Summary of TESOL 2026 Keynote: The Power of Multilingualism

The Power of Multilingualism: Voices and Choices in Inclusive Classrooms

TESOL 2026

Nayr Ibrahim, Nord University in Norway

Description from TESOL

This keynote examines how multilingualism empowers learners and transforms classrooms into inclusive, dynamic learning environments. By centering student voices and giving them linguistic choices, teachers can challenge monolingual norms, foster equity, and embrace plurilingual identities. Together, let’s reimagine language education as a site of possibility, belonging, and pedagogical justice.

Nayr Ibrahim is associate professor of English Subject Pedagogy at Nord University in Norway. Her research interests include early language learning, learning to learn, multilingualism, multiple literacies, language and identity, children’s literature, children’s language rights.

Summary

Summary notes from Linh Phung: I edited the transcript due to the low recording quality and automated transcription. The summary was created with help from AI, and I edited the final summary. If you notice any inaccuracy, I'll keep updating it.

Nayr Ibrahim begins her keynote by celebrating TESOL’s 60th anniversary and reflecting on her own full-circle journey from her first plenary at TESOL Spain to this stage in North America.

She opens with a provocative question: “Why do we still need to advocate for multilingualism?” Ibrahim suggests that society has forgotten its naturally multilingual roots, allowing the "power of monolingualism" to take over. She frames her talk as an act of power itself, using one of her many languages to advocate for the right of all learners to maintain their full linguistic identities.

A colorful quilt: For illustration only

The Historical Journey: From Natural Plurality to Forced Monolingualism

To understand the current state of language education, Ibrahim argues we must look at the "historical journey" of multilingualism, which spans thousands of years. In ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Greece, and Rome, multilingualism was the norm. She cites the Rosetta Stone, which displayed hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek side-by-side, and ancient Syrian tablets used to educate children in both Eblaite and Sumerian. In ancient Greece, the city of Crete was described as "boasting 90 cities, language mixing and languages side by side". This ancient "translanguaging" was common; even elite Roman boys were educated in both Latin and Greek.

The shift toward monolingualism arrived with the creation of nation-states. Ibrahim uses the French Revolution as a prime example: to ensure citizens had access to the new constitution, a single language was chosen, leading to the forced disappearance of a "multitude of dialects" and regional languages.

A similar "Norwegianization" process occurred in Norway. Ibrahim describes a poignant photograph in the library of her hometown, Bodø, where the Sami shoes of an indigenous man were physically erased from the image. This erasure extended to the classroom, where Sami children were forbidden from wearing their traditional dresses or speaking their native language.

This pattern of linguistic punishment was pervasive in the 20th century. In Wales, children caught speaking Welsh were forced to wear a "Welsh Not" around their necks and were punished at the end of the day. In France, school posters prohibited the use of regional languages like Corse similarly to "spitting on the floor". Ibrahim emphasizes that this is not just history; as recently as 2014, Portuguese children in Luxembourg were punished for speaking their home language because national policy had not yet been extended to pre-schools. In 2020, Turkish children in Germany were punished and forced to write essays on why they must speak German, leading one child to poignantly conclude, “I don't know anymore. Why would I need to speak German when I speak to my friends, my Turkish friends?”

Ibrahim grounds this history in an African proverb: “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter”. She asserts that until learners can use their own languages, they will always be "telling somebody else's story."

A Personal Linguistic Narrative: The Silent Scientist

Ibrahim transitions to her own "personal story" as a child of Portuguese immigrants in South Africa during the 1960s. Starting school at age five without knowing English, she describes the "foreign sounds that hurt my ears" and "wounded my soul" because she could not communicate or make friends.

However, her brain began to adapt. She became what she calls a "silent scientist," observing, listening, and hypothesizing about how to navigate her new context. Despite her progress, her grade one report card stated, “Nayr has a big language problem”. Ibrahim argues that this label was a failure of the system to recognize her growing "patchwork of languages".

She describes her linguistic repertoire as a series of "love affairs":

• Portuguese is the "mother of love," her emotional connection to her mother and her heritage.

• English is the "love of my life," the language of her research, her professional life, and her relationship with her son.

• Afrikaans was an "arranged marriage" she learned to love despite having no choice.

