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Project-Based Learning in Second
Language Acquisition
This book showcases pedagogical tools for learning languages through

interdisciplinary project-based learning (PBL). Chapters demonstrate
a diverse range of PBL activities that help students build communities
of practice within classroom settings and across local and global
communities.
Too often, learning a language becomes a static endeavor, confined to a
classroom and a singular discipline. But language is dynamic and fluid, no
matter the setting in which learning takes place. In acknowledging this,
this volume explores how PBL and community-engagement pedagogies
serve to combine learning goals and community service in ways that
enhance student growth and facilitate second-language development in
an interdisciplinary, multilingual, and multicultural higher education
learning environment. Chapters touch on activities and approaches,
including spoken-word poetry, environmental projects, social activism,
study abroad, and in-service learning.
This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and postgraduate
students in the fields of language education, second language acquisition,
higher education, and comparative and international education.
Adrián Gras-Velázquez is lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese

Department at Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.
Routledge Research in Language Education
The Routledge Research in Language Education series provides a plat-

form for established and emerging scholars to present their latest research
and discuss key issues in Language Education. This series welcomes books
on all areas of language teaching and learning, including but not limited
to language education policy and politics; multilingualism; literacy; L1,
L2, or foreign language acquisition; curriculum; classroom practice; ped-
agogy; teaching materials; and language teacher education and develop-
ment. Books in the series are not limited to the discussion of the teaching
and learning of English only.
Books in the series include:

Classroom-Based Research on Chinese as a Second Language
Fangyuan Yuan and Shuai Li
Teaching English for Tourism

Bridging Research and Praxis
Edited by Michael Ennis and Gina Petrie
Post-Colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia

Building Confidence to Speak English
Asantha U. Attanayake
Teaching Content and Language in the Multilingual Classroom

International Research on Policy, Perspectives, Preparation, and Practice
Edited by Svenja Hammer, Kara Viesca, and Nancy Commins
Project-Based Learning in Second Language Acquisition

Building Communities of Practice in Higher Education
Edited by Adrián Gras-Velázquez
For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/

Routledge-Research-in-Language-Education/book-series/RRLE
Project-Based Learning in
Second Language Acquisition
Building Communities of Practice
in Higher Education
Edited by Adrián Gras-Velázquez

First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Adrián Gras-Velázquez to be identified as the author
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-31378-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45743-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Contributors viii

Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
ADRIÁN GRAS-VELÁZQUEZ
PART I
Theoretical Intersections 7
1 Diversity and Second Language Acquisition in the University

Classroom: A Multilingual and Multicultural Setting 9
MARÍA JOSÉ COPERÍAS-AGUILAR
2 Project-Based Learning: A Five-Stage Framework to Guide

Language Teachers 25
FREDRICKA L. STOLLER AND CeANN CHANDEL MYERS
3 A Theoretical Approach to Project-Based Learning

in Community-Based Settings 48
EMILY SKALET
PART II
Teaching and Learning 61
4 Community Bridges and Interdisciplinary Language Learning

Projects: Stepping Out of Comfort Zones and Building
Ways to Grow 63
SUSAN G. POLANSKY
vi Contents
5 Project-Based and ELF-Aware Pre-Service Teacher Education
in Turkey: Sample Cases of Discovery, Creativity, Interaction,
and Multilingual and Multicultural Diversity 82
ELIF KEMALOGLU-ER AND YASEMIN BAYYURT
PART III
Immersion and the International 99
6 Social Activism Italian Style: Building a Community

of Practice Through Language Immersion and Civic
Engagement While Studying Abroad 101
BRUNO GRAZIOLI
7 Investigating Environmental Sustainability in an English

Writing Course for International Students: PBL as an
On-Ramp to Academic Belonging 117
SUSAN HUSS-LEDERMAN, PRAJUKTI (JUK) BHATTACHARYYA,
AND BRIANNA DEERING
PART IV
Heritage Learning and Language 133
8 Project-Based Learning in the Context of Teaching Heritage

