Theoretical and applied perspectives on teaching foreign languages in multilingual settings: Pedagogical implications (a review)

A collection of 19 chapters, the editors of this book aim to ‘present new approaches to foreign language (FL) instruction in multilingual settings, many of them forged in collaboration between FL teachers and researchers of multilingualism’. The volume is divided into an introduction, four parts including 19 chapters that constitute the body of the collection, and an afterword chapter. In the introduction, the editors discuss the monolingual bias that has shaped foreign language education as well as the recent paradigm shift that allows for multilingual approaches in language teaching. An important part of the discussed shift in FL pedagogy is the role of teachers, hence the editors include chapters that regard teachers as innovators, able to bridge the gap between current research in multilingualism and classroom practice and extensively discusses – often based on empirical evidence – the possibilities and limitations that they face. Furthermore, the editors feel the need to address the matter of non-uniform terminology regarding the languages learners in multilingual settings acquire and use. Although some chapters use the traditional terms regarding language acquisition and learning (L1, L2, L3, Ln), the editors acknowledge that other distinctions used in the volume are also possible and, in some cases, essential when it comes to learners with complex linguistic repertoires. In the same light, the editors also deal with differences between other terms used by the authors in the volume, acknowledging that since the phenomenon of multilingualism is dynamic and research is still ongoing, the non-uniform use of related terminology is expected and contributes to the discussion. The editors conclude the introduction with a volume overview. Each part of the volume focuses on one aspect of the main subject matter, and it includes mostly research-based chapters by well-known academics in the field.