Plurilingualism and Intercultural Pedagogy Revisited: Integrating Decolonial Perspectives in Tertiary English Curricula

Abstract

The 21st global era of massive migration and rapid change is characterised by social, cultural, scientific, political and economic upheavals hence highlighting the need for intercultural education as intervention to improve student performance, social*cohesion, economic development and peaceful coexistence. In South Africa (henceforth SA), English second language (EL2) educators are debating a transformation model of the humanities curricula to reduce intercultural incompetence and education inequality. This article uses the qualitative in-depth critical analysis method of the affordances and controversies of plurilingualism, as well as multilingualism. Specifically, it assesses the feasibility of adopting the intercultural communicative language teaching (iCLT) and language learning (ILL) framework to integrate intercultural perspectives, decolonise the EL2 curricula and promote multilingualism for higher education transformation. Educators are encouraged to shift perspectives by being eclectic in incorporating intercultural perspectives, the philosophy of Ubuntu, as well as understanding the crucial role of using SA indigenous languages/inter-cultures in scaffolding EL2 curricula for effective development of students' plurilingual and intercultural competence (IC). Finally, implications are outlined for using pedagogical strategies such as translanguation, technical computer-mediated support, instructional and research design, to innovatively develop students' academic proficiency, intercultural competence, socio-cultural identity construction, and democracy in multilingual SA and the cosmopolitan global village.