Book Description

Our evolving understanding of the role of English as a lingua franca and our growing sensitivity to the unique needs of students and teachers who communicate across languages and cultures has led to significant changes in language teaching, pedagogy, and curriculum design. The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning is a field-defining book, which examines the various ways learners learn and acquire language in a truly global context. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars reflecting different cultural, linguistic, regional, and ideological perspectives, this innovative volume presents the most recent developments in the field while revealing the nuances and complexities of teaching and learning foreign languages. This Handbook explains the conceptual basis of intercultural and plurilingual learning, describes core pedagogical concepts, discusses different learning and teaching approaches, and provides the historical background for various methods and theories. The authors discuss how policy and pedagogy can adapt to the shifting demographics of local student populations, address new trends and evolving themes, and explore contemporary topics such as translanguaging, intercomprehension, technology-enhanced learning, language policy, and more. The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning is essential reading for students, educators, and researchers in applied linguistics, language teaching and learning, plurilingualism/multilingualism, TESOL, cognitive linguistics, language policy, language acquisition, and intercultural communication.