Language Learners 135
MARIA CARREIRA, CLAIRE HITCHINS CHIK, AND
SHUSHAN KARAPETIAN
9 Círculo Juvenil de Cultura: A 10-Year Experiment in Service

Learning and Community Engagement 153
MARIANA ACHUGAR, KENYA C. DWORKIN Y MÉNDEZ, AND
FELIPE GÓMEZ
PART V
Civic Partnerships 173
10 Multilingual Justice in the Streets and in the Classroom:

Translating a Digital Time Line of US Domestic Worker
Organizing 175
MICHELLE JOFFROY
Contents vii
11 Language Acquisition Through Service Learning and
Community Engagement: Critical Reflection, Intercultural
Competence, and Action Agency 192
ALISON MAGINN
PART VI
Case Studies in Creative Communications 215
12 ¿Y tú quién eres? Interviews as Project-Based Learning

at a Multicultural College Community 217
ADRIÁN GRAS-VELÁZQUEZ, JULIA CHINDEMI-VILA,
AND AH-YOUNG SONG
13 Every Poem Matters: World Language Acquisition and

Community Building Through Spoken-Word Poetry 236
INÉS ARRIBAS
14 Films for Inclusion: LGBT+ Perspectives in the French

Language Classroom 252
AURÉLIE CHEVANT-AKSOY AND ERICKA KNUDSON
Index 271
Contributors
Mariana Achugar, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Lan-

guages, School of Information and Communication, Universidad de la
República, Uruguay
Inés Arribas, Senior Lecturer, Department of Spanish, Bryn Mawr Col-
lege, USA
Yasemin Bayyurt, Professor, Department of Foreign Language Education,
Boğaziçi University, Turkey
Prajukti (juk) Bhattacharyya, Professor of Geology, Department of Geog-
raphy, Geology, and Environmental Science, University of Wisconsin-
Whitewater, USA
Maria Carreira, Professor of Spanish, Department of Romance, German,
Russian Languages and Literatures, California State University, Long
Beach, USA
Aurélie Chevant-Aksoy, Assistant Professor of French, Modern Lan-
guages and Cultures, Santa Monica College, USA
Julia Chindemi-Vila, Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages and Lit-
eratures, Swarthmore College, USA
María José Coperías-Aguilar, Full Professor, Department of English and
German Philology, Universitat de València, Spain
Brianna Deering, Associate Lecturer, English Language Academy, Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA
Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies,
Modern Languages Department, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Felipe Gómez, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Modern Lan-
guages, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie
Mellon University, USA
Adrián Gras-Velázquez, Lecturer, Spanish and Portuguese Department,
Smith College, USA
Contributors ix
Bruno Grazioli, Resident Director and Faculty, Italian Studies Program in
Bologna, Dickinson College, Italy
Claire Hitchins Chik, Associate Director, National Heritage Language
Resource Center, University of California Los Angeles, USA
Susan Huss-Lederman, Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESL, Depart-
ment of Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
USA
Michelle Joffroy, Associate Professor of Spanish and Director, Latin
American and Latin@ Studies Program, Smith College, USA
Shushan Karapetian, Associate Director, National Heritage Language
Resource Center, and Lecturer, Department of Near Eastern Languages
and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Elif Kemaloglu-Er, Assistant Professor, Department of Translation and
Interpreting Studies, Adana Alparslan Türkeş Science and Technology
University, Turkey
Ericka Knudson, Preceptor of French, Department of Romance Lan-
guages and Literatures, Harvard University, USA
Alison Maginn, Associate Professor of Spanish, World Languages and
Cultures Department, Monmouth University, USA
CeAnn Chandel Myers, English/ESL Residential Faculty, English Depart-
ment, Mesa Community College, USA
Susan G. Polansky, Teaching Professor of Hispanic Studies and Head,
Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Emily Skalet, Lead Instructor, Adult Learning Centers, New York Public
Library, Bronx, New York, USA
Fredricka L. Stoller, Professor, TESL and Applied Linguistics programs
within the English Department, Northern Arizona University, USA
Ah-Young Song, Visiting Assistant Professor, Education, Vassar College,
USA
Acknowledgments
I want to thank all the contributors in this volume for their hard work,
patience, and enthusiasm. I especially wish to thank Fredricka L. Stoller,
who, unbeknownst to her, provided invaluable guidance throughout the
writing and editing process. I am also grateful to all my colleagues in
the Spanish and Portuguese Department at Smith College for their can-
dor and support. Thanks also to Matthew Friberg and Elsbeth Wright at
Routledge for making this a seamless process. On a personal note, I want
to thank Josh for, well, everything really. Your support and encourage-
ment mean the world to me. I also thank my parents, Inma and Albert,
for instilling in me my love for learning, and Àgueda and Azalea, my
sisters – oh what patience you both have! The next helado del Peret is on
me. To Peque, thank you for making me laugh every day, and I am sorry
if sometimes you do not get as many belly rubs as you would like.
Finally, I want to thank all my students, past, present, and future. You
make me want to be a better professor. I truly appreciate your willingness
to be my classroom guinea pigs.
Introduction
Adrián Gras-Velázquez
Throughout my career in second and foreign language acquisition, I have

