Notes

When we consider multilingualism in schools we tend to think initially about those students with a migration background who speak a language at home which is distinct from the language of schooling; in England, for example, almost 20% of school students are currently recorded as speaking English as an additional language (EAL). Yet, all students across the United Kingdom (UK) and, indeed, in many other countries globally, engage in statutory foreign language learning at some stage of their schooling and, as such, may also be considered as multilingual. Our argument in this paper, therefore, is that a new dimension of identity-focused pedagogy is necessary in order to help all learners fully understand their own and others’ linguistic repertoires (whether learned in school, at home, or in the community) and so to recognise their agency in being able to claim a multilingual identity. To this end, we begin by defining what we mean by multilingual identity and explore why this matters for schools. We then introduce a research-informed package of identity-based pedagogical resources which has been shown to help students develop their multilingual identity by building knowledge about languages, raising awareness and promoting reflexivity across the school. We argue that this has important implications for changing attitudes towards languages and multilingualism, enhancing attainment across the curriculum and creating an inclusive, multilingual school community. The research presented below is drawn from a four-year study as part of the Education strand of the Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.


What is multilingual identity?
Identity has been explored across a wide range of disciplines and from a variety of theoretical perspectives (for an overview see Fisher et al., 2020) yet, for the purpose of our work, we crucially consider identity as both an individual and social phenomenon. As such, identity should be seen not only as a psychological construct, but also as relational and contextually situated. In addition, rather than viewing identity as a fixed condition, we see it as a process which, in turn, raises the possibility that at least some aspects of identity are subject to change.


Within this, we are particularly interested in the role of language(s) in the (re)negotiation of identity; after all, it is through language that we think, define ourselves and represent ourselves to others. We therefore use the term multilingual identity to refer to an ‘umbrella’ identity, where one identifies as multilingual precisely because of an awareness of the linguistic repertoire one has. We consider multilingual identity to be shaped by what we refer to as the three Es (see Fisher et al., 2022):

Learners’ experiences with languages and language learning (i.e. their exposure to and use of the various languages in their repertoire across a range of social contexts);


Learners’ evaluations of languages and language learning. This includes both self-evaluations (e.g. self-efficacy, beliefs about languages) and other-evaluations (e.g. the beliefs of parents, teachers and friends);


Learners’ emotions in relation to languages and language learning (e.g. feelings of pride, enjoyment, motivation etc.).

It is also important to note that we adopt a broad, multimodal view of multilingualism which encompasses all of the languages in a learner’s repertoire, regardless of their level of exposure to the language or proficiency in the language. This is not restricted to named spoken languages (such as Japanese, French, Hindi), but also includes regional dialects and sign languages. We similarly consider other non-verbal forms of communication such as computer coding and the use of emoji. Our position, therefore, is that each language or variety of language that is part of an individual’s repertoire may influence the nature of their identity negotiation in important ways and that this, in turn, may have important implications for educational contexts.