9300AWEEK 1 What is language Our relationship with language. T.docx

9300A
WEEK 1: What is language? Our relationship with language.
The Study of L2 Acquisition.
Readings:
Oxford: Oxford
University Press. Chapter 1.
· As never before, people have had to learn a second language,
not just as a pleasing pastime, but often as a means of obtaining
an education or securing employment. At such a time, there is
an obvious need to discover more about how second languages
are learned. (学习二语的原因：why do you need to learn English?
Is there have some special reason to learn [academic, daily
life])
· ‘L2 acquisition’, then, can be defined as the way in which
people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside
or out side of a classroom, and ‘Second Language Acquisition’
(SLA) as the study of this. [do you think you are a successful
second language learner? Why? How you did it?]
· What are the goals of sla: learner language [how learners’
accents change over time. Another might be the words learners
use; how learners build up their vocabulary.]
· What type of input facilitates learning? [do learners benefit
more from input that has been simplified for them or from the
authentic language of native-speaker communication?
· The goals of SLA, then, are to describe how L2 acquisition
proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners
seem to be better at it than others.
·
WEEK 2: First Language Acquisition
Readings:
press. P.170- Spada, N. (2006). How

languages are learned. Oxford
University Press. Chapter 1
Yule: By the age of two-and-a-half, the child’s vocabulary is
expanding rapidly and the child is initiating more talk while
increased physical activity includes running and jumping. By
three, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and
pronunciation has become closer to the form of adult language.
At this point, it is worth considering what kind of influence the
adults have in the development of the child’s speech.
Morphology; syntax
Lightbown: How do children accomplish this? What enables a
child not only to learn words, but to put them together in
meaningful sentences? What pushes children to go on
developing complex grammatical language even though their
early simple communication is successful for most purposes?
Does child language develop similarly around the world? How
do bilingual children acquire more than one language?
【Which stage do you think is the fastest progress in your
second language?】
【How the interviewee’s knowledge of English grammar
developed during the time? (if you cannot remember the
learning processes, you can think what did you do, how does
you try to learn an L2)】p.008
[学习者有没有背单词，是long-term memory 还是working
memory？（cognition）]
Negation对立面p.9
WEEK 3: Behaviourism and Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis
Readings:
teaching. P.69-71
2nd edition- Oxford applied linguistics. Oxford university press.
P. 359-363

acquisition. Lawrence Erlhaum Ass. P.109-121
Brown:
Selinker: speech is the practical reaction (response) to some
stimulus. 是先会说还是先回写p.91
A behaviorist notion underlying this expectation is that of
habits and cumulative learning (Learning is a cumulative
process. The more knowledge and skills an individual acquires,
the more likely it becomes that his new learning will be shaped
by his past experiences and activities. An adult rarely, if ever,
learns anything completely new; however unfamiliar the task
that confronts him, the information and habits he has built up in
the past will be his point of departure. Thus transfer of training
from old to new situations is part and parcel of most, if not all,
learning. In this sense the study of transfer is coextensive with
the investigation of learning. )p. 94
This is more akin to the phenomenon of second language
learning because the first language in this framework
influences/inhibits/modifies the learning of the
L2.第一语言是否影响了二语学习的语序语法？p.94
Ellis：contrastive analysis
WEEK 4: Innatist Theories: Chomsky (UG); Krashen: Input
Readings:
acquisition: Perspectives
and practices. John Wiley & Sons. P.67-75
-Troike, M., & Barto, K. (2016). Introducing second
language
acquisition. Cambridge University Press. P.55-62
Saville: universal grammar(Chomsky posited stipulates that
every phrase in every language has the same elements including
a Head: e.g. a noun phrase (NP) must always have a noun head
(N), a verb phrase (VP) must always have a verb head (V), a
prepositional or postpositional phrase (PP) must always have a
preposition or postposition head (P), and so forth. The only

choice, or parameter setting, that speakers have in different
languages is Head Direction, or the position of the head in
relation to other elements in the phrase. There are only two
possible choices: head-initial 中心语先于补语or head-final
中心语后于补语. )
Children who are learning English L1 receive input that lets
them know that English generally has a head-initial parameter
setting p.48
In contrast, children who are learning Japanese L1 receive input
that lets them know that Japanese has a head-final parameter
setting. P.48
however. In English and Chinese, for example, since modifiers
precede the noun head, the NP is head-final, but the object NP
follows the Verb.
WEEK 5: Cognitive Theories
Readings:
London:
Hodder. Chapter 5
认知 long term memory and working memory
WEEK 6: Sociocultural Theory
Readings:
language learning
theories, (3rd ed). London, England: Edward Arnold. Chapter 8
Implementing the Sociocultural
theory while Teaching
ESL," SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement:
Vol. 1: Iss. 1,
Article 6.
WEEK 7: Learner psychological and individual factors
Motivation, Attitude, Aptitude, Anxiety
Readings:

§ Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language
acquisition. London:
Hodder. Chapter 8
Week 8:
Topic: Critical Age Theory Hypothesis; Learning Styles (MIT)
Readings:
acquisition. London: Hodder. Chapter 2
Week 9:
Topic: Learner Strategies
Readings:
§ Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and
teaching. P.100-109
§ Selinker, L., & Gass, S. M. (2008). Second language
acquisition. Lawrence
Erlhaum Ass. p.138-151
Week 10:
Topic: Learner Language, Interlanguage, Errors; Competence;
Performance
Readings:
acquisition. London:
Hodder. Chapter 6
Week 11:
Topic: Myths about Language Learning. The Language Teacher
Readings:
§ Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are
learned (4th ed.).
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Chapter 7
§ Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching.
Harlow: Pearson
Longman. Chapter 4.

Week 12:
Topic: Bilingualism, Multilingualism, Plurilingualism,
Translanguaging
Readings:
§ Wei, L. (Ed.). (2000). The bilingualism reader. Psychology
Press.
§ Piccardo, E. (2013). Plurilingualism and curriculum design:
Toward a synergic
vision. Tesol Quarterly, 47(3), 600-614.
The influence of plurilingualism on second language acquisition
Plurilingual Background
With the development of globalization, more and more people
are no longer limited to their native language, they want to
learn a second language or a foreign language. The reason and
purpose of each person who wants to learn a second language is
different. In this article, we are not concerned with the purpose
of learning a second language, but with the relationship between
the first language and the second language. The reason I want to
explore this topic is that the process and results of second
language acquisition are influenced by many factors. There are
two main factors: one is emotion, and the other is mother
tongue. Therefore, the first language is the most insignificant
and influential factor in the acquisition of the second language.
Although many researchers have conducted in-depth research on
the relationship between mother tongue and second language
acquisition, and proposed various similar or contradictory
theories,
Thesis statement：
· Although plurilingualism may affect the separation and purity
of languages, cause SLA could be impeded and have some
negative impacts on language classroom such as less use of
target language;
· it will keep the development of plurilingualism, contribute to
understanding the target language, and it will have the full

encouragement for sociocultural development.
· Therefore, language teacher should use plurilingual approach
in English language teaching.
1: Should plurilingualism be promoted?
Against：Research has started to challenge traditional visions of
lan learning and teaching. As recently as a few decades ago, the
s and purity of languages was unquestioned, both socially and
cally (Baker, 1988). Consequently, bilingual education was see
gerous, as a source of reduced language proficiency, lin
insecurity, psychological problems, and exclusion from a la
specific community (Baker, 1988). The language learning pr
social elites did not contradict this vision, as attention was br
learning selected foreign languages as clearly separate entities
goal of developing general culture and bala
For：. A human language is not a closed and homogeneous
"mono- system"; it is rather a unique, complex, flexible
dynamic "polysystem," a conglomerate of languages constantly
moving and overlapping inter- nally and reaching other
languages externally (Wandruszka, 1979, p. 39). As Wandruszka
suggested, "already in our mother tongue we are plurilingual in
all the colours of the socio-cultural spectrum. Therefore it is
also difficult to say what exactly our own personal language is,
what constitutes the individual use of language of each of us"
(1979, p. 38, my translation). Overall, he asserted, languages
are essentially composita , in the same way as archeological
sites show different cultures and their influences, superimposed
or harmoniously integrated; however, unlike archeological
sites, languages are neither static nor achieved. They are
dynamic and flexible, accepting of further contact with other
languages, and in a continuous process of creation and
modification. Typical human language learning is a constant
work in progress. It is not only when children are brought up
bilingually that they are they exposed to (and learn) more than

one language; even those who learn only one language learn
several layers of that language - regional and social variations,
as well as "technical" language which they will continue to
expand later in life, the unique plurilingualism of each
individual being a yield of his or her life journey (Wandruszka,
1979, p. 41).
2. Does Plurilingualism Affect Second Language Acquisition
Against：Contrastive analysis was used extensively in the field
of second language acquisition (SLA) in the 1960s and early
1970s, as a method of explaining why some features of a target
language were more difficult to acquire than others. According
to the behaviourist theories prevailing at the time, language
learning was a question of habit formation, and this could be
reinforced or impeded by existing habits. Therefore, the
difficulty in mastering certain structures in a second
language (L2) depended on the difference between the learners'
mother language (L1) and the language they were trying to
learn.
Words that express unfamiliar meanings or concepts in L1
Explaining unknown words in the target language will increase
the total amount of input of target language, which facilitate
language acquisition (learning) (e.g., Ellis, 2012).
For：Words that can be easily translated into the target
language；Providing learners with L1 translations can be a more
effective way of learning the form - meaning connection of
words than providing them with L2 definition (Lado, Baldwin,
& Labo, 1967; Laufer & Shmueli , 1997; Yanagisawa, Webb, &
Uchihara, in press)
3. Does Plurilingualism Affect Language Classroom?
· Against：Difficult to define boundaries between different
languages
Encourage students to use the target language

· For：Reduce the gap with each other
Improve cognitive ability
References
Baker, C. (1988). Key issues in bilingualism and bilingual
education. Clevedon, England:
Multilingual Matters.
Kramsch, C. (2007). Re‐reading Robert Lado, 1957, Linguistics
across Cultures.
Applied linguistics for language teachers. International
Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 17(2), 241-247
PICCARDO, E. (2013). Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design:
Toward a Synergic
Vision. TESOL Quarterly,47(3), 600-614. Retrieved from
www.jstor.org/stable/43268036
University of Michigan Press
Digitalculturebooks
Chapter Title: How Do Multilingual Professionals Translate?
Translation Moments in the
Language Services Department at the Hispanic Center of
Western Michigan
Book Title: Sites of Translation
Book Subtitle: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us about Digital

Writing and Rhetoric
Book Author(s): Laura Gonzales
Published by: University of Michigan Press,
Digitalculturebooks. (2018)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv65sx95.10
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Revised Pages
86
6 • How Do Multilingual
Professionals Translate?
Translation Moments in the Language
Services Department at the Hispanic
Center of Western Michigan
Los lenguajes están VIVOS— Languages are alive. Language
moves, it
breathes, it changes, and as translators we have to know how to
adapt with it.
That’s a lot of work, and we have to do it every single day, in
every single
moment.
— S a r a Proa ño, Dir ec tor of L a nguage Serv ice s
After working with student translators at KLN, I wanted to
further under-
stand how the extent of translators’ experiences and training
influences
their approach and engagement with language transformation.
Because
the translators introduced in chapter 5 did not necessarily have
formal
training in translation and represented a traditional college- age
demo-
graphic, I deemed it important to connect with another
community that
may help me contextualize how translation activities play out in
a profes-

sional setting. As Terese Guinsatao Monberg explains, when
analyzing
cultural- rhetorical work in context, it is important to
acknowledge how
individuals experience and navigate communication “within
their own
borders or communities,” noting how individuals who may
speak similar
languages navigate their own “recursive spatial movement” as
they make
linguistic transitions (22; emphasis in original). In other words,
even
though translators at both of my research sites were moving
between Span-
ishes and Englishes, it was important for me to work with two
different
organizations with different participants, so that I could more
intricately
understand how translation differences play out within distinct
Spanish-
speaking communities.
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How Do Multilingual Professionals Translate? • 87
To understand how translation is enacted in professional
contexts, I
began working with employees in the Language Services
Department at

the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, a small translation
and inter-
pretation office in Grand Rapids. In this chapter, I illustrate
how profes-
sional translators navigate translation moments within this
office, as they
facilitate communication between Spanish- speaking community
members
and English- speaking service providers such as health care
practitioners,
government officials, and other local organizations. To
introduce transla-
tion in this professional context, I first share some background
informa-
tion on the Language Services Department and the nonprofit
organization
that houses that establishment. As I did for KLN in chapter 5, I
then share
a narrative story that contextualizes the relationships I built
with transla-
tors in the department. Finally, I provide specific examples of
the multilin-
gual/multimodal translation processes enacted by translators in
the depart-
ment, paying specific attention to the different ways in which
professionals’
translation activities inform A Revised Rhetoric of Translation.
I end this
chapter by emphasizing that translation in a professional
context, particu-
larly within the Language Services Department, is prompted by
extreme
exigencies for services and support and frequently results in
powerful con-
sequences for the livelihood of community members from
historically

marginalized backgrounds.
Background on the Language Services Department
The Hispanic Center of Western Michigan is a nonprofit
organization lo-
cated in Grand Rapids. The purpose of this organization is to
provide ac-
cess, education, and resources to the Latinx community in
western Michi-
gan and beyond (www.hispanic-center.org). Although the center
as a
whole is a nonprofit organization, the Language Services
Department lo-
cated inside the center is a for- profit translation and
interpretation busi-
ness aiming to provide language accessibility to the Latinx
community. All
of the revenue earned in the Language Services Department is
reinvested
in the Hispanic Center, fueling various programs for the larger
organiza-
tion (e.g., support groups for survivors of domestic violence,
local youth
initiatives, and campaigns concerned with Latinx health and
wellness). In
this way, the Language Services Department at the Hispanic
Center works
under the same institutional constraints as a nonprofit
organization, while
simultaneously charging a small service fee that is then
reinvested into the
community.
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88 • Sites of Translation
Revised Pages
The Language Services Department at the Hispanic Center
employs ap-
proximately thirty multilingual translators and interpreters, with
verbal and
written proficiency in Spanish, English, and a wide range of
indigenous
languages from South America, Central America, and North
America.
These professionals facilitate communication between, on the
one hand,
community members who identify with heritage languages other
than En-
glish and, on the other, over fifty local service and government
organiza-
tions in the city of Grand Rapids (e.g., the local police
department, hospi-
tals, Child Protective Services, technology businesses, local
museums, and
other nonprofit organizations). All of the interpreters and
translators who
work in the Language Services Department are trained in-
house, meaning
that the department recruits and trains multilingual community
members
from the Grand Rapids area who are interested in becoming
professional
translators and interpreters. Each year, the director of the
Language Services

