While overwhelmingly, the teachers in our study shared a generically benevolent viewpoint towards multilingualism, when we looked in detail into the language used, it was clear that teachers' contributions were influenced by curriculum pressures, as well as, in some cases, pervasive language linked to the othering of multilingual pupils, or a generic deficit model of multilingualism. This is in no way intended to detract from good practice, nor indeed, to say that we ourselves would be entirely free of similar linguistic conventions that prevail in policy texts as well as general speech. We do argue, however, that these conscious and subconscious barriers warrant further introspection, as they may prevent teachers from turning their inert benevolence into concrete, research-informed practice. It is interesting to note that this inert benevolence could also be said to rule England's policy context: while the most recent attempt at composing a National Languages Strategy makes positive mention of multilingualism in principle, there is still no concrete dedicated space for actively fostering multilingualism within the English national curriculum, beyond the notion of foreign languages education, and no significant centralised governmental guidance on EAL has been produced since 2009. While the study is situated within the context of England, the meaningful engagement of pupils' multiple languages in the classroom is a global issue, as highlighted in the literature review, and as such, the study has global ramifications in its ramifications and recommendations.
Even over the course of a single interview, many participants stated that the space to reflect on the affordances of multilingualism, and ways to integrate them in the classroom, was helpful. As such, we propose that professional conversations to create reflective spaces where staff are able to explore their beliefs and attitudes towards multilingualism, could be a powerful tool for staff development, in the absence of the availability of more structured and long-term teacher training opportunities.
By developing policies to include practices which not only encourage a multilingual world view, but actively facilitate multilingualism through targeted activities which enable students to make use of all their languages - and have them valued - in formal education contexts, the curricular deficit model perpetuated for so long by the monolingual habitus could be addressed, seeing multiple languages, not as distinct and separate languages in one body, but as a holistic, single identity, which needs to be respected and nurtured. Allowing and enabling children to draw on their full linguistic repertoire in order to succeed will facilitate teachers to move on from a state of enforced inert benevolence, to a position where they are able to act on the growing demand of those that view multilingualism in schools as a social justice issue. Importantly, such policies would not only support multilingual children, but help to prepare all children to live and thrive in a multilingual world.
