The specialization component of our research has a double objective: to demystify, and to promote, crosslinguistic pedagogy to additional language (Lx) teachers and pre-service teachers. By building bridges between plurilingual approaches and the more traditional communicative approach, we want to establish a dialogue between researchers in ISLA and plurilingualism, and Lx teachers. Our objective is to help teachers navigate between their beliefs about Lx teaching, visions of ideal Lx class settings, and individual situations, in order to make informed pedagogical choices.

Studies show that popular beliefs about Lx teaching are often influenced by an “ideology of language separation”. This ideology leads teachers to reject the use of nontarget languages in class for fear of “contaminating” target language acquisition (see Li Wei, 2018). It is thus essential to examine these beliefs in a perspective of professional development and continuing education for all actors in Lx teaching.

Our various research projects examine the beliefs of teachers at different moments of their training and professional paths, in order to foster the development of a reflective practice to debunk complex, and often conflicting, perceptions deriving from an ideology of language separation. Teachers interested in these topics are invited to join one of our workshops on plurilingual pedagogy, and more specifically on implementing our pedagogical sequence.