Department, Sara Proaño, facilitates training programs that give
bilingual
or multilingual community members the hands- on training and
experience
needed to eventually be hired (either by the Language Services
Department
or by other local agencies) as interpreters and translators for the
commu-
nity. All of the interpreters and translators who work in the
Language Ser-
vices Department live in the community that they serve, gaining
an income
and supporting their families through the revenue earned by
providing lan-
guage accessibility to that same community.
Sara Proaño is a bilingual (Spanish- and English- speaking)
professional
translator and interpreter who holds a degree in
neuropsychology from a
university in Quito, Peru. She had been working at the Hispanic
Center
for approximately seven years at the start of my study. After
immigrating
from Peru and finding herself unemployed in the United States,
Sara be-
gan working at the Hispanic Center by shredding papers and
conducting
other office duties, before moving up to direct the Language
Services De-
partment. Through her experiences rebuilding her career, Sara
established
and sustains what she describes as a “three- tiered approach to
community
engagement,” one that fuels the foundation for the translation
and inter-

pretation work that takes place in the Language Services
Department.
During an interview with Sara, she defined her three- tiered
approach
through the following organizational goals:
1. language accessibility, which entails providing translation
and
interpretation services that allow Spanish- speaking community
members to access social services and to adequately understand
government procedures;
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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2. sustainability, which Sara defines as earning a modest
income from
language services and then applying that income to other initia-
tives within the Hispanic Center;
3. leadership and professional development, which includes
provid-
ing workshops, training, and access to national certification
exams
for all translators and interpreters who work in the Language
Services Department.
I spent two years forming relationships and collaborating with
partici-

pants in the Language Services Department. During this time, I
recorded
over two thousand translation projects, both using screencast
software to
record how employees completed written translations on their
computers
and using video recordings to capture how participants
interacted with
each other and with their surrounding environment throughout
their
Fig. 9. Director Sara Proaño gesturing as she discusses
translation in the
Language Services Department
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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translation and interpretation activities. While collecting this
data, I
worked part- time in the Language Services Department, where
I coordi-
nated and completed various translation projects. Similar to my
work at
KLN, I conducted artifact- based interviews with employees at
this research
site, using these interviews as a way to triangulate my coding
and analysis
processes with my participants’ own interpretations of their

work. Al-
though I will share specific examples of how translators in the
Language
Services Department enact multilingual/multimodal
communication
through their daily activities, I want to frame these examples
through A
Revised Rhetoric of Translation, specifically by sharing a story
that illus-
trates how linguistic transformations are embedded in other
rhetorical and
cultural contexts within this organization. The following
excerpts from my
journal entries recording my first interactions with Sara in the
Language
Services Department illustrate how her leadership and vision
shape the
translation work in her department, while simultaneously
influencing the
well- being of the surrounding community.
Gonzales Journal Entry, 12 March 2014
Today was my first official day of work as the translations
coordinator
in the Language Services Department. Although I was a bit
hesitant to
come on board as a part- time employee while also collecting
data for my
dissertation, I will never forget Sara’s words to me during our
initial visit:
“You can’t just study translation without doing translation,

Laura. I would
love to have you here in the department. But if you want to be a
part of us,
you’ll have to truly be a part of us.”
At first, I didn’t quite understand what Sara meant by “be a part
of us.”
I thought that not working as an employee while studying the
work of
the office would allow me more time for reflection and analysis.
However,
what I’ve come to realize in just a few hours is that the driving
force
behind professional translation is the immediate exigence for
and urgency
of this work— an exigence that can’t be described or understood
through
observation alone. Today, as I learned how to navigate the
document
templates housed on the department’s computer, clients
continuously
walked through the door. Through this movement, each project
in the
office quickly became a person, a story in transition that needed
my

assistance— a mother seeking the translation of her children’s
vaccination
records from Oaxaca so that she can enroll them in school, a
hospital calling
for an emergency interpretation to help during a surgery
procedure, a
young man coming through the door in need of a resume
translation to
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help him find employment after his recent arrival in the US, a
representative
from the local morgue coming in twenty minutes before closing
to request
the translation of ten death certificates that needed to be
delivered to
families as soon as possible.
While I know that I would be sympathizing with all these
stories if

I were merely sitting in the corner of the room taking notes and
video
recording, the fact that it is now my job to coordinate these
translation
projects— figuring out which ones I can take care of myself in-
house and
which will need to be outsourced to other translators—
completely reorients
my approach to this work. These are no longer my participants,
and this is
no longer just my dissertation— this is my job in this
community, and I now
understand that what Sara was pushing me to do by requiring
that I come
on board as a translator was not just to help me with my project
but to
also ensure a reciprocal collaborative relationship that would
allow me to
contribute my language skills to the very community that would
fuel my
research. I have never been more grateful.
Gonzales Journal Entry, 24 March 2014
Today was my third Friday of work at the office. At the

beginning of the
day (after I got here late again!), Sara mentioned that she
wanted to take
me out to lunch. Because I don’t live in Grand Rapids and I
commute from
Lansing each day, I haven’t gotten the chance to see much of
this town.
Although I was super- excited, I couldn’t quite wrap my head
around how
both Sara and I would be able to leave the office on a busy
Friday to go
have lunch. There’s just always so much work to do.
At around 12:30, Sara closed her computer, pulled out her
curling iron
from inside a filing cabinet, and began curling her hair. She
then handed
me her lip gloss as I sat slouched over my computer: “Este color
te va quedar
bien. Esto es parte del trabajo, amiga” (This color will look nice
on you.
This is part of the job, my friend). A few minutes later, we
walked out the
door as Sara very politely informed Olga (the woman at the
front desk), “Ya

venimos. ¿Te traemos algo Olguita?” (We’ll be right back.
Should we bring
something back for you, Olguita?). Sara is never the person to
eat without
offering to share. She reminds me of my mami that way.
As we walked out of our building and began walking through
the
neighborhood, Sara’s shining smile greeted everyone who
walked by us.
Sometimes she would stop and wave, and other sometimes she
would
share a casual “Buen día!” (Good day!) with one of the
neighbors. It was
clear that everyone knows who Sara is and that they find
comfort in her
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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confidence, just like I do. “Aquí siempre se saluda, Laura” (We
always

greet each other here, Laura), she said, prompting me to also
look up from
my phone, look around, and smile as we approached the locally
owned
Mexican restaurant where we would have lunch.
I can’t believe that I’ve lived in Michigan for over a year
without making
my way to the tortas in Grand Rapids before today.
Immediately, life-
altering goodness ensued in both food and conversation.
SAR A: ¿Entonces, como te va Laura? Como te está gustando el
trabajo?
(So, how’s it going, Laura. How are you liking the job?)
L AUR A: La verdad es que me encanta, pero a veces sí es un
poco . . .
overwhelming. (To be honest, I love it, but it’s definitely a
little . . .
overwhelming sometimes)
SAR A: Si, a veces es muy estresante. Pero vale la pena. (Yes,
sometimes
it’s really stressful. But it’s worth it)
As we continued eating and laughing, I came to learn more
about Sara’s
role in her community, and I acknowledged the powerful role

that she has
already come to play in my life even after just a few short
weeks. Sara is a
fighter like I’ve never seen before, experiencing all of life’s
challenges as
an immigrant single mother who came to the US seeking
happiness and
stability, before learning quickly that this stability is granted to
some and
made impossible for others.
SAR A: ¿Y, como te va con las traducciones? (So, how’s it
going with the
translations?).
L AUR A: I like them. I mean, it’s very hard for me because I
was in third
grade when I stopped writing in Spanish at school. So, me gusta
hablar más el Español que escribirlo, pero lo estoy aprendiendo
nue-
vamente. (Me gustan. O sea, es muy difícil para mí porque yo
solo es-
cribí el español en la escuela hasta el tercer grado. Entonces, I
like
speaking Spanish more than I like writing it, but I’m learning it
all

over again.)
SAR A: Yes, it’s difficult to switch languages, but you will
keep getting
better. The challenge is learning to adapt, porque los lenguajes
están
vivos [because languages are alive], Laura— Language moves,
it
breathes, it changes, and as translators we have to adapt with it.
That’s a lot of work, and we have to do it every single day in
every
single moment. We are the people who move this city. I’m so
happy
you’re here, amiga.
Yes, amigas (friends) indeed.
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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• The journal excerpts shared here are only a glimpse into the
many
profound things that Sara understands and enacts about the
power of lan-

guage in her community. Through our work together, Sara
taught me the
connections between space, identity, language, and culture in a
way that I
had never before experienced. Always aware of her
surroundings and her
place in the community, Sara works as a force for those around
her through
every interaction— whether she is sitting in an office
completing a written
translation, driving around the city to facilitate verbal
interpretation, or
using her lunch break as an opportunity to greet and support
local business
owners in her city.
Sara’s comment about the fluidity of language resonates with
much of
what I learned about language from sociolinguistics (García and
Li Wei),
which is unsurprising given Sara’s training in neuropsychology
and trans-
lation. Before coming into this office, I understood how
language prac-
tices change based on cultural and rhetorical contexts. Yet, what
became
clear to me both through Sara’s comment and through my
ongoing work
with the Language Services Department is that language does
not only
move and change— it also causes movement in its surrounding
context;
as Ríos puts it, “Space produces time rather than vice versa”
(“Cultivat-
ing,” 68). The movement that I traced in the Language Services
Depart-

ment did not just happen as words were transformed across
Spanish and
English. Instead, those linguistic transformations fueled
material action,
allowing children to enroll in school, community members to
receive
health services, and people to get the jobs they need to support
their
families in a different country.
Indeed, I later learned that the entire Hispanic Center of
Western
Michigan was first only a translation and interpretation office,
one of the
first Latinx community service centers to be established as part
of larger
efforts to mobilize and support Chicanx and Latinx communities
in the
Midwest. Thus, what I witnessed and participated in through my
work
with this organization was A Revised Rhetoric of Translation in
action,
through a small glimpse of a broader network established and
sustained by
Latinx communities in the United States who are seeking to get
ahead
despite all the adversity placed in front of them. From the
beginning, the
people in this organization have understood that the power of
language
extends beyond words. Translating documents and
conversations is impor-
tant, but it is only one piece of a bigger imperative in
community action.
Thus, analyzing the linguistic moves in this organization is only
one piece

of the puzzle, as it is also important to note how this linguistic
activity
impacts the broader movements within the city. From this
understanding,
I now turn to provide specific examples of the translation
activities facili-
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
tated by the Language Services Department, illustrating how
multilingual/
multimodal practices fuel the sustainability of an entire
community.
“The People Who Move This City”: Multimodal Translation
Activities in the Language Services Department
Because the Language Services Department is founded on
Sara’s three-
tiered model of community engagement, the goals and aims of
the organi-
zation span beyond providing translation and interpretation
services. The
three- tiered approach and related organizational objectives
inherently af-
fect the daily activities of employees within this organization.
For instance,
translators act not only as adapters of language but also as

community
advocates, consulting with service providers to tailor
information for
Latinx communities rather than merely translating provided
content. In
addition, not only do employees translating legal documents aim
to com-
plete translation projects quickly to turn a profit, but they also
seek to help
community members use this translated information to fulfill
material ob-
jectives like earning residency and employment. As Sara
explained during
an interview, activities within the Language Services
Department are “al-
ways new, as you never know what you’re going to get.”
Understanding how employees navigate translation moments in
the
Language Services Department requires added attention to
context and
circumstance, following the first pillar of A Revised Rhetoric of
Transla-
tion. Through this perspective, it is not enough simply to
account for the
objects facilitating translation and interpretation (e.g.,
computers, tele-
phones, and translation tools and applications); it is also critical
to account
for the things being internalized and experienced both by the
translators
and by the community members throughout the translation
process.
A video montage is available
(https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9952377.
cmp.1) that provides a brief but contextualized illustration of

the multilin-
gual/multimodal activities and the movement that happens in the
Lan-
guage Services Department. This video introduces Sara as the
director of
the Language Services Department; Eloy, the coordinator who
assigns in-
terpretation jobs to other interpreters at the center; Carla, who
is currently
working as an interpreter; Graciela, a more experienced
interpreter who
has been working in the Language Services Department for over
six years;
and me, depicted as I interpret a phone call between a health
service pro-
vider and a Spanish- speaking community member.
The video montage illustrates the constant movement and
convergence
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
of modalities— physical, material, and embodied (nonvisual)—
that are
enacted as professional translators and interpreters navigate
translation
moments. For instance, the video depicts Graciela explaining
how inter-

preters have to work with health care providers and other clients
to develop
an adequate translation for Spanish- speaking community
members. When
Graciela says, “We were, like, writing, coloring, trying to get
the point
across, and we managed, but it was very difficult,” she signals
the ways in
which interpreters have to combine visual and verbal modes to
accomplish
accurate translations. Furthermore, the examples shared by
Graciela de-
scribe the immediacy and urgency through which successful
interpretation
happens. When interpreters are on a job, they translate
information in the
moment, with little time to second- guess their choices. Over
time, inter-
preters develop a critical awareness of the kairotic impacts of
translation,
understanding, first, how the immediacy and urgency of any
given situa-
tion may influence how information may be perceived by a
particular in-
dividual and, second, how the information should be interpreted
within
the context of that situation. In these instances, interpreters like
Graciela
draw on a wide range of modalities and media to communicate
informa-
tion across languages.
In the video montage, Carla describes a translation moment that
she
experienced as she tried to translate the word labor in English
for a mother

who was giving birth. During this translation session, Carla
explains, the
doctor stated that he was going to “break [the patient’s] water in
order to
get the labor started.” In that moment, Carla had to make a
decision about
using the literal translation of the word labor in Spanish, which
happens to
be the same word. This literal translation for labor was
referenced in one of
Carla’s training manuals on medical terminology, which
directed her to
translate labor in English with the same word in Spanish.
Rather than using the word labor in her translation, however,
Carla
decided to adjust the language and tell the Spanish- speaking
client, “Le
voy a romper la fuente para empezar con el nacimiento,” which
translates,
“I’m going to break your water so that we can get the birth
started.” As
Carla clarified in her conversation with the interpretation
coordinator,
Eloy, “I could have said ‘to get the labor started,’ but I knew in
that mo-
ment that the patient could have misinterpreted the word labor
to refer-
ence a job or profession.” In this translation moment, Carla
knew that she
had to erase any potential confusion for the Spanish- speaking
patient, es-
pecially during the intensity that is already overwhelming the
mother giv-
ing birth. During this brief but critically important translation
moment,

