted
that its damning report on them should be presented in full to every councillor in the east London borough to
underline how much they were failing local children.
‘But from today, the history books need a new chapter: a report on education in Tower Hamlets has reached the
conclusion that it has some of the best modern urban schools in the world. It is a remarkable achievement for
what is one of the poorest boroughs in England, where 57 per cent of pupils are entitled to free school meals
and 89 per cent speak English as a second language. National curriculum test results have shown its schools
now post above-average grades for the UK in reading and writing, even outperforming wealthy Kent in English
tests for 11-year-olds. It was not always so.
‘In 1997, the borough came last out of 149 English education authorities in terms of performance. An
earlier Ofsted report described reading standards as poor and the quality of teaching often unsatisfactory.
(Independent 2013)
But our accepted wisdom often reverts to a model of ‘one nation one language, one brain one language’. Not
only lay people and policy makers but even academics may assume that certain children should not learn foreign
languages, and that learners should suppress their mother tongue in favour of the lingua franca. This ‘accepted’ view of
bilingualism as a ‘problem’ does not hold up in reality.
Finding solutions 1 – the bilingual ‘problem’

This view of bilingualism as a deficit leads to a conclusion that a monolingual approach should generally be adopted
in learning situations, whether learning through the national language or acquiring and then using a major world
language – often English. However, as the example of Tower Hamlets shows, raised expectations combined with
intensive language support in the language of schooling together with civic and community support and valuing of
home languages can turn this ‘problem’ into an asset.
Despite such evidence there are few examples of mother tongue support in schools for non-native speakers of the
national language, and even they may be declining as a result of the economic downturn. Teachers have also found it
difficult to adopt such a bilingual approach when there are many second languages (as opposed to a dominant second
language such as Spanish in the USA).
There is, however, an alternative approach based on the interdependence of languages – using both (or several)
languages, and not necessarily requiring teachers to master many other languages. This is different from bilingual
teaching and has been described as ‘functional multilingual learning’ (Sireens and van Avermaet 2013: 217).
Three examples of multilingual integration

Despite the strength of the ‘deficit’ view of bi- and multilingualism, there have been a number of successful positive
practical approaches to integration. The following examples are taken from David Little’s chapter in King and Carson
(2016:155–160). Although different in scope, they all involve ways of breaking down barriers between the languages
involved in the education process.
In Ireland the English Language Support Programme ran from 2007 to 2010 as part of Trinity College Dublin’s Trinity
Immigration Initiative. Its aim was to enable immigrant pupils to access the academic language so vital for educational
success by providing practical tools for teachers in six core curriculum subjects.
The English Language Support Programme ‘The ELSP set out to describe the language of six core curriculum
subjects – English, Geography, History, CSPE (Civic, Social and Political Education), Mathematics, and Science
– in the first three years of Irish post-primary schooling, the so-called junior cycle. It did so by carrying out a
corpus linguistic analysis of the most commonly used textbooks and recent public exam papers in each subject.
This approach was chosen because textbooks are the principal source of disciplinary knowledge, underpinning
teacher talk in the classroom and the spoken and written production required of pupils, and the academic
language used in exams reflects the language of textbooks.’
A very striking example of how to raise literacy achievement for all pupils, and especially those with other mother
tongues, comes from Canada and Cummins’ Literacy Engagement Framework. Based on the premise consistently
confirmed in the PISA studies that there is a strong relationship between reading engagement and reading
achievement, the framework sets out how to engage learners, linking their abilities in their first language to the
development of second language competence and their cognitive development through the language of schooling.
Engaging with learners’ identity and their prior knowledge in their home language, enables them, in Douglas Barnes’
terms, to use their existing ’action knowledge’ in order to acquire ‘school knowledge’.
Literacy Engagement Framework ‘The Literacy Engagement Framework is based on the belief that literacy
engagement, which presupposes free access to books and other printed materials, directly determines literacy
achievement. Cummins bases this claim on the findings of empirical research, pointing out that the PISA studies
have ‘consistently reported a strong relationship between reading engagement and reading achievement
among 15-year-old students in countries around the world’ (Cummins 2013: 18). The framework specifies four
instructional dimensions that Cummins argues are critical to enabling all pupils, but especially immigrants,
to engage actively with literacy from an early stage of their schooling. First, their ability to understand is
scaffolded in a variety of ways; second, instruction connects to their lives outside school by activating and
building on prior knowledge (which may be encoded in their home language); third, instruction affirms their
identity – academic, linguistic and cultural – by enabling them to showcase their literacy achievements in their
home language as well as the language of schooling; and fourth, a variety of techniques are used to extend their
knowledge of and control over language across the curriculum.’
A larger-scale project took place in Germany between 2004 and 2013 – the FörMig project, which was followed by a
research project, LiMA, both at the University of Hamburg.
FörMig and LiMA ‘The FörMig project (Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund
[Support for children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds]; was funded for five years, from 2004
to 2009, involved ten of the sixteen German federal states, and brought together expertise from across
the country to address questions of learning and education in linguistically and culturally heterogeneous
settings. One of the project’s central concerns was to foster close links between schools and the surrounding
community. Accordingly, it implemented a network of ‘developmental partnerships’ comprising a ‘basic unit’
(for example, local schools, a municipal day care centre, a parents’ initiative, and the town administration) and
‘strategic partners’ (for example, the public library, the local education authority, the educational psychology
service, a centre for early child development, and a medical association).
‘FörMig’s principal research-lead activities were in diagnostics and integrated language education. It helped to
develop and test tools to support the diagnosis of individual language development and inform the design and
implementation of individualised language support plans (Gogolin et al. 2005; Reich et al. 2007). The work on
integrated language education adopted a language-across-the-curriculum approach, a major concern being to
promote cooperation between the different language areas of the curriculum and subjects traditionally thought
not to have a language focus. A separate strand was devoted to the competences and resources young people
need if they are to make a successful transition into vocational and workplace training.‘ (Ohm et al. 2007)
‘When the FörMig project ended in 2013 it was succeeded by the LiMA (Linguistic Diversity Management
in Urban Areas) research cluster. Its main objective was to explore ways of translating migration-induced
multilingualism into advantages for individuals and society and benefits for the cultural and economic
development of urban centres. To that end the unit analysed the development of plurilingual school students
and identified ways of orienting instruction to their specific needs, especially in relation to the development of
their proficiency in academic language.’ (https://www.foermig.uni-hamburg.de/)
These involved both research and development, creating tools to support young people’s language competence across
the curriculum and based on a wide collaboration with a range of institutions from education, business and the family
and across ten German states. In David Little’s concluding comments on this initiative:
‘Their particular strength derives from the strong links they forged not only between universities and schools
but also between educational institutions and their wider administrative and social contexts . In this respect
in particular they provide an example that could usefully be followed in other multilingual cities.’ (King and
Carson 2016: 160)
Finding solutions 2 – Foreign Language learning

