INTRODUCTION
Introduction to Engaging with the Multilingual
Turn for Learner Development: Practices,Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations
Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, & Riitta KellyThree years ago the four of us serendipitously met at the JALT2018 conference in
Shizuoka, Japan, and shared with each other our interests in learners’ multilingualism
and learner development. Enthusiastic about researching and understanding such
issues further, we agreed that it would be exciting to explore the multilingual turn forlearner development with a wider group of teachers. This was the genesis for the proposalthat we made to the Learner Development Journal Steering Group in May 2019 for Issue 5 ofthe Learner Development Journal (LDJ5). Proposal discussed and accepted, we next draftedand publicised a Call for Inclusive Practitioner Research and Reviews. We were extremely
fortunate to hear back from teacher-researchers of various languages (English, French, andJapanese) working in Finland, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Turkey/UK. From mid-February2020 members of this new community started communicating with each other, and, over thenext 18 months, the work for LDJ5 took shape. In this introduction we recall the original Callfor Inclusive Practitioner Research and Reviews, as well as highlight the particular genres ofwriting that LDJ5 features. After introducing certain practices that contributors followed overthose 18 months, we conclude with a short overview of the papers in LDJ5.
In drafting the Call for Inclusive Practitioner Research and Reviews, our intention was toencourage writers and reviewers to explore the multilingual turn from various points of view
related to learner development, inviting them to look at practices, issues, discourses, andtheorisations in the field. For this particular issue of the LDJ, we emphasized the narrative
point of view, as well as our intention to create a space for voices from different contexts.
Conventional academic writing can often be a distancing experience for writers, reviewers,and readers; we wanted to break away from that kind of traditional writing style and, instead,create a community where everyone’s personal voice could be heard, just as if we were talking
to each other as teachers. Thus, we hoped to encourage the contributors to turn their research
into stories and shape them into narrative accounts. By creating an interactive community
where the writing could be advanced with the help of discussions, we aimed to nurture anenvironment where writers could work together, share their evolving understandings, anddiscuss the development of their research and writing, and, by doing so, benefit from eachother’s points of views. Our reviewers were also an important part of this process.
Whilst offering the contributors the support of the community, we also wanted to give them
freedom to explore a wide variety of areas and viewpoints to do with the multilingual turnin learner development. These included themes and issues dealing with the importance ofmultilingualism in languages education, the influence of multilingual approaches in moving
beyond current norms and notions, learners’ use of multilingual resources in becoming moreautonomous, challenges and puzzles encountered in engaging with multilingual practices,
and insights gained while raising children multilingually. Writers were encouraged to move
between theory and practice as they worked on producing “narrative accounts” of their
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Introduction to Engaging with the Multilingual Turn for Learner Development: Practices, Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations

own teaching and research, and “practice-related reviews” on a choice of books addressing
multilingual issues in education and society.
What do we mean by narrative accounts and practice-related reviews? In the narrativeaccounts, each contributor focuses on issues that arise from their life regarding themultilingual turn and take on a position (or positions) from which they choose to write
their accounts. As editors, we tried to help contributors explore their own style of narration.
For example, one of the contributors uses her response community members as a means ofreconstructing her learner’s narrative. By doing so, each narrative account becomes a uniquepiece with new insights into the multilingual turn. For practice-related reviews, authors
connect their reading to themselves based on a particular position (or positions) that they
have adopted. They also relate their reviews to their own localised learner development
practices, as well as to concerns that emerged from their reading. So, these practice-related
reviews are not conventional book reviews, but rather individual stories of practice andreflection. For both narrative accounts and practice-related reviews, all contributors assume
an exploratory stance in their writing, which allows them to experiment with new forms ofgenerating, analysing, and composing their texts.
In the development process for LDJ5, an important early step was the formation of“response communities” in February 2020. Every contributor was assigned to at least one
group to discuss their research and writing in progress. The response communities wereorganised by genre (3 narrative account groups, 2 practice-related review groups). As
might be expected, not everybody started at the same point in the research-writing cycle.
Some had already completed their research and wished to write up their inquiries in new,more experimental ways; others were in the middle of doing, or yet to carry out, theirresearch. Everybody, though, had made a proposal for their LDJ5 project, which became
the starting point. From then on, the response community groups acted as a home base, soto speak, for contributors where they might have “sustained conversations” (Clandinin &Connelly, 2000, p. 165) about the development of their research and writing—a safe place inwhich to video-conference and discuss their incomplete work, share doubts, and talk overdifferent directions they might take. Importantly, all four editors took part as writers in theresponse communities. Each of us wrote a narrative account, as well as worked together ona co-written practice-related review. We participated alongside contributors and observed
the interaction in each response community from the inside. Inevitably, we could not shed
our position as editors completely, but, for the first 12 months of the project, we held off onproviding any editorial feedback on writers’ drafts.
During this period, contributors went through “insider” development within the response
communities, as well as “outsider” review with members of the Learner Development Journal
Review Network. The latter took place from October to December 2020, and contributors hada choice between “blind peer review” and “open peer review.” With blind peer review, writers
and reviewers did not know each other’s identities. This feedback was mediated by theeditors, with reviewer comments anonymised. For open peer review, writers and reviewers
could dialogue directly with each other. In February and March 2021, writers completed“first full drafts” and received further feedback. This came from one member of the Journal
Steering Group, and two LDJ5 editors. To personalise the process, the editors also recordeda short video discussion about each draft so that writers could get a closer sense of how wesaw their writing at that stage. “Second complete drafts” followed in May and June, withwriters finishing “complete final drafts” between July and September, from when editing for
publication took place through to December 2021. The whole process was incremental andinvolved different stakeholders taking part at different stages as each piece of writing grew
towards completion.

