Teacher Education

Through this course, I was introduced to concepts such as Global Englishes, the Multilingual Turn, and linguistic resourcefulness. These new perspectives shifted my understanding of language and language use toward a heteroglossic ideology. I came to realize that English belongs to the world, and that everyone has the power to resist linguistic hegemony and the agency to express themselves authentically through the language.

In addition to theoretical insights, the course provided practical pedagogical tools, such as drawing language portraits and participating in a book-making activity. These tasks were both interactive and empowering, helping us explore and affirm our cultural identities. Drawing a colorful language portrait helped me recognize the richness of my multilingual resources and fluid identities. The book-making activity inspired me to create my own story about Teochew food and culture, allowing me to celebrate and share my heritage.

Ultimately, this course guided me toward a more inclusive and equitable teaching approach: translanguaging pedagogy, which embraces students’ full linguistic and semiotic repertoires as valuable resources for learning and sharing knowledge. I believe the insights and tools I gained from this course have laid a strong foundation for my future teaching practice.

At my current workplace, I am now a strong advocate for leveraging students’ multilingual resources in English Language Learning and Teaching, instead of trying to suppress them as I am so frequently instructed to do. Trust me when I say this, seeing students’ smiles as their cultural background and languages are recognized and valued in the classroom is much more satisfying than telling them the (outdated) “English-only please” phrase that you hear very often.

Another thing that I am grateful for is how engaging and interactive the subject was. Contrary to other casual group discussions and reading-centric approaches, I got the chance to experience the class content hands-on. In other words, we always had fun taking part in activities that showed us how to utilize students’ multilingual resources in a practical way. My classmates and I enjoyed it so much that a two-hour seminar felt like minutes. I truly appreciate the course and I am certain you will get a lot out of it too.

However, this transformative subject has opened me up to becoming an active agent in making decisions about how I want to represent myself in academic writing by combining all the “semiotic assemblages” (linguistic & non-linguistic tools) available to me to invent and re-invent meanings. I will never forget the moment when I, as a second language learner, realized that I can “do” language in my own way. Since then, I’ve become much more confident of expressing myself in academic writing.

I am at once a grammar freak and a theatre kid. My students know if I start telling a story, someone will end up on the floor miming being knocked down by a jujitsu fighter. My students know they will then get explicit instruction about the Form, Usage, Meaning and Pronunciation of the word ‘resilience’. My students now sing along to “When I get knocked down, I get back up again”. “This is all underpinned by my commitment to working to create a dialogic, student-centred, anti-colonial and democratic classroom.

In addition to learning in enormous depth about the importance of embracing all the rich linguistic resources our students bring into the classroom, I had the opportunity to learn in a highly engaging, multimodal environment. From the outset, Julie had us working with colour and expression to create language portraits and by the end of the course, the incredibly creative group presentations given were a testament to the way she had inspired us all to bring our hearts and the arts along on our learning journeys.
 
I am deeply grateful to have undertaken a subject that has had such a profound and lasting impact on my approach to language education. Soon after completing the course, I was inspired to co-write an interactive, plurilingual song with my adult migrant learners about their experiences coming to Australia. Together, we performed this at a local council Refugee Week event, opening up translanguaging dialogues with hundreds of people across a multicultural, multi-aged community. I continue to embrace a translanguaging mindset in my classroom as well as the teacher-training I now facilitate, thanks to this amazing course.

The subject not only transformed but also reactivated in me a renewed passion and inspiration about my own diverse and rich linguistic repertoire to think and create multimodally. Now I’m able to recognise this in the students and advocate for and create safe learning spaces where students can reimagine and harness their multilingual repertoires with agency for their own meaning making in their language journeys. In my current role I am working collaboratively in schools, and through stakeholder associations and institutions, we are able to disrupt and effect change in dominant monolingual language policy contexts. With superdiversity here on our doorsteps, there are many opportunities for us to ride these plurilingual waves with much fun and joy leaving no one behind! Tagio tumas.

