Teaching English in Multilingual Contexts

Book excerpt: This collection of innovative, thought-provoking papers discusses contemporary issues, practices and research related to the role and teaching of English in multilingual countries. The papers, written by experienced practitioners in the field from a number of different countries, examine how the English language can be more effectively taught to students in Asia who speak English as their second, third or fourth language. The book will be of interest not only to linguists, language teachers and educators but also to social science researchers involved in exploring the effects language policy can have on education and society at large. The eleven chapters in this book are divided into three sections: multilingual aspects in the teaching and learning of English, code-switching and code-mixing, and assessment. Their authors came to Karachi from different academic, cultural and geographic backgrounds and with diverse experiences of the world of English Language Teaching in order to participate in the Fifth International Seminar hosted by the Aga Khan University Centre of English Language. The contributors are all multi-linguals for whom the question of how best to teach languages is a challenge they face on a daily basis. This small collection of papers is likely to become a powerful resource for English teachers, scholars, and researchers interested in the problems facing language educators in today’s multilingual, multi-cultural world.