Developing plurilingual competence in the EFL classroom

This paper discusses the importance that plurilingualism has in a globalised world and in the foreign language classroom. It outlines the different varieties of English that have emerged as a consequence of its becoming a lingua franca or global language, and mentions the primary causes and consequences of this. In order to ascertain the importance of plurilingualism in this context, this paper discusses Kachru's tripartite model and its validity in a modern context given that nowadays English is a lingua franca. Finally, this paper analyses ways of fostering plurilingualism in the classroom by presenting teachers with examples of tasks that encourage them to adopt this perspective on teaching and learning.