consistently been drawn to learning exercises that take students outside
of the traditional classroom environment and into a vibrant, experimen-
tal one. It is for this reason that I am particularly interested in pedagogies
that get students up on their feet and make them physically and mentally
a part of the learning process. In my experience, no method has been
more effective than project-based learning (PBL). Based on the peda-
gogical principle of “learning by doing,” PBL encourages active student
engagement in the learning process as opposed to passive learning. PBL
also provides an avenue through which students can transfer their skills
to varied and diverse communities outside of the classroom, making it a
valuable and powerful pedagogical method.
PBL enhances conventional teaching exercises while simultaneously
achieving the learning goals for the course. PBL helps “students engage
in many types of learning, including experiential and negotiated learn-
ing, problem solving, and research” (Mikulec and Chamness Miller 81).
Using PBL, students can explore their own interests, develop higher-level
thinking skills, and practice accountability for their own learning expe-
riences. While PBL is not a replacement for other teaching methods, in
the words of Haines, it is “an approach to learning which complements
mainstream methods and which can be used with almost all levels, ages
and abilities of students” (1). More than a “simple incorporation of proj-
ects into the curriculum” (Stoller 21), PBL can be summarized as learning
through the process of producing and completing a project.
PBL is a set of “complex tasks, based on challenging questions or prob-
lems, involving students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or
investigative activities; giving students the opportunity to work relatively
autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminating in realistic
products or presentations” (Thomas in Thuan 329). Although educators
approach PBL from multiple perspectives, many acknowledge that the
definition contains a number of features including the following:
1) being a process and an end product

2) encouraging student ownership
2 Adrián Gras-Velázquez
3) extending over a period of time and not being confined to one
class session
4) integrating different skills
5) committing to both language and content learning
6) facilitating both collaborative and individual work
7) requiring students to take responsibility for their own learning
(through gathering, processing, and reporting information)
8) giving students and educators new roles and responsibilities in
the learning process
9) having an end-product
10) concluding with a reflection of both the process and the product
(Stoller 24)
The work in this volume recognizes the benefits of using PBL to engage
with communities both inside and outside the classroom. Bringle and
Hatcher argue that community engagement is becoming “more salient
within higher education” and that community involvement “can change
the nature of faculty work, enhance student learning, better fulfill campus
mission, and improve the quality of life in communities” (37). Just like
PBL, community engagement or service-learning pedagogies reject the
model of education where there is a “downward transference of informa-
tion from knowledgeable teachers to passive students” and encourages an
“active pedagogy committed to connecting theory and practice, schools
and community, the cognitive and the ethical” (Butin 3). O’Meara
(14–23) highlights several benefits and motivations for faculty to imple-
ment community engagement in the curriculum, including the following:
1) student learning and growth