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Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, & Riitta Kelly

What follows now is a brief introduction to each contribution to LDJ5, including a closingcommentary by Maria Ruohotie-Lyhty.

Narrative AccountsMultilingualism in the Foreign Language Classroom: The Curious Case of French in
Mumbai .... Vasumathi Badrinathan
Vasumathi’s narrative account discusses her awakening to the multilingual turn in language
education, accompanied by the multilingual usage perceptions of six teachers of French in
Mumbai. She juxtaposes the rich multilingual make-up of Indian society with strongly held
teacher beliefs about monolingual target language use in the classroom and about students’existing linguistic resources hindering their acquisition of new languages. Vasumathi
concludes with a call for the recognition of all these multilingual resources, and for theimplementation of multilingual teaching strategies.

Reconciling with English: An Autobiography to Ruminate Over The Different Meanings
That English Has for Us …. Akiko Nakayama
Akiko uses her narrative account to embark on a journey of self-discovery by working
through her own fraught relationship with English, aided by the discussions she had withJina, a Korean student struggling to navigate the use of Japanese and English. Akiko’s
narrative intertwines two threads, Jina’s and her own, around attitudes to language learningand use, and the independence they have gained. She also includes experiences involving hermother and grandmother, and thus provides an innovative look at the gendered aspect oflanguage learning.

Evolving Journeys of Multilingual Teachers of English in Japan …. Oana Cusen
In her narrative account, Oana documents a personal journey of reconciling her status asa non-native English speaking teacher (NNEST) with the multilingual practices in her
personal life. Through conversations with other foreign NNESTs in Japan, Oana reflects on
the contributions that such teachers can make to their learners’ multilingual development, as
well as ways for foreign NNESTs in Japan to bring multilingualism and multiculturalism tothe language classroom.

Reflections on Co-Teaching Multilingual University-Level Language andCommunication Courses …. Riitta Kelly and Jussi Jussila
Writing dialogically in their narrative account, Riitta and Jussi introduce a language andcommunication course taught multilingually (in Finnish, Swedish, and English) by teams ofteachers with different specializations at a university in Finland. They engage in a reflective
dialogue about their experiences as teachers involved in the planning and implementationof this course, and look at how these experiences have changed them as language teachingprofessionals.

Exploring Understandings of Multilingualism in a Social Learning Space: ADuoethnographic Account …. Isra Wongsarnpigoon and Yuri Imamura
Isra and Yuri take a duoethnographic approach in their narrative account to discuss thecreation of a multilingual environment in the self-access center at a university in Japan. They
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juxtapose their perceptions and experiences as advisors in the center with students’ interview
data on the topic. They also show how their understanding of ways to foster a multilingual
culture in the center has evolved through their duoethnographic exploration.

Narrative Inquiry: Learning to Walk on Shifting Sands …. Lorraine de Beaufort
Lorraine uses her narrative account in LDJ5 to revisit a narrative inquiry she had previously
conducted with a student of French in Hong Kong for her doctoral research. Lorraine
focuses on how the narrative text is co-constructed by researchers and participants; she also
reconstructs previous narratives with the help of her LDJ5 response community. Through thisprocess, Lorraine discovers new insights into the value of narrative and its importance forlearner development.

Re-interpreting University Students’ Multilingual Lives: Connections, Questions, andWider Issues in Society …. Andy BarfieldIn his narrative account, Andy addresses issues on two sides of the same coin, namely
linguistic privilege, and linguistic discrimination and oppression. He reflects on his own
languaged life, as well as that of a colleague with whom he teaches a general education course
on multilingual issues. Andy’s narrative account then focuses on the reconstruction of thelanguage portraits of four multilingual students, and explores potential connections to wider
issues in society.

Practice-Related Reviews
Book Review and Critical Dialogue about The Making of Monolingual Japan: Language
Ideology and Japanese Modernity (Heinrich, 2012) …. Ellen Head and Chie Tsurii
Ellen and Chie employ a dialogic approach to discuss questions of native speakerism, and how
those are connected with the prevalence of monolingual ideologies in Japan since the timeof the Meiji Restoration. They also relate issues arising from Heinrich’s analysis and theirdiscussion to their own approaches to English teaching in Japan.