In most countries, great importance is attached, at least in words, to foreign language learning, the main exceptions
being some of the countries where the idea that of ‘English is enough’ still has significant influence both on policy
makers and on public perceptions.
Despite this public manifestation of support for increased language competence, the unfortunate reality is that school
language learning results in less than satisfactory outcomes in many countries, and not only in the anglophone world.
According to the European Survey on Language Competences involving 16 European jurisdictions in 2010/11, after at
least four years of study in school (and often more) less than 50% of 15-year-olds in England, France, Belgium, Spain,
Portugal, Poland and Bulgaria had reached beyond A1, or beginner’s level in their first foreign language (European
Commission 2012).
This is paralleled by dissatisfaction about the performance of French in Africa and of English in India and China (see
Section 4).The question therefore has to be asked: Is much school language learning failing and what could be done
to help successful learning?
Many years of study and reflection on language teaching and the responses of learners to new languages leads
to a conclusion which can be frustrating for policy makers. There is no ‘magic potion’ or simple solution which
will guarantee successful learning of a language. Learners learn in many different ways – some preferring formal
approaches and others more spontaneous activities, for example, and there are many complex factors involved in the
learning process, not least the competence and the personality of the teacher.
Fortunately, however, we can also say that certain key conditions are required if successful learning is to take place.
Learners need to hear and use a lot of the language being learned (the ‘target language’); they must have opportunities
to interact with that language and they must be motivated to learn. As they progress in language learning they will
also need to understand how language works. The successful language learner is therefore likely to be using both
‘action’ knowledge and ‘school’ knowledge. She/he will also be interested in what she is doing!
The Languages Review on successful language learning (UK) ‘Successful language learning can take place when:
a Learners are exposed to rich input of the target language b They have many opportunities to interact through
the language c They are motivated to learn. In addition … learners need to understand both what and how
they are learning if they are to have long-term success. We need to “capitalise on language learners’ relative
cognitive maturity” which means that they are able to understand and talk about how language works and to
benefit from feedback on their performance.’ (DfES 2007)
In many school situations this ‘target’ language is used insufficiently or poorly and many pupils are not engaged and
soon become demotivated. They therefore lack spontaneity and are unable to generate language for themselves. There
is also another major challenge in school language learning, which is the way that time is organised and the amount of
time available. In most school situations only a few hundred hours are allocated to foreign language learning, spread
over a number of years with large gaps during school holidays. It is difficult to imagine what progress could realistically
be expected in such a short time, spread over such a long period. In addition, the necessary ‘exposure to language’ is
made even more difficult, as it is offered in a series of short lessons interrupted by many other lessons, mainly in the
language of schooling. It has been described very memorably as ‘gardening in a gale’.
Gardening in a gale The context is England and the learning of another language. In other places the ‘gale’ could
be French, Russian or Hindi.
‘For 40 minutes [the language teacher] strives like a keen gardener to implant … a few frail seedlings of speech
patterns on the foreign language. Just as the seedlings are taking root … the bell goes and the class is dismissed
into the English language environment.
‘For the next 24 hours the pupils are swept along by a gale of English, listening to different teachers, reading
textbooks, asking for more custard with the lunch time pudding, surviving amid the playground witticisms ,
shouting on the games field, gossiping on the bus going home, relaxing in front of the “telly”. Even in bed the
English speech patterns the weird logic of dreamland.
‘Next morning the foreign language teacher finds yesterday’s tender seedlings of French, German or Spanish lying
blighted and flattened by the gale of English. She(he) gently revives and waters them, but just as they reach the
condition they were in yesterday, the bell rings again and the gale of English sweeps in.’. (Eric Hawkins 1981: 97f.)
This is why much successful school language learning has been based on a more intensive approach – using the new
language in a range of activities over a week or even a few days, often supported by self-learning with digital resources
such as online vocabulary exercises, mobile phone apps, online games. A similar benefit is attributed to learning other
subject matter through languages, if organised in a sensitive and systematic way, an approach that is generally called
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). There have been major CLIL initiatives, for example in Spain and
Italy, leading to some significant success.
What is key about these approaches is that they intensify the learning process, mirroring language learning in the
outside world, and they are related to real content, rather than the artificial constructs of the traditional language
textbook. They encourage and enable learners to engage with their own learning and in the long term to become
autonomous language learners.
A comprehensive language learning model from Australia