2) personal commitments to specific social issues, people, and places
3) the pursuit of rigorous scholarship and learning
4) the desire for collaboration, relationships, and partners
PBL and community engagement have similar principles and goals. As

this volume shows, both pedagogical frameworks help students develop
their interpersonal and language skills while contributing to the com-
munity. PBL and community engagement are ideal for second language
acquisition, as they promote and encourage the use of the target lan-
guage, while building cultural and global competencies, as well as
advancing civic involvement. Taking this into consideration, the central
research question addressed by this volume is how do project-based and
community-engagement pedagogies combine learning goals and commu-
nity service in ways that enhance student growth and facilitate second
language development in an interdisciplinary, multilingual, and multicul-
tural higher education learning environment.
Introduction 3
Chapters
This volume is divided into six parts. Theoretical Intersections (Part I)
establishes frameworks in PBL, community engagement, and second lan-
guage acquisition in multilingual and multicultural settings. In Chapter 1,
María José Coperías-Aguilar discusses how communications in the cur-
rent global network occur in more than one language, making language
teaching a relevant commodity in today’s education. Coperías-Aguilar
argues that although globalization has promoted cultural and linguistic
diversity, it has also brought about homogenization, especially in relation
to the use of the English language.
In Chapter 2, Fredricka L. Stoller and CeAnn Chandel Myers present
and elaborate upon a five-step process for integrating PBL into language
classrooms. Updating Stoller’s previous well-known work on PBL, this
easily adaptable model guides language teachers in planning, implement-
ing, and evaluating PBL. To bring the model to life, the authors present
real-world examples of projects and tasks that have been successfully
integrated into a range of L2 and FL classrooms. Chapter 3 continues this
exploration on PBL in the classroom as Emily Skalet demonstrates how
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and a multicultural education framework
inform PBL and can be utilized to promote active class participation and
community engagement. Incorporating an inquiry-based stance and per-
sonal classroom examples, the chapter reviews PBL design considerations
to engage learners in authentic tasks grounded in their community and
interests.
Part II (Teaching and Learning) discusses PBL and community engage-
ment in public school tutoring and pre-service teacher education. In
Chapter 4, Susan G. Polansky demonstrates how, through a tutoring for
community outreach program, university students build a community of
practice within the college classroom setting and then move into the local
academic community of the public schools. Polansky’s project empowers
the growth of language learning through reflection and self-critique, over-
coming challenges, and appreciating complex roles and perspectives, role
modeling, cultural identity, and diversity within communities of learners.
Chapter 5 is closely linked to the discussion in Chapter 1 of English as a
de-facto language and the need to foster multilingual and multicultural
competences in our students. Within the setting of pre-service teacher
education in Turkey, Elif Kemaloglu-Er and Yasemin Bayyurt highlight
different aspects of non-native speaker realities and multicultural diver-
sity. This chapter reveals how the Standard English-bound attitudes and
expectations of some schools and parents put great pressure on pre-
service teachers willing to emphasize the multilingual and multicultural
diversity in their practicum classes. However, as they assert, this challenge
has paved the way for innovative pedagogical practices, and they argue
that PBL raises English as Lingua Franca awareness through hands-on
practice comprising discovery, creativity, and interaction as well as multi-
lingual and multicultural diversity.
Still within an international background, Part III (Immersion and the
International) opens with Chapter 6 where Bruno Grazioli discusses
how the combination of community-engaged learning and PBL tasks
enhances US college students’ language learning and supports their inter-
cultural growth while they are participating in a semester of study abroad
in Italy. Grazioli posits that spontaneous and practice-based language
learning arises from the creation of a community of practice, that is an
aggregate of people uniting over a common goal, and through sustained
social interaction in the target language (Italian) with native but also
