ABSTRACT
Linguistic diversity is inherent in Canada and in other countries. In many language classrooms, including EAL, international students and newcomers to Canada contribute to a linguistically diverse environment, and making use of the plurality of languages already existent in these classrooms seems congruent with the multilingual identity of the country. While past research suggests plurilingualism offers many benefits – it values learners’ linguistic repertoires (Piccardo, 2013) and affirms student identity (Stille & Cummins, 2013), among others – practical applications remain a challenge. This chapter briefly introduces plurilingualism from a theoretical standpoint and provides samples of tasks that can be used in language classrooms, particularly but not exclusively, in adult EAL classrooms. The author discusses implications of plurilingualism in the field of language education and applied linguistics.