A recent review of language policy in Australia (LoBianco and Slaughter 2009) developed this point and broadened
its scope. The authors argue that the first condition for successful learning is high-quality teaching – ‘the single most
important controllable variable in successful language learning’. If that can be achieved, then the main goal of the
teaching and learning process should be to develop and implement immersion modes (whether total or partial). These
provide both a significant increase in input and also greater intensity (cognitive challenge). Among the benefits which
their research has identified are a major increase in target-language proficiency and also gains in cognitive flexibility,
creativity and intercultural awareness.
A strategic approach to language provision (Australia) ‘The relevant strategies will be general ones, responding
to the calls made by students for more serious and communication-based language curricula and language
specific, targeting the particular needs of individual languages. At the higher education level there should be
a nationally co-ordinated approach to reform language teacher education both to increase the numbers of
candidates attracted to training as language teachers (existing bilinguals and graduates of language degrees)
and to reform language teacher education methods by supporting teachers to deliver content-based programs
such as partial immersion.’ (LoBianco and Slaughter 2009: 61)
There is also a major source of language capability which is largely neglected within the educational system: the
existing language competence of immigrant groups. Here we are speaking of Australia, but the argument applies
to many jurisdictions throughout the world. Such ‘immigrant’ capability is often ignored or regarded as a problem
by policy makers, despite the enormous societal benefit to be gained by more systematic support for language
competencies in our communities. What is suggested therefore is an explicit combination of this immigrant ‘donation’
with the more focused language skills developed in the educational system. All of which presupposes a comprehensive
language policy in and out of school.
Generating bilingual human capital ‘It is clear that Australia relies principally on the language maintenance
activities of its immigrant communities.… While education and training and especially universities are
indispensable for generating high-literate and discipline-based knowledge of language, and along with diverse
private providers generate most of the new language competencies in society, overall they contribute relatively
little of the total stocks of national bilingual capability.
‘If Australia were able to articulate the public “donation” of bilingualism offered by minority communities
with the focused and instructed language skills produced in public institutions, the nation could generate a
widespread, effective and less wasteful distribution of bilingual human capital.”
Translanguaging and code-switching

Multilingual speakers use a variety of discourse practices and linguistic strategies to communicate most effectively in a
multilingual context. ‘Translanguaging’ and ‘codeswitching’ describe some of these practices.
Translanguaging is used to describe the way that bilingual or multilingual people use their languages (their discourse
practices), and also to describe a pedagogical approach where the bilingualism of the students is used as a benefit, as a
resource, in their learning of a new language, rather than being ignored (e.g. when only the target language is used
in class).
In other words, students do not just switch from one language to another (see Code-switching below) but have one
linguistic repertoire that covers aspects of both languages. They use both together or separately, or elements of one in
the other, to achieve the most effective form of communication for their context.
‘Translanguaging refers to the language practices of bilingual people. If you’ve ever been present in the home of
a bilingual family, you will notice that many language practices are used. Sometimes the children are speaking
one language, and the parents another, even to each other! Often both languages are used to include friends
and family members who may not speak one language or the other, and to engage all.’ (Garcia 2011)
The theory of translanguaging suggests that ‘A bilingual person is not two monolinguals in one, with each language
linked to a separate culture’ (Garcia 2011).
Code-switching is the discourse practice of being able to alternate the use of two languages, or two registers or dialects
of the same language, usually in conversation rather than in writing. This example demonstrates code-switching in a
North American context: ‘I ... work in a bilingual school, and my coworkers and I code-switch constantly. Here
... code-switching centers around lexical gaps … if I learned about a piece of equipment or software in English
I have a hard time discussing it in French. It’s not just a language proficiency issue, my coworkers who are
native French speakers follow the same pattern. So we tend to talk about “le smartboard” or “un programme
de planned giving.” And some concepts just don’t translate. French kids eat lunch in the school cafeteria; the
notion of bringing lunch from home is, well, foreign. So is the notion of having a designated container to bring
your lunch from home. So we all refer to “le lunchbox.” (NPR 2013)
The potential for learning outside school