Carla used her own experiences and her knowledge of Spanish
and English
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
to make a rhetorical decision that she then verbalized to the
patient. Thus,
Carla used multimodal strategies by rhetorically negotiating
semiotic re-
sources to reach a specific audience in a specific rhetorical
situation.
In a follow- up artifact- based interview with me, Carla
explained that in
the specific translation moment discussed with Eloy, she “knew
how
scared” the patient giving birth was during this session. Because
Carla is a
mother herself, she understands the fear and stress that takes
place during
a birth. Recalling her experiences giving birth, Carla
empathized with the
patient during this high- stakes situation and decided to change
the word
she used, not because the use of labor is inaccurate but because
Carla be-
lieved nacimiento (birth) would be a more effective and
soothing word for

the birthing mom to hear in this translation moment. As
evidenced
through this translation moment, when Carla interprets for her
commu-
nity, she draws both on her medical interpretation training and
on her
lived experiences as a Spanish- speaking Mexican American
mother who
struggled for years to navigate linguistic and cultural barriers
on her own.
Carla makes connections with the patients for whom she
interprets, mak-
ing important rhetorical decisions that take account both of
“accurate”
definitions of medical terminology and of contextual factors
influencing
the understanding of medical information in high- stakes
environments.
These decisions and the exigence that fuels them also render
multimodal
translation practices as translators work in digital environments
to com-
plete linguistic transformations for their community.
Digitally Mediated Multimodality in the Language Services
Department
While interpreters like Carla and Graciela illustrate multimodal
translation
processes through their nonalphabetic, embodied experiences,
other ele-
ments of multimodality also emerged as employees in the
Language Services
Department interacted with digital technologies in their written
transla-
tions. For example, in a translation session shown briefly in the

video mon-
tage mentioned above, Sara was translating a flyer regarding an
event spon-
sored by the organization Heart of West Michigan United Way.
As she read
the English version of the flyer aloud during her translation
process, Sara
began gesturing back and forth with her fingers, pointing to the
computer
screen and moving her hands as she continued reading aloud. As
she contin-
ued gesturing back and forth with her fingers, Sara said,
I’m going to start later in the sentence, even though the English
version starts
with the words “Heart of West Michigan United Way.” Rather
than keeping
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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the order the same in Spanish, I’m going to start the translation
in a different
spot in the sentence, because if I start the translation with
“Heart of West
Michigan United Way,” the Spanish- speaking reader will not be
compelled to
keep reading. Last time we did a flyer translation, when we
started with the

name of an organization in English, the Spanish- speaking
clients did not feel
like the flyer was intended for them. So here, I’m going to start
differently.
During this translation moment, Sara combined the strategies of
ges-
turing and reading aloud when making a decision about where to
begin
the Spanish version of this flyer. Sara was not necessarily
struggling to
come up with the translation of a specific word in Spanish. For
this reason,
using a digital translation tool would not have been useful in
this instance.
Instead, Sara used her own previous experiences (“Last time we
did a flyer
translation . . .”), as well as her own embodied practice during
the inven-
tion process, to make a rhetorical decision that helped her
overcome this
translation moment. As Sara moved her fingers back and forth
in front of
the screen, she envisioned and decided between various
sentence structures
that would facilitate understanding for Spanish- speaking users
interacting
with this flyer. By moving her fingers across the screen, Sara
visualized how
the various grammatical structures could be presented in both
Spanish and
English, deciding to start her translation with a word in Spanish
rather
than keeping the English name of the organization at the
beginning of the
sentence. In this way, Sara used embodied strategies, through

her gesturing
at the screen, to navigate this particular translation moment.
As she continued translating this same flyer, Sara paused to
decide how
she would translate the word champion into Spanish. During
this transla-
tion moment, Sara used the digital translation tool
WordReference (http://
www.wordreference.com/) to look for a word in Spanish that
would signal
a “champion” in health insurance rather than a champion of a
race or
sports event. As she considered WordReference’s options to
decide which
word to use in her translation, Sara repeated each word provided
by
WordReference aloud, using her indexed cultural knowledge
and lived ex-
periences to decide which word most accurately matched the
rhetorical
situations in which she has used this term before. During this
translation
moment, Sara repeated the words campeón and triunfador
(potential trans-
lations for English champion) over and over again during her
translation
process, attempting to trigger her memories regarding previous
contexts in
which she has seen these words. As she moved back and forth
between
these two options, Sara moved her fingers in front of the
computer screen,
pointing back and forth at each printed word on the screen and
signaling

2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
a recursive back- and- forth movement as she made her final
decision. As
she moved through this translation, Sara continued to layer
rhetorical
strategies and modalities to transform information, using her
body, her
memory, and several digital tools to assist during this cyclical
and recursive
process, consequently echoing the second pillar of A Revised
Rhetoric of
Translation.
In another project (not included in the introductory video
montage),
Catalina, another translator for the Language Services
Department, was
working to translate a marriage certificate for a community
client. During
this process, Catalina experienced a translation moment as she
paused to
decide how to translate the word notarize in reference to the
marriage cer-
tificate being legally issued and notarized in a government
agency. At first,
Catalina used the Linguee digital translator to look up Spanish
translations

for the word notarize. Linguee provided three possible Spanish
words: no-
tariado, notarizado, and escriturado. While these translations
were helpful,
all three translation options were provided by Linguee as
present- tense
adjectives, and Catalina was looking for a past- tense
description. During
this translation moment, Catalina was left to improvise a
translation.
At first, Catalina asked out loud as she was translating in the
office of
the Language Services Department, “Como dirían ‘notarized’?”
(How
would you all say “notarized”?). Sara, who happened to be in
the office at
the time, responded to Catalina by stating, “Notarizado?”
Catalina replied,
“Yeah, I think so, pero [but] what about notariado?” Catalina
and Sara then
repeated both words interchangeably aloud several times,
“Notariado, no-
tarizado, notariado, notarizado— which sounds better?” They
then Googled
both words to find examples of each used in articles written in
Spanish. At
this point, Sara explained, “I think notariado is the correct
translation
grammatically speaking, but notarizado is used most commonly
in prac-
tice.” Based on this conversation and on their collaborative
research, Cata-
lina used notarizado in her translation.
Like Sara’s repetition of the Spanish translation options for the

word
champion (campeón and triunfador), Catalina and Sara’s
repetition of the
words notariado and notarizado served as memory triggers that,
in combi-
nation with the digital platforms of Linguee and word-
processing soft-
ware, assisted in navigating translation moments both
accurately and suc-
cessfully. Neither Catalina nor Sara could find a definite answer
online to
navigate this translation, but through their combined
experiences and
their collaborative effort to figure out what “sounds right” by
repeating
translation options out loud, Catalina and Sara reached an
effective trans-
lation in this translation moment.
2019 22:52:09 UTC
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In these brief examples, the combination of digital and material
modes
led the professional translators and interpreters Sara, Catalina,
and Carla
to reach effective translations that adequately reflected the
digital and cul-
tural needs and values of their respective Spanish- speaking

audiences.
While translators in this professional office used
deconstructing, gesturing,
repeating, and storytelling strategies like those use by the
translators at
KLN (discussed in chapter 5), the added lived experiences and
training of
translators like Catalina, Carla, and Sara allowed them to make
more con-
nections between what is considered an “accurate” translation
by a diction-
ary or digital tool and what may be understood most
successfully by
Spanish- speaking clients experiencing urgent and important
situations.
These connections to previous experiences and the coordination
of techno-
logical and cultural resources continued to gain importance as
translators
worked to complete visual multimodal projects.
Mirror Translations in the Language Services Department:
Visual Multimodality across Languages
In addition to digital platforms like Linguee, WordReference,
and Google
Translate, employees in the Language Services Department
enacted multi-
modal translation practices through their visual translation
projects. While
the Language Services Department facilitates many different
types of writ-
ten and verbal translation projects (e.g., medical interpretation
sessions on
the phone and in person, website translations, and flyer
translations), the

most common type of project to enter the Language Services
Department
is the translation of technical documents such as birth
certificates, legal
documents (e.g., court reports), and education records. After
moving to
the United States from other North American, South American,
and Cen-
tral American countries, Latinx community members often have
to trans-
late technical documents in order to establish official residency,
enroll in
school, and qualify for health insurance (among other
purposes). For this
reason, the Language Services Department provides low- cost
document
translation to community members. During my work with the
Language
Services Department in 2015, employees in this office
translated approxi-
mately fifty- six hundred legal, medical, and education
documents for
members of the community.
Although the language on these types of technical documents is
often
limited (ranging from one to two pages and from one hundred to
three
hundred words), much of the work in these types of translations
requires
that translators design and redesign logos, seals, and other
visuals across
2019 22:52:09 UTC

Revised Pages
languages. To ease language accessibility in technical
translations and to
ensure that government agencies will accept translated technical
docu-
ments, the Language Services Department provides clients with
“mirror
translations,” which consist of translated documents that
identically match
the design, layout, and formatting of the original text (Pym,
486). Because
the Language Services Department provides mirror translations,
graphics
like the seals must be translated and designed before the
translated docu-
ment is considered complete. Due to the frequency of
translations requir-
ing seals (birth certificates, proof of something, etc.), the
Language Ser-
vices Department’s greatest source of intellectual property has
become
their extensive, editable, document library of translated seals.
Translators
have built this extensive database of translated seals and stamps
over the
course of twenty- seven years. Seals and stamps are organized
into the cat-
egories of birth/death/marriage certificates, educational/medical
records,
and other document templates, organized by the country of

origin of each
original text. Figures 10– 12 illustrate various seals and figures
that were
designed by translators during the period of my data collection
in the Lan-
guage Services Department.
The image at the top of figure 10 is a picture from an original
Mexican
birth certificate seal submitted for translation at the Language
Services
Department. The image on the bottom is a screenshot from the
translated
seal designed by a translator in the department. As evidenced in
these two
images, employees in the Language Services Department must
both trans-
late the information contained in the seal (e.g., “Office of the
Civil Regis-
try”) and include the images and logos in the translated
document, for
reference. In this way, translators act also as designers in the
translation of
birth certificates, ensuring the usability of translated documents
by provid-
ing mirror translations that can be clearly understood in both
the original
language and the target language.
The image at the top of figure 11 is a picture from an original
Cuban
education certificate submitted by a client of the Language
Services De-
partment. On the bottom is the image designed and translated by
an em-
ployee from the department. The translated phrase “sealed

species,” which
signals that the client paid the taxes due on her original
document, pro-
vides added credibility to the translated document, indicating to
an
English- speaking reader that the educational record was
submitted to and
accepted by the Cuban embassy.
In recent years, government agencies have been providing ways
for in-
dividuals to digitally verify the authenticity of technical
documents such as
birth certificates. Although translators cannot re- create digital
barcodes on
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Fig. 10. Original (top)
and translation (bot-
tom) of a birth certifi-
cate seal from Tepe-
huanes, Durango,
Mexico
Fig. 11. Original (top)
and translation (bot-
tom) of an educa-
tional record stamp
from Cuba

2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
birth certificates and other documents (as depicted in fig. 12), it
is impor-
tant for translators to place barcodes and their corresponding
verification
numbers in the right position on finalized documents. In this
way, govern-
ment agencies can verify the validity of these technical
documents via a
verification number.
As evidenced in figures 10– 12, the translation of technical
documents,
at least for participants in the Language Services Department,
inherently
requires multilingual, multimodal design that stems beyond
alphabetic
writing in a single language. Indeed, in the video and screencast
footage
that I recorded during my time working and researching in the
Language
Services Department, 65 percent of the time translators spent in
the trans-
lation of technical documents was focused on designing logos
and images,
to render translations that make sense visually and
alphabetically in both
English and Spanish for specific purposes and contexts. During

an inter-
view, one translator, Holly, explained that her time spent
translating a
single birth certificate encompassed “thirty minutes total: ten
minutes
translating the text, twenty minutes fixing seal graphic
templates.” Since
the Language Services Department has been in business for
twenty- seven
years and since all translations completed at the Hispanic
Center are stored
Fig. 12. Birth certificate seals and seal barcodes from the
Dominican Republic,
original (top) and translation (bottom)
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
on a secure server, previous translations are used as templates
for new proj-
ects, decreasing the amount of time that translators have to
spend re-
creating frequently used seals and images. For instance,
Mexican state seals
that have remained the same for decades are copied into new
technical
document translations repeatedly. However, as Holly explained
in her de-

scription of “fixing seal graphic templates,” although the
Language Ser-
vices Department has this extensive library of translated seals,
their inser-
tion into documents still requires formatting and manipulation
to
completely mirror and communicate (to the best of the
translator’s ability)
the original document. In the case of technical translations such
as birth
and marriage certificates, multimodality is enacted both through
the com-
bination of images and words on final translated documents and
through
the embodied, material modes deployed by translators like Sara
and Cata-
lina as they consult each other and their own lived experiences
when mak-
ing decisions in the moment of translation.
In addition to mirror translations of technical documents,
translators
in the Language Services Department often have to navigate
other visual
digitally designed elements in their translation projects. During
my work
in the Language Services Department office, a local institution
that was
preparing information materials regarding home foreclosure
issues for
community members in Michigan requested the translation of a
seven-
part document (127 total pages). The institution sought to have
these doc-
uments available in English and Spanish on their website, so
that members

of the Latinx community could utilize the institution’s services.
In particu-
lar, the institution aimed to provide resources (in both Spanish
and En-
glish) to help community members understand and navigate
through pro-
cesses of home foreclosure. This translation project consisted of
translating
an entire website, with hyperlinks to external content.
When the Language Services Department originally received
this trans-
lation request, I observed a conversation between Sara and
Holly, where
they discussed the value of this project. “This is a great
resource for our
people,” said Sara, adding, “They can really use information on
foreclo-
sure.” Holly then replied, “Yes, but how are we going to do it?”
To com-
plete this translation request, translators not only had to
complete mirror
translations, which included formatting and designing to match
the origi-
nal website. They also had to delegate discrete translation and
design ac-
tivities to different team members, as well as design the
translations with
the end users, client, and web developers in mind. Thus, the
translators
engaged in multiple, overlapping multimodal activities normally
under-
taken by specialized project managers, translators, user
experience design-