Imagining Fair Language Policies: A Practice-Related Review of Piller’s Linguistic
Diversity and Social Justice …. Huw Davies
Huw bases his review of Piller’s work on the theme of fair language policies in the Japanese
education system. He argues that in order to truly move beyond the notion of Japan as amonolingual nation, it is necessary to consider the needs of linguistic minorities in education
policies and practices. Only in this way can effective multilingual practices be developed
within the Japanese context.

Tapping into the Lives of Learners: Review of Kalaja & Melo-Pfeifer’s (2019) Visualising
Multilingual Lives: More Than Words …. Melike Bulut Al Baba
Melike reviews Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words from a number ofdifferent perspectives that inform her life: language teacher and teacher educator, as wellas multilingual language user and parent. She reflects on how visual narratives like theones described by Kalaja and Melo-Pfeifer can be applied as research methods in various
multilingual contexts.

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Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, & Riitta Kelly

A Learner’s Review of Horner & Weber’s (2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social
Approach …. Brennan Conaway
Brennan brings his recent experiences as a Master’s TESOL student to bear on his review ofIntroducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach. He covers issues related to the global
spread of English, societal multilingualism, and multilingualism in new media, amongothers. Brennan also maps significant personal shifts in his understanding of these issues
and other language ideologies.

Exploratory and Critical Reading About the Multilingual Turn with Japanese Students:
Review of Conteh & Meier (2014) and May (2014) …. Alison Stewart
Alison adopts a unique approach to her practice-related review, not only by reviewing
two books in tandem, but also by including a detailed analysis of the insights she gainedby reading these books with her students at a university in Tokyo. While highlighting theimportance of introducing new ideas about multilingual theories and practices, Alison
also explores certain doubts about pushing the students to change their views of language
education based on these new ideas.

A Practitioners’ Collaborative Review of Researching Multilingualism: Critical andEthnographic Perspectives (Martin-Jones & Martin, 2017) …. Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen,Riitta Kelly, and Yuri Imamura
In this collaborative review of Researching Multilingualism: Critical and Ethnographic
Perspectives, Andy, Oana, Riitta, and Yuri each focus on a particular chapter in the book thatspeaks to them either personally or professionally (or both). Working with what is inessence a book written for researchers of multilingualism, they draw out connections totheir own experiences and interests as practitioner-researchers, as well as relate these to themultilingual turn for learner development.

Commentary
Openness, Creativity, Collaboration, and Narrativity Paving Our Road Towards Critical
Multilingual Practices in the Classroom …. Maria Ruohotie-Lyhty
Maria read through all contributions to LDJ5 with a keen critical eye, and in her commentarydraws out particular themes she sees emerging across the narrative accounts and practicerelated reviews. She points out that critical multilingual practices are collaborative, based on
openness, and on careful ethical consideration and creativity. On this basis, Maria observes
that “narratives, narrative research, and the process of narration” are central resources in thedevelopment of critical multilingual practices.
As editors and practitioner-researchers, we are delighted to share this work with you.
Throughout the LDJ5 project, we have been deeply committed to supporting writers inexploring and experimenting as they created their own innovative texts outside the mouldof conventional academic writing. In some ways, we sought to foster among contributors asense of creative, collaborative, and critical autonomy for writing about the multilingual turnfor learner development. We invite you, as the reader, to join this journey and take these
multilingual explorations further.
—Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, & Riitta Kelly
Jyväskylä, Finland, Kobe & Tokyo, Japan
December 2021
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LDJ5 Reviewers
ʶElizabeth Bekes, freelance teacher trainer, Cuenca, Ecuador

ʶPaul Collett, Shimonoseki City University, Japanʶ

Melodie Cook, University of Niigata Prefecture, Japanʶ

Simla Course, Akdeniz University, Turkey

ʶDonna Fujimoto, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japanʶ

Chika Hayashi, Seikei University, Japanʶ

Daniel Hooper, Hakuoh University, Japan

ʶShu Hua Kao, Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan

ʶHugh Nicoll, Miyazaki Municipal University, Japanʶ

Jim Ronald, Hiroshima Shudo University, JapanʶColin Rundle, Soka University, Japanʶ

Akiko Takagi, Aoyama University, Japanʶ

Katherine Thornton, Otemon Gakuin University, Japan

ʶStacey Vye, Saitama University, JapanLDJ5 Support Translator
ʶHaruka Ubukata, Kanda University of International Studies, JapanLDJ5 Journal Steering GroupʶTim Ashwell, Komazawa University, Japanʶ

Dominic Edsall, Ritsumeikan University, Japanʶ

Tanya McCarthy, Kyoto University, Japan

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