In the European Survey on Language Competences, by far the highest levels of attainment among 15-year-olds were
achieved in Sweden and Malta. It is possible that teaching approaches in these two countries are of an exceptional
level, but another factor is likely to have had an even greater impact. In both cases English (the first foreign language) is
also acquired and used outside school. A similar phenomenon can be observed in many parts of Asia and Africa. There
is widespread exposure to English in the media, through culture (films, music and television), in day-to-day commerce,
and also through the power of the Internet.
This is a growing phenomenon in many societies and is particularly powerful in the context of the multilingual city.
The reality of life beyond school is increasingly urban and in urban centres we find a concentration of changing cultures
creating new kind of identity – living examples of a ‘common sense of belonging based on cultural and linguistic
diversity’ referred to in one of the most challenging documents published by the European Union in recent years, Amin
Maalouf’s 2008 report on Intercultural Dialogue.
Change is also happening outside the city, but the multilingual city can be seen as a signpost to the future and to
the creation of new realities. What we are learning is that they are repositories of language vitality, where different
cultures and languages can coexist and interact. Within that context the English language does not need to be a threat
but rather a support. In the LUCIDE study of multilingual cities, mainly in Europe it was striking to see how many
city administrations – Utrecht, Sofia, Madrid and Rome for example – used English as a means of communication
for visitors to their cities. This does not need to undermine other languages but can actually facilitate their vitality. A
similar phenomenon can be observed in the strictly educational sphere.
‘An identity based on diversity’ ‘While most of the European nations have been built on the platform of their
language of identity, the European Union can only build on a platform of linguistic diversity. This, from our point
of view, is particularly comforting. A common sense of belonging based on linguistic and cultural diversity is a
powerful antidote against the various types of fanaticism towards which all too often the assertion of identity
has slipped in Europe and elsewhere, in previous years as today. ‘
Born of the will of its diverse peoples who have freely chosen to unite, the European Union has neither the
intention nor the ability to obliterate their diversity. On the contrary, its mission historically is to preserve,
harmonise, strike a balance and get the best out of this diversity, and we think that it is up to the task.
‘We even believe that it can offer the whole of humanity a model for an identity based on diversity.
Multilingualism – a commonly used vehicular language of communication facilitating communication between
different language groups.’ (European Commission 2008: 5)
A related reality is that both language use and language learning are no longer confined to educational establishments.
In particular the highly volatile and creative world of the Internet is giving a whole new impetus to informal learning.
According to David Crystal our era is the dawn of ‘a genuinely multilingual internet age’ where there is a huge gap
‘between the political agenda, the technological possibilities, and the educational realities’. He points out how the
Internet may be providing a context for new concepts of citizenship and social identity.
David Crystal on the Netizens ‘It is not possible to tell, simply by looking at someone’s Internet name, what
their nationality, age, or gender is, or even whether they are native-speakers or non-native-speakers of the
language they are using. User profile information is sometimes provided, as on Facebook or LinkedIn, but there
is no guarantee that it is truthful. As the Peter Steiner cartoon caption said (The New Yorker, 5 July 1993),
showing one dog in front of a computer talking to another dog nearby: ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a
dog’. New communities have become established, via the domain name system, and only some of these relate
to national identities. A website ending in .org, .net, or whatever could be located anywhere. The participants
in a website forum, likewise, could be from any part of the world. Many of those who are frequent users of
the Internet say that they think of themselves as members of an online community first and of their national
community second. They call themselves Netizens – citizens of the Internet.’ (King et al. 2010: 38)
The possibilities and power of this economically mediated communication have increased dramatically in the past two
decades, and as is often the case the worlds of education and policy making have been slow to adapt. Much language
education is still based on an essentially 19th-century model of the gradual acquisition of one new language through
careful study over a number of years with the aim – for some – of reaching near native proficiency. Meanwhile the
reality is that people of all ages, and especially the mobile young, are managing to communicate across cultures and
languages because they want to and need to, making use of prior knowledge, language acquired on line or through the
media and electronic translation tools. The realities of the 21st century therefore suggest the need for a much more
complex yet more coherent policy on languages in education, one in which English will play a major but not exclusive
role. It will involve links between school and community and the world of employment as well as learning out of school
in multilingual urban settings, in universities’ language centres and by making use of the new technologies.
Plurilingual education for the 21st century

