Understanding and fostering the plurilingual wellbeing of (language) teachers

Are language teachers aware of their plurilingual repertoire and its potential? Do they call upon their own language resources to implement plurilingual approaches in their teaching? Do teachers really understand plurilingualism? What relationship do teachers have with their own languages? Is this important? How can we help teachers step out of their comfort zone?

This presentation will refer to the concept of plurilingual wellbeing by explaining the ECML project ‘Fostering the plurilingual wellbeing of language teachers’. Plurilingual wellbeing is defined as being aware of and valuing the potential of one’s own language repertoire and feeling comfortable with using it in a variety of personal and professional contexts. Rooted in research about (teacher) wellbeing, language awareness and plurilingual identity (e.g. Young & Mary, 2021; Mercer, 2021; Seligman, 2011), the project aims to understand how fostering plurilingual wellbeing among teachers can positively shape their plurilingual teaching practices and ultimately benefit their students’ learning.

Teachers often find it challenging to navigate between their own beliefs and emotions and the task of promoting students' plurilingual competence. The PLURIWELL project is working with teachers for teachers. It does so by following a formative intervention which understands that teacher education should not be based solely on theoretical instruction on what is to be taught and how (Lantolf & Esteve, 2019) but should first challenge teachers’ own beliefs about the languages they teach and know, as well as the ones which surround them and thus influence their language identities. This approach is meant to allow for the development of highly applicable and individualised practice-oriented tools fostering the plurilingual wellbeing of teachers which support them in the task of implementing plurilingualism-sensitive language teaching.