• German and Italian were "university love affairs," while Norwegian is a "mature, realistic" adult romance

She references journalist Moni Mohsin to emphasize that for many, home is not a place on a map but "a sound" or "a feeling."  For Ibrahim, this feeling is embodied in the Portuguese word chá de cidreira (lemongrass tea). She also highlights the French word dépaysement, describing the beautiful yet unsettling feeling of being "out of place" while discovering special sides of oneself.

The Power of Political Will and Policy

Ibrahim stresses that maintaining bilingualism requires the "power of political will." She cites several key international policies:

• UNESCO (1953): Stated that children should be taught in their mother tongues.

• UNCRC Article 13: Grants children the right to learn in their own language and culture.

• ECRML: Protects minority languages like Sami in Norway, giving them equal status to Norwegian.

She highlights a major shift in the European Union’s 2018 key competencies. Previously, "mother tongue" and "foreign languages" were separate. Recognizing that a child’s mother tongue might be another’s foreign language, the EU combined these into a single "multilingual competence." This acknowledges the reality of children who bring three or more languages to the classroom.

Ibrahim also points to the "multilingual revolution" in New York, where dual-language programs in languages like Haitian Creole, Korean, and Chinese grew from grassroots parental demand. She reminds the audience: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have not spent the night with the mosquito”.

Pedagogical Practice: Creating Communal Spaces

The talk shifts to how teachers can create a "communal space" that celebrates identity. This space is built through the "display of children's work and art." She shares examples from an introductory school in Bodø, where the diversity of the student body is made visible through their artistic expressions.

In Ireland, she notes a school that moved beyond a strict Irish/French policy to allow children to teach each other. A Korean child might share a poem, or an Arabic child a song, allowing the whole class to learn from one another. She also highlights the "Quilt of Welcome" project in Sheffield, where 113 languages were represented in a physical quilt of welcome patches created by students.

The Dominant Language Constellations (DLCs)

Ibrahim introduces the concept of the Dominant Language Constellations (DLCs), which she defines as: “a group or person’s most expedient languages functioning as an entire unit enabling an individual to meet all of his/her needs in a multilingual environment”.

She encourages students and teachers to create "DLC artifacts" or personal, concrete objects that represent their linguistic repertoire . Examples include:

• The Atom: A science-loving student placed Norwegian as the nucleus with other languages as orbiting electrons.

• The Language Train: A teacher who immigrated to France by train used each car to represent her movement across cultures.

• The Heart: A Grade 8 student used red and black outlines to show that while language can be "difficult" (the black outline), deep down it brings "happiness" (the red heart).

• The Stone and the Fluff: A Grade 2 student used a hard stone to represent the perceived "harshness" of German, but placed a "fluffy yellow ball" next to it to show the "loveliness" of hearing her grandmother read fairy tales in the language.

  
  

The Power of Imperfection and Translanguaging

Ibrahim celebrates the "power of imperfection," noting that multilingualism is naturally messy and imperfect. She illustrates this with a story of her father’s 70th birthday dinner in France. The group spoke four languages (Portuguese, Arabic, French, and English), switching seamlessly between them to discuss the food. The waitress was confused, asking how many languages they were speaking, to which Ibrahim reflects that they were simply having a "perfectly normal conversation" without the need for translation.

She defines this as "spontaneous translanguaging," something multilinguals do naturally every day. However, she also advocates for "pedagogical translanguaging" where teachers intentionally plan for students to use their languages in the classroom. She shares an example where a teacher reading a book about death understood that a student’s family was in mourning only because the child was allowed to express themselves in Spanish.

Ibrahim shows examples of translanguaging in textbooks from Kazakhstan and South Africa, where multiple languages are used side-by-side or mixed within sentences (e.g., mixing Xhosa and English in a biology book).

Translanguaging with Literature

Finally, Ibrahim discusses using picture books to facilitate translanguaging. She uses the Northern Sami/Norwegian book Pressing the Sea in her English classroom. By using a trilingual approach, students can engage with authentic indigenous culture while building their English skills.

She also highlights the Zulu counting book 1 2 3 4, which teaches both the language and South African history, such as the reality of gold mining and the 1994 elections. Another favorite is the book Mixed, which explores diversity and mixed families. With this book, she uses "tangled translations" an activity where students must untangle two different languages from a single text. This process encourages children to reflect deeply on grammar and word structure, going "much deeper than just filling the gap."

Conclusion: A Call to Action

Ibrahim concludes with a final Arab proverb: “Learn a language and you’ll avoid a war.” She calls on the TESOL community to embrace the "power of many" and the continuance to learn “loads of languages.”