2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
ers, and web developers. Since the Language Services
Department is a
small, low- budget office and since translators for the
organization are
trained bilingual community members who typically have not
had exten-
sive professional technological training outside of the office,
technical
equipment (e.g., design software) is not readily available.
Instead, transla-
tors have to work with limited software (e.g., Microsoft Office)
to com-
plete all projects.
In addition to translating technical language about home
financing and
foreclosure, the four translators who worked on this project had
to negoti-
ate roles as project managers and designers. The 127- page file
was initially
delivered to the office as a PDF document (see fig. 13). Later,
after a client
conversation regarding formatting and style, the document was
resubmit-
ted by the client as an editable Microsoft Word file. Translators
worked on
this editable Word file to complete and format the initial

translation, tak-
ing into account visuals that could be seen directly on the
document in
which they were working. However, three weeks into the project
(after all
the language translation had been completed), the client
contacted the
Language Services Department to request that the content be
reformatted
into a file format that would make the content suitable for
transfer into
web publishing (see fig. 14). This last- minute reformatting,
which facili-
tated web design and online accessibility, resulted in an
additional fifty
hours of work for the Language Services Department, because
the format-
ting update requested by the client required knowledge in web
coding
(marking spaces, headings, etc.) that was not readily available
to partici-
pants in the department. In turn, to complete this reformatting,
transla-
tors had to learn to navigate new software (SDL Trados, a
popular digital
translation tool), while simultaneously keeping in mind how this
new
translation format might impact Spanish- speaking readers
aiming to un-
derstand the content in the finished project. Reformatting this
document
required translators to understand how English content was
segmented in
the original version and then to develop a way to similarly
break up Span-
ish content in a way that would fit within the specified

parameters of the
new format.
As figure 13 illustrates, the content presented in the original
document
allowed translators to see how information would be presented
to the tar-
get audiences. Translators working in this document could see
the images
and space limitations and could make translation choices based
on these
parameters. In the reformatted version depicted in figure 14,
however, in-
formation is broken into line segments. Translators working
with this
document do not always have a reference point for how their
words will be
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Fig. 13. Initial PDF document on foreclosure submitted to the
Language Services
Department for translation
2019 22:52:09 UTC

Revised Pages
positioned within the context of an entire document; that is,
participants
have to translate phrases such as “they are” without knowing
what “they”
is being referenced and where the word “they” may be placed
within the
text. This increases complexity with the translation process as
well as the
multimodal complexity of the translation, as translators have to
think of
ways to rhetorically reposition words in a sentence to make
them effective
both visually and alphabetically for intended readers.
The documents shown in figures 13 and 14 contain the same
language
that needed to be translated for this client. However, as the two
images il-
lustrate, the formatting and design of each document is
dramatically dif-
ferent. While the document in figure 13 contained a file format
that facili-
tated accessibility and design on the side of the client
developer, the
document in figure 14 required much less technical, visual, and
digital
manipulation on the part of the translators. Since Spanish
content is typi-
cally longer than English content, translators working in this
new format
had to redevelop their translations to fit within the space
boundaries of the
new file. In addition, translators had to maintain the usability of
the docu-

ment by rethinking captions, titles, headings, and metadata to
accompany
their translations in this new file format.
During an interview, Sara (who worked as one of the translators
on the
foreclosure project) explained that the updated file format was
“challeng-
ing” for their office.
We had to think of new ways to translate information, even
though we had
already technically completed the translation in the first file
version. The pur-
Fig. 14. Reformatted version of the document on foreclosure
submitted to the
Language Services Department for translation
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Revised Pages
pose of this new format was to publish something on the web,
which was not
clear to us in the original version. This completely changes the
translation be-
cause now we have to think about words and space, numbers
[with the line
segments] and letters, as well as visuals, all while keeping our

community in
mind and thinking about how they would be using their
information. We
can’t send them to a hyperlink that is not translated or break up
a title just
because there is a picture in between the words. We have to
think of ways to
redirect the information so that it’s available and
understandable to them in
their language. It’s not just about replacing words.” (emphasis
added)
Sara’s reference to the overlapping activities completed by
translators
within the Language Services Department (in her discussion of
“words and
space, numbers and letters”) reflects the constant flux of
activity that par-
ticipants in this organization must undertake to successfully
complete such
a large- scale translation project. Through my observation and
participa-
tion in this specific translation, I was able to note the various
dimensions
of multimodality being enacted by translators as they
considered how to
rhetorically reposition content for their communities. For
instance, be-
cause the translators in the Language Services Department are
experts
when it comes to understanding how speakers of Spanish read in
Spanish,
they can understand how readers of Spanish might navigate
information
differently than those who can read the information in English.
The line

segments and text breaks embedded in the reformatted file were
created
with speakers and readers of English in mind, which meant that
the trans-
lators were left to make decisions about how these formats
could impact
their audience. Although translators in the Language Services
Department
are not formally trained in user experience or web development,
these in-
dividuals are, as Sara demonstrates, the ones with expertise in
these in-
stances, leveraging their cultural and linguistic knowledge
across modes,
platforms, and media in order to successfully complete their
work. Only
through interactions among these composing elements are
translation
projects both effectively completed and holistically understood.
Multimodal Elements Coming Together
This chapter provides several examples of how multilingual and
multi-
modal elements of translation come together in the work of
professional
translators and interpreters. Mirror translations, web content
analysis, and
cultural representations are all incorporated into the daily
realities of em-
2019 22:52:09 UTC

Revised Pages
ployees in the Language Services Department. In addition,
translators in
that office represent a wide range of generational and
socioeconomic dis-
tributions. They have extensive lived experiences to draw from
when com-
pleting their work, and they serve multiple different parts of
their com-
munity, working across medical, legal, and educational contexts
rather
than being constrained to translating in one area.
What most struck me about the translation work completed in
the
Language Services Department is the immediate impact that
professional
translation and interpretation activities have on the community
members
in the surrounding area. While I can separate and analyze the
individual
multimodal elements enacted through translation in material and
digital
environments in the Language Services Department, there were
certain
moments in my experiences with this organization that pushed
all of these
resources and practices to come together. While analyzing the
individual
translation moments in this organization helped me see the
interactions
between the different modes and languages used by translators,

witnessing
the force behind these individual elements in the lives of human
beings
helped me further understand how linguistic, technological, and
material
resources must be combined to render successful community
action. To
help close this chapter, I share a story that further illustrates the
depth,
exigence, and power that results when all the
multilingual/multimodal ele-
ments of translation come together.
Teresa’s Story
During one of my last weeks working in the office of the
Language Services
Department, I was fortunate to meet Teresa, a community client
who
came into the office requesting help with a written translation. I
vividly
remember getting up to greet Teresa after she walked in and
requested the
translation of a 125- page document that she clenched tightly
between her
fingers. Figure 15 shows the first page of Teresa’s document,
both in the
original Spanish and in the translated English version. The
complete docu-
ment contained over 37,000 words and included several hundred
seals,
logos, and images.
Upon first assessing Teresa’s document, I immediately realized
that,
even at the discounted pricing that the department offered to

commu-
nity members, this translation would cost Teresa over two
thousand dol-
lars to complete, particularly because the project would require
both
translating the alphabetic words and recreating the images
included in
the text. As I initially discussed this translation project with
Teresa
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
throughout our consultation, I thought about the different layers
of
complexity embedded in the document. As a technical
translator, I ana-
lyzed the linguistic complexity of the text, reading through the
legal lan-
guage and immediately attempting to determine which of the
translators
would be most suited for this project. I also asked some
questions about
the translation, trying to find ways to reduce the cost of the
project:
“Gracias por venir, señora Teresa. Parece que este proyecto es
muy im-
portante, pero también está muy complicado. ¿Sera que tiene
que tra-

ducir todas las hojas, o podríamos omitir algunas para reducir el
costo?”
(Thanks for coming in, Ms. Teresa. It looks like this project is
really impor-
tant, but it’s also really complicated. Are you sure that you have
to have all
the pages translated, or can we omit some pages to reduce the
cost?) As a hu-
man reading through this document in Teresa’s presence, I
couldn’t help
but notice Teresa’s eyes water, her eyebrows scrunch, and her
hands tense
up into fists, trying to find strength as I flipped through the
pages that
contained her story (rather than just my project): “No, sí tengo
que tra-
ducir todas las hojas. Es lo único que tengo. Tengo que
traducirlo todo
Fig. 15. Original (left) and translation (right) of the first page in
a document
submitted to the Language Services Department by the client
Teresa
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
completo.” (No, I do have to have all the pages translated. It’s
the only thing

I have. I have to translate everything completely.)
Through our conversation and upon further analysis of the
document,
I found out that it was the only documentation Teresa was given
following
her husband’s work- related fatal accident in Mexico. Teresa’s
husband had
left Grand Rapids to complete a construction project in Mexico,
expecting
to return within a month of his departure. Weeks after her
husband was
scheduled to return to their home in Grand Rapids, however,
Teresa re-
ceived this 125- page document in the mail, with no other
explanation of
what had happened. She broke into tears as she recalled, “Ni
una llamada,
ni una explicación; solo me enviaron este documento por
correo” (Not even
a phone call, not one explanation; they just mailed me this
document). Teresa
proceeded to explain that she needed to contract a lawyer in the
United
States to pursue legal compensation for the tragedy described in
her docu-
ment. Although she had found and was currently working with a
success-
ful lawyer, Teresa soon found out that the lawyer (who was not
proficient
in Spanish) needed the document to be translated and notarized
before he
could begin Teresa’s case. For this reason, Teresa walked into
the Language
Services Department requesting assistance, holding this
intricate docu-

ment that contained all her hope for potential justice. She
explained,
“Tengo que contratar a este abogado y tengo que buscar
justicia” (I have to
work with this lawyer, and I have to seek justice).
Completing Teresa’s translation required conversations among
transla-
tors, Teresa, her lawyer, and other legal experts. In addition,
completing
mirror translations of the seal and logo included in Teresa’s
document re-
quired the rhetorical manipulation of visuals, completed over
several weeks
through the use of in- house digital tools like Microsoft Word
and Power-
Point, in combination with alphabetic translations completed
with the as-
sistance of cultural knowledge and digital tools like Linguee
and Google
Translate. In short, successfully completing translations in a
professional
office like the Language Services Department inherently
required the
“thoughtful and aware modification [of texts, visuals, and other
modes] for
particular audiences and circumstances,” circumstances that
sometimes, as
Teresa’s case illustrates, hold the highest stakes and most
drastic potential
consequences (Arola, Sheppard, and Ball, “Multimodality”).
Although Teresa’s case may seem extreme, every document
translation—
every birth, death, vaccination, education, marriage, and/or
divorce

certificate— contains a story that starts before the document
comes into
the office, continues as translators navigate the visual and
alphabetic con-
version of the text across languages, and evolves through the
continued
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
interactions that are facilitated through the document after it
leaves the
office. Translation projects like the ones completed in the
Language Ser-
vices Department embody multimodal elements both in practice
and
product, taking shape in and through the human and
technological inter-
actions that fuel their development. In Teresa’s particular case,
understand-
ing the story behind the 125- page document helped employees
in the Lan-
guage Services Department find external funding to facilitate
the
translation. Through our work with Teresa and other translators
in the
Language Services Department, we were able both to find funds
for this
project and to understand the care that needed to be taken with

this trans-
lation if it was to positively influence the lawyer’s case on
behalf of Teresa
and her late husband. If we had only acknowledged this as a
standard
translation project, we may have missed the depth of this work
and the
injustice that led to its development in the first place, not
understanding
the urgency of the project and the impact of the consequences
relying on
its completion. Personal interactions with Teresa gave us the
opportunity
to complete the translation in an ethical and effective manner.
While there are typically several technical and intellectual
practices at
play in the completion of professional translation, the biggest
motivator
for this work is the continued livelihood of the people relying
on the infor-
mation being transformed across languages. The focus and
exigency for
thoroughly understanding professional translation, then, is less
the indi-
vidual words, phrases, and visuals being transformed than the
lives that are
transformed in conjunction. Multilingual/multimodal activities
embed-
ded in these translations are the catalysts for community action,
continu-
ously influencing and being influenced by the lives,
experiences, and needs
of the individuals who make this work possible.
• Understanding the stories behind translation, especially in a

com-
munity organization such as the Language Services Department,
requires
intricate attention to both process and practice in multilingual,
multi-
modal communication. As Sara mentioned to me during our
early interac-
tions, you cannot truly understand translation without actually
being a
part of the work itself— understanding the various exigencies
that drive its
completion. To be sure, not all translation work is as intense as
the work
that is completed in the Language Services Department.
Translation work
in business settings, for instance, may be completed for entirely
different
reasons than the translations I witnessed in my small community
organiza-
tion. Yet, although the work of translation may be abstracted
and discussed
in technical terms alone, understanding the experiences of the
translators
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Revised Pages
themselves and getting a sense of the rhetorical activities
embedded in

language transformation allows us to better account for the
labor that of-
ten remains invisible when we discuss multimodal and
multilingual com-
munication in both academic and professional settings.
As scholars and teachers in rhetoric and composition, technical
com-
munication, and related areas continue to make connections
between mul-
tilingualism and multimodality, I encourage us to think both
about multi-
lingual/multimodal texts and projects and about the practices
and stories
that lead to these productions. Although the multimodal
activities and
practices encompassed in translation projects within both KLN
(discussed
in chapter 5) and the Language Services Department took place
mostly
outside of traditional classrooms, rhetoric and composition
scholarship
has taught us enough to understand that our students’
experiences extend
through and beyond the constraints of our classroom spaces and
assign-
ments. For this reason, as Shipka urges, it is important for
writing re-
searchers and teachers to understand and value the “roles [that]
texts, talk,
people, perceptions, semiotic resources, technologies, motives,
activities,
and institutions play in the production, reception, circulation,
and valua-
tion of seemingly stable finished texts” (Toward a Composition,
13). At both