non-native individuals. Chapter 7 offers a strong counterpoint to the
previous chapter as Susan Huss-Lederman, Prajukti (Juk) Bhattacharyya,
and Brianna Deering present a study on international students going to
a US college setting and working with domestic students to integrate
themselves into the college community. While working in a PBL-driven
syllabus focused on environmental sustainability, international students
reported increased confidence in their writing skills, improved opportuni-
ties to participate in academic discourse, and achieving a sense of belong-
ing within the campus community.
Heritage Learning and Language is the title of Part IV. In Chapter 8,
Maria Carreira, Claire Hitchins Chik, and Shushan Karapetian present a
model of PBL for teaching heritage language learners (HLLs) developed
by the NHLRC at UCLA. Using sample projects from different languages
and proficiency levels, the authors illustrate how PBL can facilitate the
development of oral and written skills, increase linguistic and cultural
awareness, and prepare HLLs to make professional use of the HL. Fur-
thermore, Chapter 8 argues that PBL can help instructors manage a wide
range of proficiency levels, interests, and affective needs that HLLs bring
to class. Chapter 9 discusses the Círculo Juvenil de Cultura program and
how it helped create a space where community, bilingualism, and Latino
cultures are valued. Mariana Achugar, Felipe Gómez, and Kenya C.
Dworkin y Méndez describe how this model of service learning has pro-
moted the university students’ interaction (linguistic and cultural) with
the immigrant community and members of other partnering organiza-
tions of the Latino community.
Part V, Civic Partnerships, examines issues of social justice, religious
engagement, and action agency. In Chapter 10, Michelle Joffroy dis-
cusses how social justice-oriented pedagogies stimulate deeper and more
critical engagement with language as a tool to approach dynamic, mul-
tifaceted, multisited, and political issues. In the chapter, Joffroy shows
how community-based research (CBR) partnerships help harness digital
technologies to innovate teaching and develop intellectually sophisti-
cated and publicly-oriented curricula for the second language acquisi-
tion classroom. In Chapter 11, Alison Maginn considers how community
Introduction 5
engagement helps foster an understanding of socio-political and social
justice issues, such as educational equity, food insecurity, economic
hardship, homelessness, and the discrimination suffered by immigrants.
Together, these authors highlight service experience to understand the
value of bilingualism, multiculturalism, and the potential for civic agency
through intercultural competence.
In the last section, Case Studies in Creative Communications (Part VI),
Adrián Gras-Velázquez, Julia Chindemi-Vila, and Ah-Young Song dis-
cuss the ¿Y tú quién eres? project in Chapter 12. This project stresses the
importance of community and culture within second language acquisi-
tion. Most case studies at the intersection of PBL and community engage-
ment have centered on students with high-level proficiency rather than
novice learners. In this chapter, the authors demonstrate that many of
the benefits of PBL can be successfully implemented and adapted for the
beginning-level. In Chapter 13, Inés Arribas explains why oral poetry
is vital in both an academic curriculum and language classes. By par-
ticipating in poetry slams, students learn the language (its lexical wealth,
its grammar, its codes, its standards, and its prosody) and also develop
an appreciation for language as an instrument of personal expression
and communication. By creating and performing their own texts, stu-
dents embark on a personal journey through the language and become
accountable for their language acquisition. Finally, in Chapter 14, Aurélie
Chevant-Aksoy and Ericka Knudson explore how language classrooms
still draw most of their material from heteronormative narratives despite
increasing efforts toward diversity. Through film and PBL, the authors
discuss representations of gender and sexuality in the French-speaking
world, arguing about the importance of analyzing gendered social con-
structions and cross-cultural comparisons of the LGBT community while
placing special emphasis on French as a gendered language.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Jamie Worms in the Latin American and Latino/a
Studies Program at Smith College for her comments and sugesstions in
this chapter.
References
Bringle, Robert G., and Julie A. Hatcher. “Innovative Practices in Service-Learning
and Curricular Engagement.” Institutionalizing Community Engagement in