The traditional goals of language education policy have concentrated in particular on what is called ‘acquisition’
planning. In other words societies – governments, local administrations, schools – have been concerned with the
languages to be offered and the degree to which they should be learned.
Language policy and planning ‘Most classifications distinguish three types of LPP according to whether a policy
has been designed to have an effect on the learning of languages (acquisition planning), an effect on how
citizens speak or write their language(s) (corpus planning), or an effect on the uses of language(s) in different
administrative or social domains (status planning). In addition to these three areas, some writers have added
attempts to influence the social esteem of languages (prestige planning; … as well as attempts to shape social
ideas and discourses about language(s) (discourse planning).’ (Skrandies in King and Carson 2016: 119)
This traditional language policy has quite explicit political and economic objectives, for example in the domains
of trade, diplomacy and employment. More recently language policy has also been associated with ideas of
modernisation and is expressed in terms of democratic values such as human equality, the rule of law, human
rights, equality of access to education. Whatever the underpinning rationale, however, such goals, at least as far as
education is concerned, have been based on a concept of individuals’ acquisition over time of one or perhaps two other
languages, usually classified as ‘foreign’. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this has in many ways been the
driving force and the core of explicit and implicit language policy.
Increasingly, however, we may now conceive of language and communication in another – and much more holistic
– way. We may be moving away from an additive and fairly inflexible view of competence = L1+L2+L3, towards the
idea of setting goals for acquiring competence in particular languages, and to different degrees. Through descriptive
instruments such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) ways are being found to measure language
competence that can put all languages on an equal footing and which anticipates their use in a range of appropriate
domains. This more neutral way of looking at languages opens the way to creating a range of plurilingual repertoires
as the possible outcomes of language policy. Significantly not all elements of language have in this case to be learned
in school, but may include what learners bring with them into the classroom. This effectively narrows the distance
between languages and allows the accommodation in one room even of languages that might previously have been in
competition as international languages. It can reinforce the important function of English as a lingua franca, without
undermining other languages or the learning and use of those languages.
It is only one further, but significant, step to allow us to see language skills as part of learners’ basic/key competences
– already an aspiration for English in much of the world – and as part of the concept of literacy, so including mother
tongue learning and use within the language paradigm – a 21st-century realisation of Bullock’s ‘language across the
curriculum’.
EU Multilingualism Policy ‘The European Union supports multilingualism as part of the cultural heritage of
its citizens and nations, and has developed a number of policies supporting multilingualism, based on shared
beliefs about the benefits of a multilingual and linguistically diverse society. The EU’s multilingualism policy
has 3 strands:
– working to protect Europe’s rich linguistic diversity
– promoting language learning and multilingualism
– importance of languages for trade and competitiveness.
‘The citizens of the EU speak over 60 regional or minority languages, in total spoken by some 40 million people.
They include Basque, Catalan, Frisian, Saami, Welsh and Yiddish. It is the job of the national governments
to decide on the legal status and use of these languages, but the EU aims to encourage multilingualism and
linguistic diversity as much as possible.
‘It is this diversity that makes the European Union what it is: not a “melting pot” in which differences are
rendered down, but a common home in which diversity is celebrated, and where our many mother tongues are
a source of wealth and a bridge to greater solidarity and mutual understanding. Language is the most direct
expression of culture; it is what makes us human and what gives each of us a sense of identity.’ (European
Commission 2005)
EU Language Policy ‘One of the EU’s multilingualism goals is for every European to be able to speak 2 languages
in addition to their mother tongue. The EU’s language policy can be summarised as:
‘“The aim of EU language policy is to promote the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the EU and to
create an environment that is friendly towards all Member State languages. Foreign language competence is
regarded as one of the basic skills that all EU citizens need to acquire in order to improve their educational and
employment opportunities within the European learning society, in particular by making use of the right to
freedom of movement of persons.”
‘Within the framework of education and vocational training policy, therefore, the EU’s objective is for every
citizen to master two languages in addition to his or her mother tongue. In order to achieve this objective,
children are to be taught two foreign languages at school from an early age.’ (European Parliament 2016)
Broadening the concept of language policy

