ALTs can be much more than just English models!

Accessing ALTs’ plurilingualism through visual linguistic autobiographies

Abstract

Although Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) are a very plurilingual group, they remain represented as “English models” in much of the literature and in policy. Thus, ALTs’ plurilingualism is likely not being exploited to its full pedagogical benefits. This paper examines the potential of visual linguistic biographies to address this. Qualitative analysis of interviews and of dialogue between a pre-service teacher and a former ALT, centered on biographies, demonstrated deepened understanding of the significance of plurilingualism in both participant-authors. Based on this, the paper discusses the challenges of teaching with plurilingual ALTs, and implications for teacher training.