Higher Education: The First Wave of Carnegie Classified Institutions, edited
by Lorilee R. Sandman, et al. Wiley Periodicals, 2009, pp. 37–46.
Butin, Dan W. Service-Learning in Theory and Practice: The Future of Commu-
nity Engagement in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Haines, Simon. Projects for the EFL Classroom: Resource Material for Teachers.
Thomas Nelson, 1989.
Mikulec, Erin, and Paul Chamness Miller. “Using Project-Based Instruction to
Meet Foreign Language Standards.” The Clearing House: A Journal of Educa-
tional Strategies, Issues and Ideas, vol. 84, no. 3, 2011, pp. 81–86.
O’Meara, KerryAnn. “Motivation for Faculty Community Engagement: Learning
From Exemplars.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement,
vol. 12, no. 1, 2008, pp. 7–29.
Stoller, Fredricka L. “Establishing a Theoretical Foundation for Project-Based
Learning in Second and Foreign Language Contexts.” Project-Based Second
and Foreign Language Education: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Gulba-
har H. Beckett and Paul Chamness Miller. Information Age Publishing, 2006,
pp. 19–40.
Thuan, Pham Duc. “Project-Based Learning: From Theory to EFL Classroom
Practice.” Proceeding of the 6th International Open TESOL Conference 2018,
2018, pp. 327–339.
Part I
Theoretical Intersections
1 Diversity and Second Language
Acquisition in the University
Classroom
A Multilingual and Multicultural
Setting
María José Coperías-Aguilar
Block and Cameron’s statement at the beginning of the 21st century say-
ing that there was a “consensus that we are living in an increasingly glo-
balized world” (2) is even more real nowadays. Although the concept of
globalization has been approached from many different angles, Giddens’s
definition, “Increasing interdependence between individuals, nations and
regions. Does not just mean economic interdependence. Involves accel-
erated and universal communication, and concerns also political and
cultural dimensions” (xii), is comprehensive and tackles most issues con-
cerned with the notion of globalization. Nevertheless, it is a contentious
term, and even if for some people globalization would simply refer to
a reality in which people, capital, information, and goods move freely
across borders, many others are wary of its consequences (Bauman). Very
often, globalization is understood as implying the hegemony of the capi-
talist system and the domination of the wealthy countries and corpora-
tions over the poor ones and the consequent loss of their identity features
(Green et al. 10). Sometimes, though, the dominance of the powerful over
those with fewer means is seen as an opportunity for the resistance of
the latter and the homogenization process that globalization may entail
as an opportunity for hybridization rather than uniformity (Block and
Cameron 6, 3). Some of the factors that have allowed this phenomenon
to increase are more advanced communication and transport technolo-
gies, which, in turn, have increased people’s mobility, or hypermobility
(Pauwels 42), and a worldwide connected economic and trade system,
thus creating transnational communities.
These global networks are based on the ability to communicate among
their members, and, consequently, the development in competences in
more than one language as well as in the new literacies required by com-
munication technologies is absolutely necessary. Bordieu introduced the
notion of linguistic capital to refer to “the capacity to produce expres-
sions à propos, for a particular market” (18), connecting it with other
forms of capital, such as economic or cultural, and considered that differ-
ences in terms of accent, grammar, or vocabulary might indicate the social
10 María José Coperías-Aguilar
position and linguistic capital of the speakers. Nowadays, this linguistic
capital is related to the command of communication skills, oral and writ-
ten, used in different formats and platforms but also to the competence
in several languages (Cameron 72; Pauwels 53). Thus, language teaching
as a foreign or a second language,1 and more specifically the teaching of
English, has become a commodity. For some English-speaking countries,
like the United Kingdom (Gray “Tesol” 88), Ireland (Sudhershan and
Brauen 27), and Australia (Humphreys 94), international education has
turned into an important economic asset worth billions of dollars, and
higher education has become one of the most important export sectors
(Healey 334). Globalization is then changing, on one hand, the ways in
which languages are learnt and taught and, on the other, the organization
of institutions of higher education (Iglesias de Ussel et al. 14).
Linguistic Diversity, Linguistic Uniformity