Such change already indicates that in actual practice a broader concept of language policy is being created than the
current models contained in official policy documentation. Policies in various countries (such as France and the UK)
have been linked, for example, to wider issues of cohesion and cognitive development. Language policy can thus be
viewed not only as a means of improving competence in one or two languages but as an important way of solving non-
linguistic aims or problems associated with other political, social, economic and cultural challenges. These are mostly
related to the challenges of social cohesion, the integration of migrants, citizenship issues and governance.
Clash of Civilisations over an elevator in Piazza Vittorio ‘But then who is Italian? Only someone who is born in
Italy, has an Italian passport and identity card, has an Italian name and loves in Italy. As you see the question
is very complicated … you need a lifetime to understand its meaning and only then will your heart open to the
world and tears warm your cold cheeks.’ (Amara Lakhous 2008: 14f.)
There is also a major issue relating to language as a marker of identity with both positive and dynamic aspects in the
increasing language diversity and openness of many individuals as well as some sense of confusion and loss on the part
of others.
If an education system is to adapt to the realities and possibilities of our diverse and changing world and to offer answers
to these feelings of confusion, then the role that language and communication plays will be a crucial one. This was well
expressed at a Conference in December 2009 by Sir Keith Ajegbo, a head teacher in a London comprehensive school (and
not a language teacher), reflecting on the role that a school’s languages policy can play in developing cohesion:
‘We mean working towards a society in which there is a common vision and sense of belonging by all communities;
a society in which the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued; a society in
which similar life opportunities are available to all; and a society in which strong and positive relationships exist
and continue to be developed in the workplace, in schools and in the wider community.‘
What do such aspirations mean concretely?

To move from a vision to action will require an orientation and a strategy. From what we have seen, this is likely to
involve three broad themes, adapted to concrete conditions in different countries and societies:
A new model for language

We are moving towards a new kind of paradigm for languages. This is based on a plurilingual and asymmetric model
where not all language competence needs to be the same, and where experience and learning out of school, whether in
the street or on the Internet, will also contribute to the language profile of the individual. Intercultural understanding
will also have a significant role. In this paradigm English as the major vehicular language of communication has a key
role to play.
An integrated language policy for schools

Language teaching and learning should no longer be compartmentalised into separate streams for language of
schooling, ‘foreign’ languages and ‘immigrant’ languages. They are all part of a common core and require a collective
understanding on the part of teachers. This begins with an integrated language policy, something which is already
being developed in some jurisdictions (Catalonia) and will need to be more widespread.
A review of teacher education

If ‘all teachers are language teachers’, it remains true that many are not trained to be so. Some understanding of the
stages of language learning – for example the transference of conversational to academic language – needs to be part
of all teachers’ training and education.
Section V: Recommendations for national systemic change

If those responsible for educational policy are to help develop a language policy for the 21st century, there are probably
two broad areas which need to be considered: the overall societal context, which of course is wider in scope than
education; and the specific direction of educational provision and resource allocation. It should be understood that
these suggestions are put forward not as a blueprint, but as a possible framework which could be adapted to specific
circumstances and traditions.
Societal change to support multilingualism