KLN and in the Language Services Department, no form of
communica-
tion was fixed or stable; in fact, it was this instability and
constant flux that
made translators like Brigitte, Natalie, and Sara so powerful and
capable as
multilingual/multimodal rhetoricians and technical
communicators. In
chapter 7, as I present implications for these case studies, I
further illus-
trate how A Revised Rhetoric of Translation, as it was
developed through
the work of translations at KLN and in the Language Services
Depart-
ment, can help us continue to situate multilingual/multimodal
communi-
cation in the lived experiences of students and professionals
from a wide
range of backgrounds.
2019 22:52:09 UTC
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
(TESOL)
Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design: Toward a Synergic
Vision
Author(s): ENRICA PICCARDO
Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, SPECIAL TOPIC

ISSUE: PLURILINGUALISM IN
TESOL (SEPTEMBER 2013), pp. 600-614
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43268036
Accessed: 20-11-2019 22:33 UTC
(TESOL) is collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TESOL
Quarterly
2019 22:33:10 UTC
SYMPOSIUM
This symposium begins with a lead paper that outlines key
tenets of

plurilingualism and plurilingual pedagogy, and how/ why
embracing student
plurilingualism in pedagogy (re-) presents a paradigm shift.
The six papers that
follow enable TESOL practitioners and researchers to see and
hear school-aged
children engaging in plurilingual pedagogy in content-based
instruction focusing
on science, physical education, and developing English literacy
in formal
classroom settings, homework clubs and community schools.
The symposium
contributions provide windows onto the range of forays into
plurilingual
pedagogies in which educators who are committed to bridging
plurilingual
students' linguistic capital and teaching English, the language
prioritized at school
and socially valued in today's global village, are engaging.
Edited by SHELLEY K. TAYLOR
Western University
KRISTIN SNODDON
University of Alberta
Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design: Toward a
Synergic Vision
ENRICA PICCARDO
University of Toronto
Toronto , Ontario , Canada
Contemporary globalized society is characterized by mobility

and
change, two phenomena that have a direct impact on the broad
linguis-
tic landscape. Language proficiency is no longer seen as a
monolithic
phenomenon that occurs independendy of the linguistic
repertoires
and trajectories of learners and teachers, but rather shaped by
uneven
and ever-changing competences, both linguistic and cultural. In
the
European context, research conducted over the past 20 years in
multi-
lingual realities of local communities and societies has brought
to the
forefront the notion of plurilingualism, which is opening up
new
perspectives in language education. In North American
academia, the
paradigm shift from linguistic homogeneity and purism to
heteroglossic
and plurilingual competence in applied linguistics has been
observed in
the emergence of such concepts as disinventing languages ,
translanguag-
ing, and code-meshing. Starting from a historical perspective,
this article
600 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 47, No. 3, September 2013
© 2013 TESOL International Association
2019 22:33:10 UTC

examines the shared principles upon which such innovative
understand-
ings of linguistic competence are based. In particular, it
investigates the
specificity of plurilingualism as an individual characteristic
clearly
distinct from multilingualism in the light of different
theoretical lenses.
The author discusses the potential of such vision together with
its impli-
cations. Finally, this article offers pedagogical implications for
English
language education in the North American context, and
suggests ways
to investigate the new active role that English language
learners and
teachers can adopt in shaping their process of learning English.
doi: 10.1 002/tesq. 110
■ Mobility and change are two m¿yor features facing
contemporary
globalized society (Castles & Miller, 2003). Touching each
aspect of
our collective and individual lives, this changing landscape
implies a
redesign of the linguistic forms located and utilized within the
global
village. No single language is excluded from this process, as
migrating
populations bring with them a wealth of languages and
cultures, which
come into contact with the language (s) of their host countries
and, as
in a chemical reaction, are a catalyst for change. This is only

the most
visible part of the phenomenon: roles and representations of
lan-
guages also play a major role, and they, in turn, have
crystallized over
time, linking with societal and political events.
In this contribution, I use the notion of plurilingualism ,
distinct from
multilingualism, as a lens to investigate the present linguistic
landscape
and its implications for language education. "Plurilingualism
allows for
the interaction and mutual influence of . . . languages in a more
dynamic
way [than multilingualism]" (Canagarajah & Liynage, 2012, p.
50).
Multilingualism keeps languages distinct both at the societal
level and at
the individual level. It also tends to stress the separate,
advanced mastery
of each language a person speaks. Plurilingualism, on the
contrary, is
focused on the fact that languages interrelate and interconnect
particu-
larly, but not exclusively, at the level of the individual. It
stresses the
dynamic process of language acquisition and use, in contrast
with coexis-
tence and balanced mastery of languages (Council of Europe,
2001).
Language diversity, exchange, contact, and the coexistence of
differ-
ent languages and cultures - both on a personal and social level
- are

not just phenomena linked to today's globalization and mass-
migration, but have been cyclically recurrent and even
intrinsically
present from the beginning of history. Currently,
multilingualism
remains the norm on a global scale and permeates even the
apparent
homogeneity of monolingual states. The fundamental
socioeconomic
changes brought about by globalization have contributed to
moving
from modernity to postmodernity (Bauman, 1992), and from
solid to
liquid modernity (Bauman, 2000). This process has implied
going from
SYMPOSIUM 601
2019 22:33:10 UTC
李墨轩
the imposition of uniformity, order, and the homogenization of
indi-
viduals by nation states in an attempt to provide certainties, to
a condi-
tion characterized by "institutionalized pluralism, variety,
contingency
and ambivalence" (Bauman, 1992, p. 187). Ambivalence in
particular
refers to the presence of many contradictory meanings that
individual

human agents have to choose between (de Vries, Visscher, &
Gerrit-
sen, 2005). In this process, no external certainties are provided
and
"action is not determined by factors outside human control" (de
Vries
et al., 2005, p. 8).
Until very recently, the construction of linguistic utopias and
homo-
geneous linguistic communities (Pratt, 1987) has been
reproduced in
linguistics, where "the dominance of monolingual assumptions
. . . has
prevented scholars from appreciating plurilingualism"
(Canagarajah &
Liynage, 2012, p. 50) and "has hindered the development of
plurilin-
gual practices and knowledge" (p. 51). A parallel shift is also
evident
in applied linguistics, where such ground-breaking notions as
disinvent-
ing languages (Makoni, 2002; Makoni & Pennycook, 2007),
translangu-
CLging (Garcia, 2009), code-meshing (Canagarajah, 2006),
multi-competence
(Cook, 1991, 2007), polylingualism (j0rgensen, 2008), and
transidiomatic
practices (Jacquemet, 2005) open up an entire new world of
possibili-
ties within the study of plurilingualism.
FROM PURENESS TO PLURALITY: A PARADIGM SHIFT
AND SOME PRINCIPLES
Research has started to challenge traditional visions of

language
learning and teaching. As recently as a few decades ago, the
separation
and purity of languages was unquestioned, both socially and
scientifi-
cally (Baker, 1988). Consequently, bilingual education was
seen as dan-
gerous, as a source of reduced language proficiency, linguistic
insecurity, psychological problems, and exclusion from a
language-
specific community (Baker, 1988). The language learning
practices of
social elites did not contradict this vision, as attention was
brought to
with the
goal of developing general culture and balanced bilingualism.
In
recent years, language plurality has started to be seen as a
source of
positive learner attributes, such as higher cognitive flexibility;
linguis-
tic, cultural, and conceptual transfer; and enhanced capacity for
abstract, divergent, and creative thinking (Boekmann, Aalto,
Atanas-
oska, & Lamb, 2011). This conceptualization moves beyond
language
hierarchies and social connotations and, in spite of some
resistance,
the foundations have been laid for a substantial paradigm shift.
602 TESOL QUARTERLY
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The new and potentially revolutionary aspects of a plurilingual
vision are supported in three theoretical domains, each
representing
lenses through which the phenomenon can be effectively
explored:
(a) The psychocognitive perspective, which studies language
acquisi-
tion mechanisms. A new connectionist paradigm is increasingly
predominant in describing the functioning of the brain (Bickes,
2004, p. 38), and the brain of bi/multilinguals is no longer seen
as
the sum of monolingual brains but rather considered as a
complex
and distinct system (Bialystok, 2001; Perani et al., 2003).
(b) The sociocultural perspective, which posits that language
acquisi-
tion occurs in the social sphere and is intrinsically linked to
interac-
tion and mediation between individuals, each possessing his or
her
own complex cultural system and all living within
linguistically, cul-
turally, and sociologically defined configurations (Lantolf,
2011).
(c) The pedagogical perspective, a new complex vision of
language
teaching methodology, supported by the post-method movement
(Bell, 2003; Garcia, 2009; Kumaravadivelu, 2001).
The shift from a behaviorist paradigm to seeing language as
cogni-
tively developed (Garcia, & Flores, 2012) and socially

constructed
(Lantolf, 2011) foregrounds the understanding that learning
occurs
when a new reflective, active process takes place and
information can be
linked to already existing knowledge. The mother tongue (s)
is/are not
excluded from this process: every (new) language acquisition
modifies
the global language competence of individuals and shapes their
linguis-
tic repertoires. In turn, errors are no longer seen as pure by-
products of
interference but also as a way of progressing. More and more,
the pro-
cess of language acquisition is seen as nonlinear, where
preexisting lin-
guistic knowledge and competence is taken into consideration,
together
with experience in language learning, task accomplishment,
different
aims, conditions, and constraints (Piccardo, 2010b). In this
complex
vision, learners are called upon to play a very active role. The
process of
constructing proficiency is dependent on, and enhanced by, a
reflective,
autonomous attitude in which metacognitive and metalinguistic
skills
play an important role. The notion of plurilingual and
pluricultural
competence is able to bring together this plurality of elements
and skills.
The adoption of a plurilingualism-inspired pedagogy calls for
the

definition of certain key principles, applicable from the
classrooms
level to language policies:
• Teaching and learning of any one language should be seen in
conjunction with the overall objective of promoting
plurilingual-
ism and linguistic diversity.
SYMPOSIUM 603
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• The idea of a curriculum for each language taken in isolation
should be replaced by consideration of the role of languages in
a general language education, where knowledge, skills, and the
ability to learn are transversal and transferable across
languages.
Synergies would be created between languages with the
purpose
of reaching a common higher goal.
• The transfer of skills should play a pivotal role and be seen in
a
cost-efficiency perspective: not only would useless repetition
be
avoided, but also the greater awareness and self-esteem of
learn-
ers would potentially optimize learning.
What is at stake in aiming toward developing a plurilingual
compe-

tence is the idea of minimizing barriers between languages, of
adopt-
ing a holistic vision, and of focusing on linguistic education in
a
broader sense, including all languages (LI, L2, L3, and so on),
but
also different varieties of the same language. Whereas
multilingualism
focuses on quantity - on considering a series of languages
without any
particular attention paid to relations between them -
plurilingualism
insists on the relationships amongst all languages of each
individual.
Coherently, "dynamic plurilingual pedagogies are being
expanded as
ways of going beyond traditional diglossie arrangements that
compart-
mentalize languages .... 'Languaging' or what students do with
lan-
guage in multilingual spaces is taken up as the defining unit"
(Garcia
& Flores, 2012, p. 238).
WE ARE ALL PLURILINGUAL
The search for universais - that is, perfect models - and
prototypical
examples is deeply rooted in the philosophical and scientific
vision of
the Western world (Piccardo, 2005, 2010a). When Chomsky
described
human language as a mechanism governed by a series of formal
rules,
he referred to "an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely
homogeneous

speech community, who knows its language perfectly" (1965,
p. 3). We
are now increasingly aware that such a perfect individual does
not
exist, no more than a stable and perfectly known language
exists. As
Wandruszka (1979) already pointed out in his seminal work, we
live in
our own mother tongue in several languages. For example,
everyone
uses different registers with different audiences and in
different situa-
tions; people use common foreign words without translating
them and
employ specific technical vocabularies here and there, even in
an
incomplete and imperfect way. Besides, some people are more
aware
than others of word origins and their semantic implications, of
meta-
phorical connotation of words and expressions, and of
paralinguistic
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features. A human language is not a closed and homogeneous
"mono-
system"; it is rather a unique, complex, flexible dynamic
"polysystem,"
a conglomerate of languages constantly moving and

overlapping inter-
nally and reaching other languages externally (Wandruszka,
1979, p.
39). As Wandruszka suggested, "already in our mother tongue
we are
plurilingual in all the colours of the socio-cultural spectrum.
Therefore
it is also difficult to say what exactly our own personal
language is,
(1979,
p. 38, my translation). Overall, he asserted, languages are
essentially
composita , in the same way as archeological sites show
different cultures
and their influences, superimposed or harmoniously integrated;
how-
ever, unlike archeological sites, languages are neither static nor
achieved. They are dynamic and flexible, accepting of further
contact
with other languages, and in a continuous process of creation
and
work in
progress. It is not only when children are brought up
bilingually that
they are they exposed to (and learn) more than one language;
even
those who learn only one language learn several layers of that
lan-
guage - regional and social variations, as well as "technical"
language
which they will continue to expand later in life, the unique
plurilin-
gualism of each individual being a yield of his or her life
journey