Despite the globalizing phenomenon just mentioned, which is often con-
sidered to bring along a homogenizing effect, Blommaert contends that
“sociolinguistically, the world has not become a village” (1) – echoing
McLuhan’s global village – and proves this to be so by describing the
United States as a multi-accent society in reference not only to the
existing varieties of English within the country but also to the accents
provided by many other languages (49). As for the European Union,
it includes almost 30 countries, over 20 official languages, and around
60 regional languages, plus the languages brought by immigrant popula-
tions, which makes Europe a highly multilingual and multicultural area
(Tudor 21). Similar phenomena can be found in many other countries, as
portrayed by Clyne in reference to Australia (53), and across the world
(Cadman and Song 5). Other authors have focused, though, on the super-
diversity that can be found especially in cities as a result of the arrival
and settling down of immigrants from many different ethnolinguistic
backgrounds (Pauwels 43; Hewings and Sergeant 74). Regarding the
sociolinguistic circumstances of Europe, its institutions – the Council of
Europe, through its Language Policy Division, and the European Centre
for Modern Languages, among others – have fostered multilingualism
and multiculturalism by developing a wide range of activities and stud-
ies (Coperías-Aguilar “Dealing” 73; Coperías-Aguilar “ICC in the Con-
text” 244), and they have established as an inalienable aim the training of
teachers who can teach in more than one language (Kelly et al. ii). Despite
the efforts of the European Commission to promote language diversity in
language learning, Doiz and her associates (“Internationalisation” 347;
“Future Challenges” xvii) highlight the predominance of English as a
pan-European language of instruction. However, Alcón argues that if we
place English within a framework of hybridity, where it is a language of
Diversity and Second Language Acquisition 11
communication and not of identification, English should not be under-
stood as a threat to multilingualism, but, on the contrary, it might provide
conditions for developing multilingual citizens (26–29).
Many other voices in different parts of the world have risen in defense
of multilingualism, as well as fostering the learning of several languages
and allowing our students to draw on their capacity to use them, and
against the idea of building linguistically and culturally monolithic soci-
eties (Shohamy 209; Doiz et al. “Internationalisation” 345; Wingate 435;
Spiteri 9). However, some of these same voices acknowledge the unavoid-
able prevalence of English in many contexts since, in a globalized world,
a shared linguistic code is necessary in order to get messages across to
others, and – as Cameron argues – globalization has given new legitimacy
to “the long-lived idea that linguistic diversity is a problem, while linguis-
tic uniformity is a desirable ideal” (67).
Even if languages such as French, Russian, and German have played
and still play an important role in international communication, and
other languages like Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic are gaining ground, it
is English that clearly dominates the international linguistic stage (Pau-
wels 45). There are several reasons for this pervasiveness of English: it
has been adopted as the means of communication by many transnational
corporations, and their staff – regardless of the place where they are
based – need communication skills in this language; there is an increas-
ing number of world organizations, be they official institutions or chari-
ties, that use English as their working language; and English has also
become the language of academia, especially regarding the dissemination
of knowledge either in conferences or publications, as well as in teach-
ing. Consequently, English has become a transnational language with
a majority of users for whom it is a second language, that is, a lingua
franca. Mauranen defines a lingua franca as “a contact language between
speakers or speaker groups when at least one of them uses it as a second
language” (8), and Baker emphasizes its intercultural nature and the dif-
ferent linguacultural backgrounds of the speakers (27). At the same time,
Wallace argues that this kind of English cannot be standard and will con-
tain regional variations (106), and Janssens and Steyaert prefer the term
multilingual franca, thus acknowledging the fact that each speaker will
bring his/her personal language experience to the linguistic exchange and
highlighting the multilingual context (629).
Nonetheless, the rise of English as a lingua franca has brought about
some criticism, and issues of linguistic imperialism have been emphasized
since the 1990s by several authors, who criticize the way in which English
is promoted and taught (Phillipson, Pennycook, Canagarajah Resisting;
Holborow The Politics and The Language; Holliday, Gray The Con-
struction). The manner in which Western, and more specifically Anglo,
communicative norms and scientific ways of knowing has been exported
has also been questioned (Cameron 68; Cadman and Song 5), as well
as the superior status and prestige that English is granted in relation to
other languages (Shohamy 197). Another criticism is associated to the
idea that, although generally speaking language is not culturally neutral,
a particular language is not necessarily linked to a specific country or
culture (Coperías-Aguilar “Dealing” 72; Baker 29). In the case of English,
it is difficult to decide which would be the native variety that should be
taken as the model for the lingua franca, especially considering that for
the majority of its users, English is a second language (Walkinshaw et al.
6; Wallace 101). In relation to this, the powerful industry engaged in the
production of English textbooks for the international market has also
been questioned. These books are mostly produced in English-speaking
countries and, as Gray argues, “they are highly wrought cultural con-
structs and carriers of cultural messages” (“The Global Coursebook”
152), and despite the fact that in recent times guidelines have been issued
by publishing companies to their authors to comply with requirements of
inclusivity and appropriacy to make them suitable for the global market,
and most coursebooks try to deal with a greater variety of materials and
sources, ethnocentric values still persist. That is the reason why Corbett
contends that rather than producing textbooks for the international mar-
ket, teaching materials should be addressed to particular communities
and become more involved with country-specific publishing (212).
Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Higher Education

