Recalibrating the Language Classroom for Deeper Learning: Nurturing Creative, Responsible Global Citizenship Through Pluriliteracies

Abstract

In Beyond CLIL: Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning (Coyle & Meyer, 2021), the traditional role of language teaching and learning is brought into question. We propose an alternative paradigm that places the language teacher as a disciplinary specialist who contributes significantly to the development of learners’ pluriliteracies repertoire. In this article, we suggest ways in which language teachers can reconceptualise their "subject" as one that is of central importance and value in our post-truth world. We posit that this requires not only an epistemic repositioning of the language classroom but, crucially, a profound and deliberate recalibration of the component parts of language-as-discipline. This involves connecting languages, cultures and literatures in ways that foster textual and epistemic fluency leading to deeper understanding and empathy. From this perspective, the "language-as-literacies classroom" has the potential to become an inclusive space for deeper learning whilst developing creative, responsible global citizenship.