Postgraduate students as plurilingual social actors in UK higher education

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Postgraduate students as plurilingual social actors in UK higher education

Preece, S; (2020) Postgraduate students as plurilingual social actors in UK higher education. Language, Culture and Curriculum , 33 (2) pp. 126-141. 10.1080/07908318.2019.1676767. Green open access

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Abstract

This paper sets out to develop a finer-grained understanding of the ‘plurilingual social actor’ within an Anglophone higher educational setting. Drawing on data collected as part of The Multilingual University project, I examine how a group of plurilingual postgraduate students taking modules in applied linguistics at a university in London viewed their linguistic repertoires as a resource for the taught curriculum and what their experiences can tell us about the plurilingual social actor. The study opened an institutional space for making linguistic diversity visible and for considering how it was a resource for the curriculum. The findings indicate that multilingual resources play an important role in supporting learning at postgraduate level and reveal ways in which familiarity with English medium education shapes how postgraduate students mobilise their multilingual resources in relation to the taught curriculum. Importantly, the study shows how the plurilingual social actor offers a dynamic, powerful and affirmative identity position that is well aligned with the teaching and learning agenda in higher education. It is my contention that a better understanding of this alignment will allow us to raise awareness of language-as-resource and advance plurilingual pedagogies in the sector.

Type:	Article
Title:	Postgraduate students as plurilingual social actors in UK higher education
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1080/07908318.2019.1676767
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2019.1676767
Language:	English
Additional information:	This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords:	Plurilingual pedagogies, higher education, United Kingdom, postgraduate students, linguistic repertoires, multilingualism
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10084197