Introducing plurilingualism in the English as an Additional Language classroom through plurilingual approaches

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses research that was carried out in Barcelona, Spain which explored plausible facets for introducing pluralistic approaches in the English as an Additional Language classroom. The research triangulates data collected from administrative personnel, teachers, and students aged 7–8 years in order to identify plausible approaches to synthesize the instruction of teaching English with the development of plurilingual concepts and skills. Methodological approaches included interviews with the administrators, questionnaires with both students and their teachers and a multimodal activity done in the EFL classroom. Through the discussion of the results we highlight specific techniques, such as Intercomprehension, that facilitate language instruction for Additional Language Learners in a linguistically diverse community that has various languages in the social and learning environments. Through the data analysis, we identify aspects that could help facilitate the instruction of English as an additional language in multilingual settings.