While teachers value cultural and linguistic diversity, they see the benefits of speaking different languages "in the future tense," feeling it hard to specify how language differences positively impact students' learning in the present. This study explores teachers' temporal perceptions of language differences, specifically focusing on…

Despite research evidence showing that home language maintenance is important both individually and societally, the task of managing and encouraging it has traditionally fallen to minority language communities and families, tending to lead to inter-generational language shift. Teachers' discourses about responsibilities for language maintenance,…

While the importance of linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) in multilingual classrooms is well documented, preservice English teachers' conceptions of LRT and the pertinent sociocultural processes that shape their LRT conceptions and practices remain under-researched. Qualitatively examining the experiences and understandings of 15 preservice…

This article aims to complexify the linguistic dimension of international schooling in light of the increasing diversification of the field but also as a result of the 'banalisation' of English and the growing 'added' value of multilingual competence in the knowledge economy. Drawing on data from focus groups with mobile families and institutional…

Unlike other groups of international students, Chinese speakers' use of English names while studying in English is an established norm. Relatively little discussion of the practice has taken place within recent literature, and less attention still has been paid to the minority of Chinese-speaking students who do not adopt English names. The choice…

Multilingualism in European classrooms is the norm, not exception, and while the management of linguistic diversity is increasingly at the fore of language policy debates, policy engagement with the multilingual realities of schools continues to be inadequate, and the linguistic habitus of present-day education systems remains largely monolingual…

The article studies minority language policy in the situation of an internal division within a speech community. It is based on the example of the Upper Sorbs -- a Slavic minority in Germany. The division within this community is based on language use, the level of assimilation and religion. The Catholic Upper Sorbs have maintained…

This paper reports on a writing programme I started at Bronx Community College to improve academic success among recently immigrated Spanish-speaking students by linking ESL courses to Spanish academic literacy courses within the framework of a learning community. My reflection begins by articulating the pedagogical rationale for looking beyond…

This paper presents findings of a qualitative inquiry into international students' experiences and perceptions of their language use in an English-medium international university in multilingual Hong Kong, with particular attention to the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in relation to other languages. Based on data collected from in-depth…

As a linguistically heterogeneous nation, China has 290 languages and nearly 2000 distinct "fangyans" (dialects or subdialects) with "Putonghua" as the national language. These languages and language varieties are hierarchically ranked, based on their wider communicative and socioeconomic values. This paper reports on how…

In talking about family language policy in the Turkish immigration context in the Netherlands, teachers emerged as the key actors in shaping parental language choices and practices. Previous research has shown that teachers take a central role in the implementation of school language policy but there is not much research on the influence of…

Using a large-scale, standardised English language proficiency test (TOEFL® "Primary"™), this study examined Kenyan primary school students' English reading and listening proficiency and explored challenges primary school teachers face in using English as the medium of instruction (EMI) to teach their multilingual students. The test was…

Previous research in first (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition has provided evidence that linguistic confidence is a key construct that can explain linguistic behaviour. In this paper, we apply previous research in the socio-contextual model of L2 learning to data from Catalonia. More specifically, the paper investigates linguistic…

This study investigated the agency of children, parents and teachers in a Serbian-English bilingual preschool. The focus was on uncovering the kind of agency each of these groups exercised in the process of language learning by examining the children's linguistic behaviour and the role that parents and teachers had in motivating children learning…

This study investigated Korean heritage speakers' Korean language proficiency (i.e. morphosyntax, collocation, and lexicon) in relation to their attitudes, motivation, and age at immigration (AI). Seventy-six adult Korean-Australians with Korean literacy participated. Overall, participants showed high levels of Korean proficiency in all three…