The project explores how EFL education can meaningfully engage with the full linguistic repertoires of learners in increasingly diverse classrooms. Drawing on research in plurilingualism and critical applied linguistics, the project conceptualises English as part of learners’ dynamic linguistic repertoires rather than as a monolithic, norm-bound system. Particular attention is paid to the opportunities and challenges of plurilingual classrooms, e.g. possible cross-linguistic interference.
A core concern of the project is pedagogical reflection as a key professional competence in English teacher education. Plurilingual practice is understood as a reflective teaching principle that integrates language awareness, intercultural and democratic awareness, and pedagogical self-awareness.
In both EFL classrooms and teacher education contexts, pupils, student teachers, and teacher educators are invited to learn from and with each other by comparing languages, reflecting on linguistic norms, and critically engaging with multilingual classroom realities. This process explicitly includes the reflection on one’s own plurilingual repertoire and plurilingual practices—that is, how individual language biographies, everyday language use, and implicit language ideologies shape teaching and learning. By making personal plurilinguality visible and discussable, the project fosters reflective awareness of how linguistic resources are mobilised, negotiated, and valued in educational contexts.
Through research-based teaching concepts, plurilingual tasks, and reflective tools, the project promotes a holistic and connected understanding of learners’ linguistic repertoires. By fostering reflection on how individual language resources are embedded in social and global contexts, it supports openness, dialogue, and responsible participation in diverse societies.
Practice in the EFL classroom and teacher education
Plurilingualism is approached as a shared learning process in which pupils, student teachers, and teacher educators learn from and with each other. Classroom practices include storytelling, working with varieties of English, translanguaging in collaborative tasks, comparing linguistic resources across languages, and reflecting on linguistic identities. In teacher education, narrative, task-based, and inquiry-oriented formats support reflective engagement with plurilingual classroom realities.
By linking plurilingual classroom practice with pedagogical reflection, the project contributes to inclusive, democratic, and future-oriented English language education.
Project Members
Prof. Dr. Bianca Roters
Publications
Ade-Thurow, Benjamin & Roters, Bianca. Entwicklung von plurilingualen tasks durch KI-gestützte Unterrichtsplanung (in preparation, already accepted for publication)
Talks
Roters, Bianca. A Seat at the Table: Plurilingualism in the EFL Classroom from the Perspective of Social Justice and Wellbeing, PH Heidelberg (2025)
Roters, Bianca. Lesson Planning with AI: Embracing Plurilingualism in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, PH Ludwigsburg (2025)
Roters, Bianca, Scheffer, Kathrin (2023). Challenging the monolingual mindset – Strategien zum Umgang mit Lerner*innentexten in plurilingualen Kontexten. Symposium Lerner*innentexte, Universität Lüneburg