Language is not only an issue for education and educators. This truth was understood by such major writers and educators
as Comenius in the 16th century and more recently by Jean Piaget , the Swiss psychologist of the 20th century.
Comenius and Piaget on language, education and society ‘A society’s fate in the end depends on the quality of
the schooling its children get in language.’ (Comenius 1657)
‘Education is … an integral part of the formative process to which all beings are subject and is only one aspect
of that vast development.… It is therefore not limited to the action of school and family but is part and parcel
of general social life. Human society is an educational society.’ (Piaget 1993)
So what are the areas of societal development which may help to promote multilingual societies, and to improve
inclusivity and social harmony, and therefore long-term prosperity?
We have suggested that the multilingual city is an important indicator of how societies will develop in this century – ‘a
signpost to the future and to the creation of new realities’. There is nothing new about the vitality of the city. Cultural
diversity has been a characteristic of the city since its origins, even in ancient societies. This mobility and perpetual
movement of people (and so of ideas and languages and ways of thinking) has underpinned the creativity and growth
of the great cities of the past. What is new in the 21st century is that this process is becoming more widespread and
generalised and now affects cities worldwide, from New York to Johannesburg to Bangalore and Melbourne.
How then does the city nurture such diversity and help it to thrive? In part this is something which grows from below as
new communities put down roots and then open shops and create businesses which serve the wider city community as
well. It develops through cultural exchanges – Christmas, Chinese New Year celebrations, Diwali and Eid, for example, are
now celebrated throughout the world, as are the football teams of Europe and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
Music, theatre and food become the shared experiences of city communities. And people also change in terms of their
personal lives – not only in in the food that they eat and the music they enjoy, but in the friends that they make and the
families that they create. Such sharing is characteristic of thriving multilingual communities.
In our uncertain world there are also threats and fears and uncertainties – people’s understandable concerns over rapid
change and the pressures of economic crises and social conflicts.
This is why public authorities could help support the positive gains from diversity and multilingualism, allowing
the inevitable growth from below to prosper. Our research suggests that there are three areas which policy makers
should consider:
• Validation: Positive messages about the benefits of diversity and seeing multilingualism as a norm in society, not
a threat.
• Practical encouragement: Providing resource and opportunities for all communities within a city to develop –
for example culturally and educationally and in the economic sphere – thus promoting good relations rather than
separation.
• Specific planning: This would include the provision of translation and interpreting services and educational
opportunities for all citizens, particularly in relation to language.
Multilingualism in Hamburg ‘Multilingualism is presented as an asset of the Free and Hanseatic City of
Hamburg … visitors are welcomed in many languages at the airport or on the city’s official “Welcome” portal;
multilingual competences are sought by employers in the public and private sectors; in public media we
find many languages from all over the world. We can report on a kind of affirmative action concerning the
employment of young people with a migrant background in Hamburg’s administration.
‘A number of migrants’ heritage languages are taught in the general school system, and many semi-private
or private initiatives are also engaged in the fostering of these languages. It may be taken as an indicator of
growing acceptance of language diversity that migrants’ heritage languages are also learned by members of the
majority community.’ (LUCIDE 2015: 29)
Such a framework of support could create the conditions for growth and social cohesion and a vision of the future such
as that put forward in Hamburg, rather than more pessimistic views of change.
Educational change
In the educational sphere, the central aims are likely to be those of improving multilingual competence and developing
intercultural understanding as the key contributions of language learning. We have suggested that this would involve
consideration of change in three broad areas: the model, the policy and teacher education. So what specific measures
might be considered?
A new model
We need to be thinking about moving towards a more flexible model of ‘education for plurilingualism’. This implies
the creation of programmes which may differentiate language goals for a range of languages, rather than the ‘one
size fits all’ approach born in the 19th century. Some languages – probably major languages of communication and
notably English – will be learned to the highest level; others may already be ‘known’ and so be supported in school;
new languages may be learned to a satisfactory level for basic communication, whether spoken or with written text,
while yet others may be brought into the classroom primarily to help language awareness and the understanding of
different cultures. The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is a powerful tool to support such a process.
We should also be learning from good practice, such as the Canadian ‘literacy engagement programme’ or Australian
suggestions on generating bilingual human capital.
It will also mean looking beyond the classroom for the sources of language learning. We know that much language
learning takes place informally – listening to music, playing games and watching films, using the Internet and
communicating electronically, and increasingly in our multilingual cities in the diverse street. How will educators
respond to this reality, treating it not as diversion but as major source of knowledge and incorporating what learners
bring with them from their outside world as well as supporting them, particularly in making good use of the Internet?
We should also understand better the key conditions for successful language learning: exposure to the target
language (which can of course come from beyond the school walls) preferably from an early age; learning for a
purpose using real contexts and content, including CLIL. Above all, educators need to consider how to provide a more
productive intensive experience of language learning, making use of resources beyond the school and harnessing
learners’ familiarity with the internet and electronic communication in general.
In many countries across the world, English is the main language being learned and used in schools. This puts it in a
potentially privileged position and one which can be used to support rather than threaten our new model. In particular,
the use of English as the means of instruction (EMI) which has grown rapidly in Europe and Asia should be used to help
students become multilingual in higher order contexts.
An integrated language policy

‘Language across the curriculum’ and ‘languages for all’ are not new ideas. They are, however, less obvious in practice
than in theory. Although attempts have been made and are continuing to be made to turn such ideas into concrete
syllabuses, reality suggests that much remains to be done. In particular there have been few examples which integrate
the languages of schooling with ‘foreign’ language learning.
The elements of such a policy would involve consideration of the following:

