1st Edition
Autoethnographies of Plurilingualism Voices of the Selves
This collection spotlights the authentic voices of plurilingual learners, bringing together autoethnographies of over twenty graduate students toward deepening current understandings of lived experiences of plurilingualism. The volume begins with outlining foundational work on plurilingualism in language education up to this point, with the body of work on plurilingual subjectivities historically focusing on researchers’ and practitioners’ gazes, rather than students. The book moves into short autoethnographies of graduate students at the University of Toronto enrolled in a graduate education course over three years. Employing autoethnography as the primary methodology allows the space for privileging authentic voices of plurilingual learners in their own words, learners whose individual lived experiences are uniquely contextualized within the lens of plurilingual theory. The volume and diversity of perspectives showcased offer a unique window into the diversity and commonalities among plurilingual learners, offering opportunities for reflection on directions for future research. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in applied linguistics, language teaching and learning, and language education.
List of Contributors
Introduction: Voices of the Selves: Autoethnographies of Plurilingualism - Le Chen & Enrica Piccardo
Section 1: Reimagining plurilingual/pluricultural identities
Chapter 1: Adopting a Plurilingual Attitude: A Reimagining of Linguistic and Cultural Identity - Rebecca Schmor
Chapter 2: “Yet oddly enough, Arabic was my mother tongue”: The (Re)Emergence of my Ethnolinguistic Roots - Karam Noel
Chapter 3: New Perspectives on Language Learning, Culture & Identity: A Plurilingual Journey - Felicia Popplewell-Stanek
Chapter 4: A Journey to Self (Re-)discovery through a Plurilingual Lens - Ekaterina Prigaro
Chapter 5: Embracing a Plurilingual Life Trajectory as a Latina - Aracely Aguilera
Chapter 6: Where Do I Really Fit: A Journey to Self-Acceptance - Vivian Hoang
Chapter 7: All in a Name - Adriana Ortiz
Chapter 8: Finding Myself Plurilingually – A Tale of Two People - Mauran Manogaran
Chapter 9: Bypassing Bilingualism: My Journey from Monolingualism to Plurilingualism - Riah Werner
Section 2: Lessons from plurilingualism across time and space
Chapter 10: Me, Myself, and My Relationship with Languages: A Personal Narrative - Julia Manarin
Chapter 11: ‘I No Longer Consider Myself Monolingual’: A Plurilingual Ethnography Across Timescales - Michael Koslowski
Chapter 12: My Plurilingual Journey as a Learner and a Language Educator - Elena Danilina
Chapter 13: Affordances of Plurilingualism: Reflections of an EAP Practitioner & Heritage Language Learner - Christopher Gradin
Chapter 14: It Starts Once Awakened: You May be Plurilingual Even If You are Monolingual - Selçuk Emre Ergüt
Chapter 15: Creating a Linguistic Repertoire Through Space Instead of Time - Ashley Sikorski
Chapter 16: I Shush My Cat in Turkish: Unfinished Lessons from Plurilingualism - Sarah Jones
Chapter 17: Discovering My Multiple Plurilingual Identities - Lisa Lackner
Chapter 18: My Journey to Become a Plurilingual Adult - Lu Xi (Tracy)
Section 3: Plurilingualism as empowerment
Chapter 19: An Autoethnography on the Development of a Tujia Minority Student from Monolingualism to Plurilingualism - Weiwei Huang
Chapter 20: My Autoethnography: A Joga Khichuri of Languages - S. M. Sanzana Rahman
Chapter 21: Du bilinguisme au multilinguisme au plurilinguisme : un récit personnel - Pierre Gregory (Translation: From Bilingualism to Multilingualism to Plurilingualism: an autoethnography)
Chapter 22: My Story as an Awakening Chinese Plurilingual in China, Malaysia and Canada - Vera Jing Huang
Chapter 23: Meeshaatang Huluniixsuwaakan / Language Learning Reflections - Ian McCallum
Chapter 24: The Road Map: How Learning German Helps Relocate Myself - Zhiqi Zhang
Chapter 25: Building a Critical Disposition by Attending to Plurilingual Privileges - Jennifer Walsh Marr
Chapter 26: “Mi o Likey Snow!”: My Journey from an Unaware Plurilingual Child to a Plurilingual Advocate - Aisha Bunmi Adebayo
Conclusion: Converging Voices: Reflections, Insights, and Horizons in Language Education - Enrica Piccardo and Le Chen
Afterword: Stories of Selves as Voices of Many Languages - Joseph Lo Bianco
Index
Biography
Enrica Piccardo is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. // Le Chen is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada.