(Wandruszka, 1979, p. 41).
Wandruszka's perspective does not only demystify the myth of
monolingualism, the false vision of linguistic homogeneity and
pure-
ness; it is also visionary from a pedagogical perspective (Christ
& Hu,
2008). Particularly thought-provoking is the normality and
inevitability
of plurilingualism. No matter how monolingual we consider
ourselves
to be, we are fundamentally plurilingual, albeit unconsciously
so. No
matter how standard and pure we consider each language, it is
inevita-
ble that all languages are ensembles of different elements in a
dynamic and constantly changing relationship.
Unfortunately, applied linguists still structure most language
research around an unrealistic, idealized hearer-speaker model
that is
not very different from the one Chomsky envisaged. They fail
to see
that it is impossible to isolate single elements of languages and
lan-
guage acquisition in the same way that it is impossible to
isolate single
elements in most domains of research, a perspective which
complexity
and system theory is clearly proving (Larsen-Freeman, 1997,
2002;
Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008; Morin, 1984, 1990; Morin
& Le
Moigne, 1999). A growing body of research has investigated
bilingual-
ism (Baker, 2001; Pavlenko, 2011) and multilingualism (Auer

& Wei,
2007; Martin-Jones, Blackledge, & Creese, 2012), bilingual
education
(Cummins, 2000, 2007; Garcia, 2009; Martin-Jones & Jones,
2000), and
multilingual pedagogies (Garcia & Flores, 2012) underlying the
SYMPOSIUM 605
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ideological and political implications of the conceptualization
of lan-
guages (Duchêne & Heller, 2007; Heller, 2003; Makoni &
Pennycook,
2007), and proposing new tools and lenses for rethinking
bi/plurilin-
gualism in a dynamic perspective. The concepts I mentioned
earlier
all stress hybridity and point toward replacing a linear,
restricted vision
of second or foreign language pedagogy with plurilingual
pedagogies
that are dynamic, recursive, complex, and nonlinear (Garcia &
Flores,
2012). Pavlenko observed that, unless we apply a multilingual
lens, we
will not be able to see how the real world is "messy,
heteroglossic, and
multilingual" (2005, p. xii). She warned against the risk of
continuing
to focus language-related inquiry "on the minority of the

world's
population - monolingual or predominantly monolingual
speakers -
and [of assuming] that only when we find how 'things work' in
mono-
lingual speakers-listeners will we be able to extend the findings
to
speakers of more than one language" (Pavlenko, 2005, p. xii). I
not
only embrace this position but go a step further by applying
Wan-
druszka's (1979) message: monolingual speakers do not really
exist,
only unaware plurilinguals do.
EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICES
No single methodological recipe exists, nor should exist, for
dealing
with such a complex notion as plurilingualism (Beacco &
Byram, 2007,
p. 82). Nevertheless, certain tools have been created to help
practitio-
ners deal with this new perspective and a multitude of
pedagogically
sound practices have been developed. In the European context,
two
tools are significant in the realm of plurilingualism: the
European Lan-
guage Portfolio (ELP),1 and the Autobiography of Intercultural
Encounters
(AIE).2 The ELP, which comes in many versions specially
conceived
for - and by - local contexts, helps learners record their own
levels of
proficiency in different languages (be it their mother tongue [s]

or any
additional languages acquired in either formal or informal
education),
describe their linguistic biography, collect evidence of their
own pro-
gress, and above all engage in a process of self-reflection
conducive to
lifelong learning. Several ELP models integrate special
sections to help
learners develop a metacognitive, metalinguistic attitude and to
apply
it in a crosslinguistic perspective.
1 European Language Portfolio (ELP) . Council of Europe
dedicated website http://www.coe.
int/t/dg4/education/elp/
2 Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE), Council of
Europe Publishing, http://www.
coe.int/t/dg4/autobiography/default_EN.asp?
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The AIE is designed to encourage people to think about, and
learn
from, intercultural encounters that are particularly significant
to them.
Learners of different ages are guided to make sense of the
concepts of
culture and intercultural experiences when faced with diversity

and
otherness. The theoretical framework of the AIE3 purposefully
dedi-
cates a section to plurilingualism; the AIE aims at facilitating,
among
other things, reflection on the role language plays in
intercultural
encounters and consequences of contacts with, and adjustments
to,
other languages, where other can also refer to different
varieties within
the same language.
Some approaches that inform practitioners about how to foster
plurilingual competence include: intercomprehension of related
languages
(Degache, 2003; Meißner 2004; Meißner, Meißner, Klein &
Stegmann,
2003), tertiary language learning (Hufeisen & Neuner, 2004),
awakening
to languages (Candelier, 2003, 2004), 4 and the intercultural
approach
(Byram, 1997; Byram & Fleming, 1998). Known together as
pluralistic
approaches to languages and cultures (Candelier et al., 2011),
these
resources are based on teaching/learning activities involving
more
than one variety of languages or cultures. Intercomprehension
refers to
strategic acquisition of partial competences within language
families
(e.g., Romance, Germanic, Slavonic); tertiary language
education stresses
the possibility of capitalizing on previously acquired
languages; awaken-

ing to languages points toward the value of an early exposure
to a range
of languages, beyond the school curriculum; and the
intercultural
approach is an umbrella term for all practices where culture
becomes
pivotal in language acquisition.
A tool has also been produced for practitioners to implement
plu-
ralistic approaches,5 providing a wealth of descriptors for
guiding the
teaching/learning process. In this tool descriptors are organized
around three categories: knowledge , attitude , and skills:
Knowledge refers
to the language phenomenon considered in its complexity of
linguistic
and semiological systems but also as means of communication,
locus
of culture and identity, and in relation to other languages.
Attitude
includes aspects such as attention, sensitivity, curiosity,
positive accep-
tance, respect, and valuing linguistic and cultural diversity.
Skills
include the ability to observe, analyze, identify, compare, learn
to
learn, and how to use what is known in one language to
understand
or communicate in another.
3 http://www.coe.int/
t/dg4/autobiography/Source/AIE_en/AIE_context_concepts_and
_
theories en.pdf, p. 16 par. 2.13.

4 Referred to by others as language awareness.
5 CARAP-FREPA Framework of reference for pluralistic
approaches to languages and cultures ,
http://carap.ecml.at/CARAP/tabid/2332/language/en-
GB/Default.aspx
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Among these good practices, the Comparons nos langues6
(Let's com-
pare our languages) project (Auger, 2005) is worth citing. It
shows a
French as a second language class where young learners are
constantly
helped with their metalinguistic reflection by referring to their
personal language (s) of origin and by comparing its
grammatical and
lexical features with those of the target language. The teachers
involved do not speak any of the students' languages of origin.
There-
fore, at given times in the course, the students are the experts
and a
process of sharing competences takes place; a process that not
only
fosters French proficiency but also provides learners with
enhanced
senses of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) and autonomy (Little,
1991).
RECOMMENDATIONS/LESSONS FOR ENGLISH

LANGUAGE EDUCATION
In the European context, the idea of plurilingualism at the
individ-
ual level paired with multilingualism at the societal level was
first
defined and explored in non-English-dominant regions (Coste,
Moore, & Zarate, 2009), emerging from the Council of
Europe's policy
of respecting and valuing linguistic (bio) diversity, considered
as cul-
tural capital and a means of preventing the dominance of one or
a
few languages over others. In turn, reflection on
multilingualism in
English-dominant regions has mainly moved from a vision of
recogniz-
ing language diversity, preserving heritage languages (and
cultures),
or making English speakers aware of the value of studying
other
languages to a more dynamic vision, open to linguistic plurality
and
synergies through heteroglossic perspectives and concepts.
The tenets underlying plurilingualism are important for all
languages, be they mother tongue (s), additional, or
international
languages. A key tenet is the degree of awareness of this
process, the
level of autonomy with which a learner is able to recognize and
foster
the process of acquiring a plurilingual competence. Nothing is
auto-
matic when it comes to acquiring a plurilingual competence
(Beacco

& Byram, 2007) because language users must develop
awareness of
their own trajectories and plurality of linguistic and cultural
resources
as well as a recognition of their identities through reflection on
their
experiences (Moore & Castellotti, 2008). Conscious, reflexive
learning
allows for the transformation of a pluralistic repertoire into
plurilin-
gual competence (Le Pichón Vorstman, 2008) .
6 Comparons nos langues: Démarche d'apprentissage du
français pour les enfants nouvellement
arrivés. Project coordinated by Nathalie Auger, Université
Montpellier 3, http://www.
cndp.fr/bienlire/02-atelier/fiche.asp?id=1387&theme=1200
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Plurilingual competence is idiosyncratic, involving different
personal
trajectories, representations, and relationships (Coste, 2002). It
is also
heuristic, because its components - that is, partial competences
- are
both differently articulated and unbalanced and in a dynamic
relation-
ship, capable of creating links between linguistic and cultural
elements, but also of adapting to situations and interlocutors.

Plurilingualism promotes awareness of language diversity,
functional
uses of a variety of linguistic means, recognition of similarities
and
differences among languages, and the link between language
and
culture (s) and eventually also of the specific features of each
language,
including the mother tongue (Piccardo, Berchoud, Cignatta,
Mentz, &
Pamula, 2011). For English teaching in mainstream education
in
North America, in which classrooms are increasingly
multilingual and
multicultural, there is great potential for adopting
plurilingualism as
the foundational philosophy. From the point of view of
developing the
whole learner, this philosophy means that teachers should be
aware
that English language learners have already gained many life
experi-
ences; possess many cognitive abilities based on their
personalities,
previous learning experiences and contacts, motivation and/or
anxi-
eties about learning/speaking (Hufeisen & Neuner, 2004); and,
finally,
have often already learned (or been exposed to) other
languages or
varieties of languages. Teachers can capitalize on these
overarching
competences, which are crosslinguistic and crosscultural, and
learners
can be made aware of the metalinguistic and metacognitive

capital
they possess, which would consequently increase their self-
esteem,
agency, and self-efficacy. To accomplish the latter, teachers do
not
need to be competent in the languages of the learners, but they
cer-
tainly do need to overcome their "monolingual disposition"
(Gogolin,
1994): to focus on teaching the whole person rather than
merely
teaching the language, thus helping learners to become
autonomous,
to integrate formal and informal learning, and to effectively
reflect on
their learning. Educators need to delegate some of the learning
power
to the students and to accept and explore limits of
comprehension
linked to the different cultural perspectives that each language
bears.
All forms of code-mixing and translanguaging should be seen
as posi-
tive signs of progress, as the construction of proficiency.
Therefore,
such techniques should not be forbidden or ignored, but
exploited as
learning epiphanies. The same should happen with moments of
meta-
linguistic and metacultural insight linked to linguistic
structures and
vocabulary. This perspective would achieve a positive
backwash effect
by prompting learners and teachers to become more aware of
the spe-
cific features of the English language, which has structured

itself from
the very beginning of its history around a syncretism of diverse
ele-
ments from completely different languages and cultures.
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This process requires a new vision and a new form of agency
on the
part of TESOL professionals and English language learners; a
total
change of paradigm, leading to the demise of several
pedagogic, cul-
tural, and linguistic myths. Overcoming the monolingual
disposition , so
widespread especially when it comes to the teaching of such a
"global"
language as English, requires considerable effort. This effort is
worth-
while because adopting a plurilingual lens would help both
learners
and teachers situate their efforts in a much wider perspective.
Mastery
of English would not be the sole objective, but rather one
specific aim
within a broader perspective of language education and
personal devel-
opment in the broad sense. More autonomous learners could
start to
see bridges and links instead of obstacles and difficulties. Both

teachers
and learners could "take away the sacred aura from the concept
of plu-
rilingualism itself and make it something rather ordinary and
not
exceptional" (Carrasco Perea & Piccardo, 2009, p. 25, my
translation).
THE AUTHOR
Enrica Piccardo is assistant professor at the Ontario Institute
for the Study of Edu-
cation (OISE) of the University of Toronto and Maître de
Conférences at the Uni-
versity of Grenoble (France). A specialist of the Common
European Framework of
Reference for Languages (CEFR), she has acted as project
coordinator for the
European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) of the Council
of Europe. Her
research interests include emotions and creativity in second
language education,
assessment, and language teacher education.
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human being]. Stuttgart, Germany: Kohlhammer.
Neither "Mono" nor "Multi": Plurilingualism and
Hybrid Competence
RITA ELAINE SILVER
National Institute of Education , Nanyang Technological
University
Singapore
WENDY D. BOKHORST-HENG
Crandall University
Moncton , New Brunswick , Canada
doi : 10.1 002/tesq. 107

