Critical and reflective discussion of the challenges and possibilities of increasingly multilingual higher education.
This book investigates the role and place of language in the complex process of internationalising academic knowledge and work, and offers a unique focus on the lived experiences of both teachers and students in multilingual university contexts.
The authors explore how multilingual teachers and students navigate issues of identity, authenticity and belonging, centring their voices and underscoring their beliefs, struggles and innovations when navigating multilingual higher education environments.
The book bridges policy, teaching practice and student experience in higher education and is grounded in empirical, cross-national research, providing a comparative insight into how multilingualism is experienced in different higher education systems. It provides fresh insights into what it means to teach and learn multilingually and envisions a more inclusive, humanised and equitable approach to multilingual higher education.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Yongyan Zheng: Foreword
Chapter 1. Introduction: Why a Book on Learning and Teaching Multilingually in Higher Education?
Part 1: Internationalisation of and Linguistic Diversity in Higher Education: Institutional Voices on an Apparent Conundrum
Chapter 2. Internationalisation in and of Higher Education
Chapter 3. Language Policies in Higher Education
Chapter 4. Academic Mobility
Discussion Part 1: Xuesong (Andy) Gao: Learning Multilingually in Higher Education
Part 2: Multilingualism in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Chapter 5. The Bi-National Empirical Study: Methodological Considerations
Chapter 6. Beliefs about Authentic (Multilingual) Teachers and Teaching in Higher Education
Chapter 7. Students’ Beliefs about Multilingual Teachers and Teaching in Higher Education
Chapter 8. Language, Knowledge and Power in Higher Education: Teaching and Producing Knowledge Multilingually
Discussion Part 2: Vander Tavares: Teaching and Living Multilingualism in Higher Education during Neoliberal Times
Susana Pinto: Afterword: Humanising Learning and Teaching in Higher Education through Multilingualism
About the Author :
Patchareerat Yanaprasart is Senior Lecturer at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her research focuses on intercultural and multilingual communication, particularly in professional, educational and expatriate contexts, and explores how language, culture and identity interact in multilingual workplaces and international mobility.
Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer is Full Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research focuses on visual methods, multilingual pedagogies and language teacher education. Her publications include Visualising Language Students and Teachers as Multilinguals (with Paula Kalaja, Multilingual Matters, 2025).
Review :
Giving a voice to international students and expatriate scholars, this volume is a thought-provoking call for multilinguality and social and epistemic justice in research, teaching and learning in Higher Education. Drawing on solid literature and personal experiences, Yanaprasart and Melo-Pfeifer aptly challenge the uniformization mindset in the academy while arguing for social inclusiveness and balance between global and local views and goals.
This timely volume explores how multilingualism is reshaping higher education amid global mobility and shifting policies. It challenges traditional language hierarchies, redefines linguistic legitimacy, and offers fresh, inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. A must-read and an essential resource for scholars, educators, and policymakers eager to rethink language use and drive meaningful, equitable change and innovation in academia.
This much-needed book critically examines language ideologies and practices in university teaching and learning. It reconceptualizes internationalization as complex 'internationalizationS' explores its links with multilingualism and 'multiperspectivity', and highlights the often-overlooked multilingual repertoires of teachers and students. Its critical, polycentric approach makes it a valuable contribution to language policy, academic governance, and the international scholarly community.