As I left this subject with a critical consciousness as to the power of language and its ability to shape people’s lives, I had a passionate desire to draw on students’ languages as a resource for learning. However, it was difficult to engage in any kind of transformative pedagogy amidst the struggle of being a beginning teacher and working within a predominantly monolingual institution. The opportunity to collaborate with my former TESOL teacher educator to help my own learners see themselves as resourceful multilinguals invited me into a world of exploring my own multilingual resources as a productive starting point. As I look back on my journey through TESOL now, it has taken me five years to become deeply aware of the complexities involved in what it takes for teachers to enact transformative pedagogies. The generosity of time, reciprocal collaboration and sustained dialogue around the language as a resource orientation have been crucial to building my own critical multilingual language awareness, in order for me to see my own agency actualising the critical and transformative potential of translanguaging in the classroom. I owe much of this transformation and radical shift to TESOL.

All these practices and growth would not have been possible without the seeds that MPGT has planted in me – a plurilingual perspective of language education, critical thinking tools and concepts to understand the world and an awareness of writing as thinking. 
All seeds need the right conditions to sprout. I feel lucky that since I started my full-time teaching, I have received great support from academics/researchers and had on-going conversations and collaborative projects with them to reflect on and extend my teaching. Particularly in moments of fear, frustration, exhaustion and self-doubt, all these have become my invaluable source of comfort, guide and inspiration that excites me to channel what I have learned through MPGT into my own teaching practices. 

I am no longer guided by a standard language ideology. Instead, I encourage my students to value their whole repertoire, and leverage the use of all their language resources. I try to incorporate diverse texts so students see themselves or their concerns represented. I utilise multimodal identity texts to foster personal connections and facilitate deeper understanding.

I have recently transitioned to teaching mainstream English and EAL at a government secondary school. While I find myself struggling to balance the needs of preparing my students for VCE type assessments within a packed curriculum, I am continuing to incorporate a plurilingual stance where I can. I am confident I will keep finding a way to grow, and to be the educator my students deserve.

What is perfect English? Who is a native English speaker? Are your mother tongue and English completely different entities in your mind? I encountered questions I had never considered before. Linguistic repertoire, plurilingual pedagogies, translanguaging… I was introduced to concepts I had never heard of before. Through hours of discussion, reading, and writing, new thoughts gradually began to take shape within me. I realized that I held a narrow view of English, which limited my agency with the language. I understood that language shapes our voices, views, and identities. I recognized the importance of the pedagogical approaches language teachers take.

I now teach English at a high school in Japan. In this relatively monolingual environment, English tends to be seen as a tool with limited roles—a means for entering university or opening up more job opportunities in the future. However, it means more. Learning a new language is not just about being a good speaker of it. English expands students’ linguistic resources and their horizons. By encouraging them to move between Japanese and English, I help them accept differences, negotiate them, and create new voices. As MPGT has shown, language teachers can inspire students to embrace diversity.

What stood out most was Julie’s ability to make theory come alive through practice. Her seminars encouraged multiple modes of expression- visual, performative, oral and written so that learning became an embodied and creative process. For one assessment, my group produced a five-minute multilingual video demonstrating how plurilingual practices could transform classroom learning. This project was revolutionary for me. It moved far beyond the conventional essay, allowing us to merge our diverse backgrounds, perspectives and languages into a living example of inclusive pedagogy.

The course profoundly influenced my teaching philosophy. Since completing the program, I have incorporated many multimodal and translanguaging techniques such as visual arts, drama, film, dance and music to help English language learners engage, express and thrive. I’ve witnessed remarkable growth in their confidence and creativity as they draw on all their linguistic and artistic resources. This experience also inspired me to create my own multilingual feature film, 42, which explores intergenerational issues of language, identity and belonging. I also wrote and published a bilingual children’s book on emotional intelligence, designed to help parents to support their children to express their feelings across languages and cultures.

This subject was far more than a university requirement, it was a turning point that continues to shape my identity as an educator, filmmaker and author. It reaffirmed my belief that when we embrace the full spectrum of our students’ voices and cultures, learning becomes transformative for everyone involved.