The different faces of multilinguality

Resumo

One of the important factors in foreign language teachers’ development
is their ability to reflect on educational processes they are involved in
and also on themselves as not only teachers but also language learners and
users (Gabryś-Barker 2012). The present paper discusses the importance of
understanding the different dimensions of the concepts of multilingualism
and multilinguality in the educational context and more precisely, in foreign
language teacher training. The overview of studies that were carried out as
a way of raising awareness of future teachers of English and other foreign
languages is presented here as a part of teacher training programmes run
at the University of Silesia within the module of research project. The conclusions
and implications drawn from the research exemplify how future
teachers’ multilingual awareness can contribute not only to their individual
multilinguality but foremost to their professional development as teachers of
multilingual learners.