■ Piccardo (2013, this issue) highlights three points that we
would like
to address. One is the contrast of plurilingualism with an
idealized
monolingualism, and, as noted by Piccardo in her discussion of
Pav-
lenko (2005), the dangers of referencing learning multiple
language
varieties to a monolingual model. The second is the emerging
notion
of plurilingualism, , in contrast to multilingualism, as
interactive,
dynamic, and taking into account multiple varieties. The third
is the
teaching and learning issues involved if these contrasts are
ignored,
along with the promising potential for pedagogical innovation
when
plurilingualism is recognised as a norm and a desired outcome.
This discussion is salient in contexts such as Singapore,
typically
described as a multilingual society with a quadrilingual
education
system (Silver & Bokhorst-Heng, 2013). Singapore's official
language-
in-education policy is premised on a variation of idealised
monolin-
gualism, on a mono/multilingual dichotomy, providing for
instruction
614 TESOL QUARTERLY
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Contentsp. 600p. 601p. 602p. 603p. 604p. 605p. 606p. 607p.
608p. 609p. 610p. 611p. 612p. 613p. 614Issue Table of
ContentsTESOL Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2013)
pp. 439-662Front MatterPlurilingualism in TESOL: Promising
Controversies [pp. 439-445]The ESL Teacher as Plurilingual:
An Australian Perspective [pp. 446-471]2B or Not 2B
Plurilingual? Navigating Languages Literacies, and Plurilingual
Competence in Postsecondary Education in Canada [pp. 472-
499]The Unexamined Relationship Between Neoliberalism and
Plurilingualism: A Cautionary Tale [pp. 500-520]Toward
Paradigmatic Change in TESOL Methodologies: Building
Plurilingual Pedagogies From the Ground Up [pp. 521-545]The
Engineering of Plurilingualism Following a Blueprint for
Multilingualism: The Case of Vanuatu's Education Language
Policy [pp. 546-566]Plurilingual Pedagogical Practices in a
Policy-Constrained Context: A Northern Ugandan Case Study
[pp. 567-590]THE FORUMTowards a Plurilingual Approach in
English Language Teaching: Softening the Boundaries Between
Languages [pp. 591-599]SYMPOSIUMPlurilingualism and
Curriculum Design: Toward a Synergic Vision [pp. 600-
614]Neither "Mono" nor "Multi": Plurilingualism and Hybrid
Competence [pp. 614-619]Creating Third Spaces in the
Linguistically Heterogeneous Classroom for the Advancement
of Plurilingualism [pp. 619-625]Plurilingualism as Multimodal
Practice [pp. 625-630]Foundation for Learning: Engaging
Plurilingual Students' Linguistic Repertoires in the Elementary
Classroom [pp. 630-638]Towards the Development of a
Plurilingual Pedagogy: Making Use of Children's Informal
Learning Practices [pp. 638-643]Plurilingual Repertoires in the
ESL Classroom: The Case of the European School [pp. 643-
650]REVIEWSReview: untitled [pp. 651-654]Review: untitled
[pp. 654-657]Review: untitled [pp. 657-659]Review: untitled
[pp. 660-662]Back Matter

(TESOL)
Towards a Plurilingual Approach in English Language
Teaching: Softening the Boundaries
Between Languages
Author(s): JASONE CENOZ and DURK GORTER
Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, SPECIAL TOPIC
ISSUE: PLURILINGUALISM IN
TESOL (SEPTEMBER 2013), pp. 591-599
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43268035
Accessed: 30-11-2019 05:33 UTC
(TESOL) is collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TESOL

Quarterly
This content downloaded from 72.141.133.190 on Sat, 30 Nov
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THE FORUM
TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or
practices in the TESOL
profession. It also welcomes responses to rebuttals to any
articles or remarks
published here in The Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.
Towards a Plurilingual Approach in English
Language Teaching: Softening the Boundaries
Between Languages
JASONE CENOZ
University of the Basque Country , UPV/EHU
Donostia-San Sebastian , Spain
DURK GORTER
University of the Basque Country , UPV/EHU
Donostia-San Sebastian , Spain
Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science
Bilbao, Spain
doi: 10.1 002/ tesq. 121
■ This foram article presents a critique of the policy of
language

isolation in TESOL and proposes an innovative plurilingual
approach
to the teaching of English that softens the boundaries between
lan-
guages. First, the article looks at how teaching English as a
second or
foreign language has traditionally been associated with
teaching prac-
tices that encourage the isolation of English from the other
languages
in the student's repertoire and in the school curriculum. Then,
some
proposals that consider the need to make the boundaries
between lan-
guages softer are considered, including the concept of
plurilingualism
of the Council of Europe. The article ends by providing some
teaching
implications for TESOL professionals.
English is the dominant language of international
communication,
and as such it is intensively used and taught in the European
Union
(EU) as well as elsewhere in the world. The results of the
European
Survey on Language Competences (ESLC) indicate that,
outside the
United Kingdom, English is the most widely taught foreign
language in
the EU with the exception of the Flemish and German
communities of
TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 47, No. 3, September 2013 591
© 2013 TESOL International Association

2019 05:33:43 UTC
Belgium (European Commission, 2012). This survey reports on
lan-
guage skills, including reading, writing, and listening in
foreign lan-
guages. The survey focused on 53,000 secondary students from
14
European countries who completed tests of second language
profi-
ciency. The countries with the highest percentages of students
who
reach the upper-intermediate level, that is, the B2 level of the
Common
European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR), in
secondary
school were Malta (60%), Sweden (57%), and Estonia (41%).
The coun-
tries with the lowest scores were France (5%), Poland (10%),
and the
French community in Belgium (10%). The CEFR will be
discussed in
more detail below.
Learning English in Europe cannot be separated from the use of
other languages in education. English is most often a language
directly
addressed in the curriculum and accompanies other state
languages or
minority languages that are also given priority within the
curriculum
(De Houwer & Wilton, 2011; Gorter, 2013). This article

discusses hard
and soft boundaries between the teaching of English and other
languages in the European context. In the next section, we look
at
how teaching English as a second or foreign language has
traditionally
been associated with teaching practices that encourage the
isolation of
English from other languages in the student's repertoire and in
the
school curriculum. Then, we look at how this policy has been
ques-
tioned and how the boundaries between languages need to be
made
softer and more fluid.
HARD BOUNDARIES: LEARNING ENGLISH AS AN
ISOLATED LANGUAGE IN THE CURRICULUM
Whereas the study of plurilingual1 communicative practices
indi-
cates that it is common for plurilingual speakers to combine
elements
from different languages, the boundaries between languages are
usually defined, or hard, in school settings. There is a strong
notion of
isolating the teaching of English from that of other languages
in the
curriculum. Thus, the English language teacher is often
expected not
only to use English, but also to avoid any reference to elements
of the
first language (LI) or other languages. These ideas are deeply
rooted
both in society at large and in second language and foreign

language
teaching. Liidi and Py (2009) explain how the idea of
monolingualism
1 Although there are conceptual differences between the
Council of Europe's uses of pluri-
lingualism and multilingualism, the European Commission uses
the term multilingualism
for both concepts as they are framed by the Council of Europe.
Multilingualism is also
the most common term in English, and in this article the terms
multilingualism and multi-
lingual share the characteristics of plurilingualism and
plurilingual
592 TESOL QUARTERLY
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as "an original state" (p. 155) has been reinforced in Europe by
the
one nation-one language ideology since the 18th century and
still has
currency in many parts of the world. Within the educational
context,
this monolingual principle excludes the use of the LI in second
and
foreign language classrooms; the principle, associated with the
direct
method , has been widely accepted for many years (Cummins,
2007).
The related monolingual policy in English language teaching is

associated with the goal of achieving native-like command of
the target
language, which is an unattainable goal for most students of
English
as a foreign language (Cook, 1999).
The ideology of language separation and the use of the native
speaker as an idealized reference in the teaching of English are
well
rooted in European education. Schools aiming at
multilingualism
often try to have different teachers for each language and
teachers
pretend to be monolingual in the target language. Another
indicator
of this separation is the use of different classrooms for
different
languages. The teaching of content subjects through the
medium of
English in content and language integrated learning (CLIL)
programs
encourages the integration of language and content but not the
inte-
gration of languages, because CLIL isolates the teaching of
English
from the teaching of other languages in the curriculum (Cenoz,
2013). At the same time, the monolingual ideology encourages
students and teachers to act as if they were monolingual
speakers of
English so as to achieve the unreachable goal of speaking
English as if
they did not know other languages.
TOWARDS SOFTER BOUNDARIES BETWEEN
LANGUAGES

In this section, we will see how the ideas of establishing hard
boundaries between languages and having the idealized native
speaker
as a reference have been challenged in the European context.
The
notion of boundaries between languages is not new. Decades
ago,
Grosjean (1985) and Cook (1992) discussed the specific
characteristics
of bilingual speakers. Grosjean (1985) considered bilinguals to
be fully
competent speaker-hearers with unique linguistic profiles that
cannot
be divided into separate parts. Cook (1992) proposed the term
multi-
competence as a complex type of competence, which is
qualitatively
different from the competence of monolingual speakers of a
language.
The implication of this view is that a bilingual or plurilingual
person's
communicative competence is not comparable to that of a
monolin-
gual speaker. Cook (1999) has discussed the fallacy of
comparing L2
learners to native speakers, because these new language
learners bring
THE FORUM 593
2019 05:33:43 UTC

with them part of the LI and therefore judging them against
native
LI speakers is inappropriate. He considers that L2 learners are
funda-
mentally different from native speakers and their competency
should
be examined using a different lens.
The Council of Europe (2007) makes a distinction between
pluri-
lingualism as the "repertoire of varieties of language which
many
individuals use" so that "some individuals may be monolingual
and
some may be plurilingual" and multilingualism, which is
understood
as "the presence in a geographical area, large or small, of more
than
one Variety of language'... in such area individuals may be
monolin-
gual, speaking only their own variety" (p. 8). This distinction
is based
on the individual and social dimensions of communicating in
different
languages, but at the same time the concept of plurilingualism
goes in
the direction of softening the boundaries between languages
and ques-
tioning the role of the native speaker. In fact, plurilingualism
"is not
seen as a juxtaposition of distinct competences, but as a single
compe-
tence, even though it is complex" (p. 10). The idea is to acquire
a
unique competence that encompasses different languages:
national,

minority, European, and non-European languages, which are
referred
to as the speaker's linguistic repertoire. The concepts of
plurilingual-
ism and linguistic repertoires call into question "the model of
the
native speaker as the only legitimate objective" (Council of
Europe,
2007, p. 46) because a plurilingual speaker does not have the
same
skills in all languages.
According to the Council of Europe (2007), the concept of
plurilin-
gualism implies that
• it is not an exceptional competence, it is a competence that
can
be acquired by all speakers;
• the linguistic repertoire does not have to be homogeneous and
therefore can encompass different degrees of proficiency in the
different languages;
• the linguistic repertoire is dynamic and changes over time;
• speakers use a repertoire of communicative resources for
differ-
ent functions and can use different varieties at the same time in
code-switching;
• plurilingualism is a transversal competence and the teaching
of
different languages should be linked to one another; and

• plurilingualism also involves a cultural aspect and the
develop-
ment of pluricultural competence, (pp. 38-39)
The Council of Europe has developed an analytical tool for
defining
levels of proficiency: the Common European Framework of
Reference
for Languages, or CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001) that is used
widely
594 TESOL QUARTERLY
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all over the world. The CEFR is a descriptive guideline that can
be
used for language teaching and language assessment because it
was
developed to provide "a common basis for the elaboration of
language
syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc.
across
Europe" (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 1). It uses "can do"
descriptors
to define six levels of communicative proficiency, as can be
seen in
Table 1. For example, the upper-intermediate level (B2)
mentioned in
the introduction uses the following global descriptors, as can
be seen
in Table 2.

Apart from the global scales such as the one for the B2 level,
there
are specific scales for listening, reading, spoken interaction,
spoken
production, and writing for all the levels. These scales describe
learners' communicative language competences and strategies.
Another tool using the CEFR is the European Language
Portfolio
(Little, Goullier, & Hughes, 2011) that includes the Language
Pass-
port, the Language Biography, and a dossier with concrete
examples
of how languages are used and learned.
Some European scholars working in education have questioned
the monolingual perspective that isolates and establishes hard
bound-
aries between languages; these scholars have argued for the
need to
soften these boundaries (see, e.g., Coste & Simon, 2009). This
soften-
ing is particularly necessary in a context in which "teaching
English
should be conceived so as to stimulate speakers'
plurilingualism "
(Council of Europe, 2007, p. 30). An approach to softening the
boundaries between languages, focus on multilingualism, has
been put
forward by Cenoz and Gorter (2011, forthcoming). This
approach
TABLE 1
The Six Levels of the Common European Framework of

Reference
Basic user A Al Breakthrough or beginner
A2 Waystage or elementary
Independent user B B1 Threshold or intermediate
B2 Vantage or upper intermediate
Proficient user C CI Effective operational proficiency or
advanced
C2 Mastery or proficiency
TABLE 2
Global Scale at the B2 Level
B2 Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both
concrete and abstract
topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of
specialization. Can interact
with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular
interaction with
native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.
Can produce clear,
detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a
viewpoint on a topical
issue giving the advantages and independent disadvantages of
various options.
THE FORUM 595
2019 05:33:43 UTC

aims at improving efficiency in language teaching by using the
resources pluriligual learners have at their disposal. At the
same time,
this approach aims at raising researchers' awareness about the
need
to adopt a holistic plurilingual perspective. It explores the
possibility
of establishing bridges between second and foreign language
teach-
ing and school and plurilingualism in real-life communication.
This
aim of this focus is to involve all the languages and
plurilingual dis-
cursive practices of speakers. A basic principle is that
plurilingual stu-
dents can use their own resources to a larger extent in formal
education.
Focus on multilingualism has important implications for
language
teaching in school contexts. It shows that learners use their
plurilin-
gual resources across languages, and this opens possibilities to
learn
languages in a more efficient way because some language
competences
are general and can be taught in one language while being
reinforced
and transferred to other languages. A single curricular proposal
for
the teaching of languages can give learners the opportunity to
apply
their skills in one language to other languages. Elorza and
Muñoa
(2008) explain that an integrated curriculum "brings together

comple-
mentary facets of the learning processes, while contrasting the
specific
linguistic aspects of each language" (p. 91). An integrated
curriculum
is consistent with a holistic view of language learning in
educational
contexts where plurilingualism is an aim.
CONCLUSION
This article argues for a language policy that moves from the
tradi-
tional monolingual ideology towards adopting holistic
plurilingual
approaches in the teaching of second and foreign languages.
Although
monolingual approaches are still pervasive, the influence of the
Coun-
cil of Europe's (2007) concept of plurilingualism as a dynamic
compe-
tence that combines linguistic repertoires has contributed to the
development of a plurilingual approach in English as a foreign
lan-
guage (EFL). A plurilingual approach allows for maximum
exposure
to the target language and for work on communicative and
academic
skills in English, but at the same time plurilingual teaching
practices
draw on learners' metalinguistic awareness and experiences as
plurilin-
gual speakers so as to learn English in a more efficient way. In
short,
they can benefit from their status as plurilinguals.
A plurilingual approach has several implications for TESOL

teach-
ers and teacher educators:
1. Setting attainable goals. This refers to the need to set
realistic
goals for teaching English as a second or foreign language. The
596 TESOL QUARTERLY
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goal is for students to develop skills to become competent
pluri-
lingual speakers who can communicate in two or more lan-
guages and not monolingual native speakers of English. The
idea that nonnative speakers are deficient communicators is
still
widespread, and as most learners do not achieve this goal, the
process may result in a feeling of failure and incompetence. A
plurilingual approach is in disagreement with this reference to
the idealized native speaker.
2. Using plurilingual competence. Here the idea is that there is
a dis-
tinct advantage of using students' plurilingual competence as a
tool to progress faster when learning English. In fact, the
students' plurilingual repertoires can be an excellent resource
to develop not only linguistic and discourse skills but also
meta-
linguistic awareness. Plurilinguals can draw on their knowledge
of other languages when learning how to communicate in