• The languages of schooling: which might be more than one language in some circumstances.
• Mother tongue and the acquisition of literacy: For many this would be in the same language as the language of
schooling, but increasingly in our diverse societies there would be other mother tongues and literacies. In yet
other contexts this would also include local or regional languages.
• Code-switching: This is a widespread phenomenon, in particular in bilingual and multilingual contexts, from
countries as different as Malta and India. Language educators need to take a view on this, and if necessary to
incorporate a level of code-switching into their policy. It can be a positive thing, but is often ignored by teachers
and policymakers and not explicitly taught as a language strategy.
• The introduction of another language: When should this take place? Much evidence and public opinion suggests
that the earliest possible learning of foreign languages is desirable – but when is this ‘earliest possible’? We also
know that success in a new language depends on some level of security in the mother tongue. Decisions also
need to be taken on the approach at the initial stages of language learning – when for example is it appropriate to
offer more formal modes of learning? The question of ‘which language’ is decided for many countries, as English
predominates, but there is no educational reason why the first foreign language could not be another major
language of communication such as Spanish or Chinese, assuming that a basic level of English will be learned
beyond school. If not, when should such a second language be learned?
• Other languages, including less widely used home or immigrant languages: How will speakers of these languages
be taught equitably so that they have access to the school curriculum? How will speakers of the national
language learn to appreciate and value this diversity? And more broadly how does society make use of the gift
(donation) of immigrant languages and link it to the academic rigour which could be offered by universities?
• Common approaches: How will this integration take place in practice, if not through dialogue between language
teachers of all kinds and the development of common approaches and links between the different learning
experiences being offered to learners?
Teacher education
In the final analysis teachers are the most important variable in the educational system – the main determinant of
success or otherwise.
The key role of teachers ‘Whereas students’ literacy skills, general academic achievements, attitudes,
behaviours and experiences of schooling are influenced by their background and intake characteristics, the
magnitude of these effects pale into insignificance compared with class/teacher effects. That is, the quality
of teaching and learning provision are by far the most salient influences on students’ cognitive, affective, and
behavioural outcomes of schooling – regardless of their gender or backgrounds. Indeed, findings from the
related local and international evidence-based research indicate that ‘what matters most’ is quality teachers
and teaching, supported by strategic teacher professional development!’ (Ken Rowe 2003)
We are talking about a new paradigm, linking a range of existing strands of education into something more holistic
where ‘all teachers will be language teachers’. Furthermore, the expansion of approaches such as EMI and CLIL require
new skills for many teachers, and not only a relatively small group of language specialists. Teachers will need support
both in initial education and through continuing professional development, if such aspirations as those outlined here
are to become a reality.
The core function of the teacher in this new paradigm is no less than one of preparing young people for the
communication age.
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Some key reading
Barnes, D (1976). From Communication to Curriculum. Harmondsworth; Penguin.
Castells, M (2000). The information Age. The rise of the network society, Oxford: Blackwell.
Council of Europe (2007). From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for the development of Language
education Policies in Europe, Language Policy Division, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
Cummins, J (2013). Language and Identity in multilingual schools: Constructing evidence-based instructional policies. In
D Little, C, Leung and P van Avermaet (eds), Managing Diversity in Education: Languages, Policies, Pedagogies
Graddol, D (2006). English Next, British Council.
Graddol, D (2010). English Next - India, British Council.
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LoBianco, J, Orton, J, & Gao Y (2009) China and English: Globalisation and the Dilemmas of Identity, Multilingual Matters,
Bristol. LoBianco, J with Slaughter, Y (2009). Second Languages and Australian Schooling; ACER, Camberwell, Victoria.
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Perspectives Impact On Multilingualism

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Cambridge Assessment English

Section I: Multilingualism and plurilingualism 8

Section II: The multilingual landscape 10

Section III: The role of English 14

Section IV: Trends and issues in multilingual education 20

Section V: Recommendations for national systemic change 32

The new economy and new forms of communication

New technologies – electronically mediated communication

The emergence of English as a lingua franca

Current economic and social realities

Section I: Multilingualism and plurilingualism

Section II: The multilingual landscape

The ideology of monolingualism

The vitality of contemporary multilingualism

The Cosmopolis and the world

Preparing for diversity

The language of my neighbour

Section III: The role of English

Language choice favours English

A qualitative change – English as a basic skill

The realities of provision and performance

English and diversity

Section IV: Trends and issues in multilingual education

Why is this case?

Confusion about English as a lingua franca

Finding solutions 1 – the bilingual ‘problem’

Three examples of multilingual integration

Finding solutions 2 – Foreign Language learning

A comprehensive language learning model from Australia

Translanguaging and code-switching

The potential for learning outside school

Plurilingual education for the 21st century

Broadening the concept of language policy

What do such aspirations mean concretely?

A new model for language

An integrated language policy for schools

A review of teacher education

Section V: Recommendations for national systemic change

Societal change to support multilingualism

An integrated language policy

The elements of such a policy would involve consideration of the following:

Barnes, D (1976). From Communication to Curriculum. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

BBC News Online (2009). Retrieved from:

British Council (2011). Dreams and Realities. London: British Council.

Comenius, J (1657). Didactica Magna.

Council of Europe (2009). Language Education Policy Profiles. Retrieved from:

Council of Europe (n.d.). Retrieved from:

Edwards, J (1994). Multilingualism, London: Routledge.

European Commission (2005). Retrieved from:

European Parliament (2016). Retrieved from:

Eurydice (2008). Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe.

Garcia, O (2011). In: Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators.

Graddol, D (2010). English Next India, British Council.

Graddol, D (2006). English Next , British Council.

Hajek, J (2016). Retrieved from: http://anglobubble.net/about/

Hawkins, E (1981). Modern Languages in the Curriculum, Cambridge University Press

The Hindu (2009). School education: struggling to learn. Retrieved from

Leclerc, J (1999, revised 2016). Retrieved from:

NPR (2013). Retrieved from: