ConBaT+: Possibilities and challenges in preparing student teachers in English for plurilingual education

Abstract

In this short article, I highlight some of the possibilities and challenges I have experienced as a teacher educator for English in employing ConBaT+, which is an approach that combines content-based teaching and plurilingual pedagogy. The approach aspires to promote interdisciplinary teaching, deep learning, and multilingualism as a resource by exploring a subject matter/content from different linguistic and cultural perspectives learners bring into the classroom. ConBaT+ is an innovative approach in the sense that it moves away from the monolingual ideology that content-based teaching strives for and has predominated English classrooms in Norway. One of the challenges I highlight in engaging student teachers in plurilingual pedagogy further calls for rethinking on how future English teachers should be prepared to successfully support a multilingual classroom for the benefit of language learning.