English or when learning vocabulary or grammar. Learners can
also use their discourse and pragmatic knowledge of other
languages when writing an academic text or when formulating
speech acts in a communicative situation.
3. Integrated syllabi This refers to the need for creating
integrated
syllabi for language teachers so that there is coordination
between the teachers of English and other languages. Teachers
can work together on the same type of text, communicative
event, or grammatical structure in two or three languages so
as to reinforce what the students learn in each of the lan-
guages. The level expected to be achieved in each of the
languages can be different when writing a text in the LI, L2,
or L3.
4. The creation of resources. This is the possibility of creating
activities
using code-switching and translanguaging that are generally
ignored at school but are common among plurilinguals. These
activities could be used to raise awareness of different types of
communicative contexts.
A plurilingual approach highlights how learners relate the
languages in their repertoire to each other when learning
English as
an additional language and when they use their languages in a
social
context. It is time for TESOL professionals to use the
opportunity to
accelerate the learning process by using plurilingualism as a
resource
and not as an obstacle by setting attainable goals, using the
learners'
plurilingual repertoire, integrating syllabi, and using learners'

linguis-
tic creativity as a resource.
THE FORUM 597
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This article was written with the assistance of the research
grant EDU201 2-32191
from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology and the
Basque government
funding for the research group Donostia Research on Education
and Multilingual-
ism (DREAM), UFI 11/54. The authors would like to thank the
volume editors
Shelley K. Taylor and Kristin Snoddon and the anonymous
reviewers for their
helpful comments.
THE AUTHORS
Jasone Cenoz is professor of research methods in education at
the University of
the Basque Country, UPV/EHU. Her research focuses on
multilingual education,
bilingualism, and multilingualism. She has published a large
number of articles,
book chapters, and books, and the award-winning monograph
Towards Multilingual
Education (Multilingual Matters, 2009).

Durk Gorter is Ikerbasque research professor at the University
of the Basque
Country, UPV/EHU in Spain. He does research on multilingual
education, Euro-
pean minority languages, and linguistic landscapes. His recent
publications
include Focus on Multilingualism in School Contexts (2011,
with J. Cenoz) and Minor-
ity Languages in the Linguistic Landscape (2012, with H.
Marten and L. VanMensel).
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THE FORUM 599
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Contentsp. 591p. 592p. 593p. 594p. 595p. 596p. 597p. 598p.
599Issue Table of ContentsTESOL Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3
(SEPTEMBER 2013) pp. 439-662Front MatterPlurilingualism in
TESOL: Promising Controversies [pp. 439-445]The ESL
Teacher as Plurilingual: An Australian Perspective [pp. 446-
471]2B or Not 2B Plurilingual? Navigating Languages
Literacies, and Plurilingual Competence in Postsecondary
Education in Canada [pp. 472-499]The Unexamined
Relationship Between Neoliberalism and Plurilingualism: A
Cautionary Tale [pp. 500-520]Toward Paradigmatic Change in
TESOL Methodologies: Building Plurilingual Pedagogies From
the Ground Up [pp. 521-545]The Engineering of Plurilingualism
Following a Blueprint for Multilingualism: The Case of
Vanuatu's Education Language Policy [pp. 546-566]Plurilingual
Pedagogical Practices in a Policy-Constrained Context: A
Northern Ugandan Case Study [pp. 567-590]THE
FORUMTowards a Plurilingual Approach in English Language
Teaching: Softening the Boundaries Between Languages [pp.
591-599]SYMPOSIUMPlurilingualism and Curriculum Design:
Toward a Synergic Vision [pp. 600-614]Neither "Mono" nor
"Multi": Plurilingualism and Hybrid Competence [pp. 614-

619]Creating Third Spaces in the Linguistically Heterogeneous
Classroom for the Advancement of Plurilingualism [pp. 619-
625]Plurilingualism as Multimodal Practice [pp. 625-
630]Foundation for Learning: Engaging Plurilingual Students'
Linguistic Repertoires in the Elementary Classroom [pp. 630-
638]Towards the Development of a Plurilingual Pedagogy:
Making Use of Children's Informal Learning Practices [pp. 638-
643]Plurilingual Repertoires in the ESL Classroom: The Case of
the European School [pp. 643-650]REVIEWSReview: untitled
[pp. 651-654]Review: untitled [pp. 654-657]Review: untitled
[pp. 657-659]Review: untitled [pp. 660-662]Back Matter
The influence of plurilingualism on second language acquisition
Plurilingual Background
With the development of globalization, more and more people
are no longer limited to their native language, they want to
learn a second language or a foreign language. The reason and
purpose of each person who wants to learn a second language is
different. In this article, we are not concerned with the purpose
of learning a second language, but with the relationship between
the first language and the second language. The reason I want to
explore this topic is that the process and results of second
language acquisition are influenced by many factors. There are
two main factors: one is emotion, and the other is mother
tongue. Therefore, the first language is the most insignificant
and influential factor in the acquisition of the second language.
Although many researchers have conducted in-depth research on
the relationship between mother tongue and second language
acquisition, and proposed various similar or contradictory
theories,
Thesis statement：
· Although plurilingualism may affect the separation and purity
of languages, cause SLA could be impeded and have some
negative impacts on language classroom such as less use of
target language;

· it will keep the development of plurilingualism, contribute to
understanding the target language, and it will have the full
encouragement for sociocultural development.
· Therefore, language teacher should use plurilingual approach
in English language teaching.
1: Should plurilingualism be promoted?
反方：Research has started to challenge traditional visions of lan
learning and teaching. As recently as a few decades ago, the s
and purity of languages was unquestioned, both socially and
cally (Baker, 1988). Consequently, bilingual education was see
gerous, as a source of reduced language proficiency, lin
insecurity, psychological problems, and exclusion from a la
specific community (Baker, 1988). The language learning pr
social elites did not contradict this vision, as attention was br
goal of developing general culture and bala
正方：. A human language is not a closed and homogeneous
"mono- system"; it is rather a unique, complex, flexible
dynamic "polysystem," a conglomerate of languages constantly
moving and overlapping inter- nally and reaching other
languages externally (Wandruszka, 1979, p. 39). As Wandruszka
suggested, "already in our mother tongue we are plurilingual in
all the colours of the socio-cultural spectrum. Therefore it is
also difficult to say what exactly our own personal language is,
(1979, p. 38, my translation). Overall, he asserted, languages
are essentially composita , in the same way as archeological
sites show different cultures and their influences, superimposed
or harmoniously integrated; however, unlike archeological
sites, languages are neither static nor achieved. They are
dynamic and flexible, accepting of further contact with other
languages, and in a continuous process of creation and

work in progress. It is not only when children are brought up
bilingually that they are they exposed to (and learn) more than
one language; even those who learn only one language learn
several layers of that language - regional and social variations,
as well as "technical" language which they will continue to
expand later in life, the unique plurilingualism of each
individual being a yield of his or her life journey (Wandruszka,
1979, p. 41).
2. Does Plurilingualism Affect Second Language Acquisition
反方：Contrastive analysis was used extensively in the field
of second language acquisition (SLA) in the 1960s and early
1970s, as a method of explaining why some features of a target
language were more difficult to acquire than others. According
to the behaviourist theories prevailing at the time, language
learning was a question of habit formation, and this could be
reinforced or impeded by existing habits. Therefore, the
difficulty in mastering certain structures in a second
language (L2) depended on the difference between the learners'
mother language (L1) and the language they were trying to
learn.
Words that express unfamiliar meanings or concepts in L1
Explaining unknown words in the target language will increase
the total amount of input of target language, which facilitate
language acquisition (learning) (e.g., Ellis, 2012).
正方：Words that can be easily translated into the target
language；Providing learners with L1 translations can be a more
effective way of learning the form - meaning connection of
words than providing them with L2 definition (Lado, Baldwin,
& Labo, 1967; Laufer & Shmueli , 1997; Yanagisawa, Webb, &
Uchihara, in press)
3. Does Plurilingualism Affect Language Classroom?
· 反方：Difficult to define boundaries between different
languages

Encourage students to use the target language
· 正方：Reduce the gap with each other
Improve cognitive ability
References
education. Clevedon, England:
Multilingual Matters.
Kramsch, C. (2007). Re‐reading Robert Lado, 1957, Linguistics
across Cultures.
Applied linguistics for language teachers. International
Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 17(2), 241-247
PICCARDO, E. (2013). Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design:
Toward a Synergic
Vision. TESOL Quarterly,47(3), 600-614. Retrieved from
www.jstor.org/stable/43268036
一种多元的方法强调了学习者在学习英语作为另一种语言时以及在社交环境中使
用其语言时如何将其语言中的语言相互联系。现在是TESOL专业人士利用机会
，通过将多元语言主义作为资源而不是障碍，通过设定可实现的目标，利用学习
者的多元语言资源，整合教学大纲以及将学习者的语言创造力作为资源来加速学
习过程
鉴于对多元语言1交流实践的研究
由于说多国语言的人通常会合并来自不同语言的元素，因此通常会在学校环境中
定义或很难定义语言之间的界限。在课程中，有一个强烈的概念将英语教学与其
他语言教学区分开来。因此，经常期望英语老师不仅使用英语，而且还避免任何
对第一语言（LI）或其他语言元素的引用。这些思想深深植根于整个社会以及第
二语言和外语教学中。
Liidi和Py（2009）解释了自18世纪以来在欧洲由于一种民族一语言的意识形
态如何强化了“原始状态”的概念（第155页），并且在世界许多地方仍然流行。
在教育背景下，这种单语原则不包括在第二语言和外语课堂中使用LI。与直接方

法相关的原理已经被广泛接受了很多年（Cummins，2007）。与英语教学相
关的单语政策与目标语言的母语化目标有关，这对于大多数英语作为外语的学生
来说是一个无法实现的目标（Cook，1999）。语言分离的思想和以母语为母语
的人在英语教学中的理想参考，在欧洲教育中根深蒂固。旨在使用多种语言的学
校经常尝试让每种语言使用不同的教师，而教师则假装只使用目标语言。这种分
离的另一个指标是使用不同语言的教室。通过英语在内容和语言集成学习（CLI
L）程序中进行的内容主题教学，鼓励语言和内容的集成，但不鼓励语言的集成
，因为CLIL将英语教学与课程中其他语言的教学隔离了（Cenoz，2013年）
。同时，单语的意识形态鼓励学生和老师表现得好像他们是说英语的人，从而实
现说英语的无法实现的目标，就好像他们不懂其他语言一样。
在本节中，我们将了解如何在欧洲范围内挑战在语言之间建立硬性界限以及以理
想的母语作为参考的观念。语言之间的界限并不是什么新鲜事物。几十年前，Gr
osjean（1985）和Cook（1992）讨论了双语说话者的具体特征。
Grosjean（1985）认为双语者是完全称职的演讲者，具有独特的语言特征，不
能将其分为不同的部分。
Cook（1992）提出了“多能力”一词，作为一种复杂的能力类型，它在质量上
与以一种语言说一种语言的人的能力不同。这种观点的含意是，双语或多语种人
的交际能力与单语讲话者的交际能力不相上下。
Cook（1999）讨论了将L2学习者与母语使用者进行比较的谬误，因为这些新
的语言
多元论提高了人们对语言多样性的认识，各种语言手段的功能使用，对语言之间
相似性和差异的认识，语言与文化之间的联系以及最终每种语言的特定特征（包
括母语）的认识。
Piccardo，Berchoud，Cignatta，Mentz和Pamula，2011年）。对于
北美的主流教学中的英语教学来说，教室越来越多的语言和多元的文化，采用多
语制作为基本哲学具有很大的潜力。从发展整个学习者的角度来看，这种哲学意
味着教师应该意识到英语学习者已经获得了很多生活经验；根据他们的个性，先
前的学习经历和接触，动机和/或学习/口语的焦虑，具有许多认知能力（Hufeis
en＆Neuner，2004）；最后，通常已经学习（或接触过）其他语言或多种语
言。教师可以利用这些跨语言和跨文化的综合能力，使学习者了解他们拥有的元
语言和元认知资本，从而提高他们的自尊，代理和自我效能感。要实现后者，教
师不必具备学习者所用语言的能力，但他们确实确实需要克服其“单语性”（Gog
olin，1994）：专注于教导整个人而不是仅仅教导语言，从而帮助学习者变得
自主，整合正式和非正式学习并有效地反思他们的学习。教育者需要将一些学习
能力委托给学生，并接受和探索与每种语言所具有的不同文化观点相关的理解力

的局限性。各种形式的代码混合和翻译都应视为进步的积极标志，是熟练程度的
提高。因此，不应禁止或忽略此类技术，而应将其用作学习的顿悟。与语言结构
和词汇相关的元语言和元文化洞察力的时刻也应如此。通过促使学习者和老师更
加了解英语的特殊功能，这种观点将产生积极的反冲洗效果。英语从其历史的一
开始就围绕着来自完全不同的各种元素的融合而构造了自己语言和文化。

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