Institutions
As Healey argues, universities were born global and, as the term indi-
cates, with a universal disposition (334). In Middle-Age Europe, univer-
sities already attracted students and scholars from different parts of the
western, and sometimes also the eastern, world, and Latin was used as a
shared second language in order to promote scientific exchange. Although
not a new phenomenon, internationalization in higher education institu-
tions (HEIs) has acquired a new dimension in this century (Pérez Cañado
“Globalization” 397) and, if in the United States and Canada it has
become almost an institutional priority, in Europe, its multinational,
multicultural and multilingual reality has fostered several institutional
initiatives for internationalization (Green et al. 21–22).
Increasing numbers of students decide to engage in higher education in
a country other than their own; this may be encouraged by established
exchange programs, like the Erasmus/Socrates initiative in Europe, or by
the prospect of better social or economic opportunities. Drawing upon
an OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)
survey, Wingate reports that in 2014, around 1.3 million postgraduate
students studied outside their country, mostly in universities in English-
speaking countries (427). Perrin also reports that Anglophone countries
host more than 50% of those students who study abroad (154), proof
of which is the fact that, in the academic year 2014–2015, 58% of the
students enrolled in full-time postgraduate programs in the UK were
international ones or that, in the same year, this kind of student also
represented at least 25% of enrolments in Australia, making the United
States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada four of the top six
study destinations (Heugh et al. 260; Humphreys 94).
Instead of receiving students at home, what some of these Anglophone
countries have been doing is export their HEIs overseas, thus creating
what is known as Transnational Education (TNE) institutions. Drawing
upon a joint Council of Europe/UNESCO document, Healey defines TNE
as “all types of higher education programmes and educational services
(including distance-learning) in which learners are located in a country
different from the one where the awarding body is based” (335). Perrin
reports that in 2012, there were more than 220 international campuses
around the world established by the same four English-speaking coun-
tries just mentioned (154). The third way in which university students
can have access to internationalization is by studying either a graduate or
postgraduate degree in a foreign language, usually English, in their own
countries. English-medium instruction (EMI), that is, the use of English
as a lingua franca for content-learning and teaching among students and
teachers from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, is a growing
phenomenon in higher education worldwide. In the last decade, there
has been an exponential growth in this field, and Walkinshaw and his
associates report that in 2016, there were some 8,000 courses taught in
English at universities in non-Anglophone countries around the world
(2). EMI programs, though, have drawn some criticism and, along with
the concerns about ethnocentrism and imperialism associated with the
expansion of the English language already mentioned, there is also anxi-
ety regarding some of the challenges involved in the implementation of
this way of teaching (Shohamy 208; Sudhershan and Bruen 40).
When we come to think of EMI programs, we usually imagine uni-
versities set in non-Anglophone countries offering courses or full degree
programs taught in English; however, an increasing participation of
immigrants and ethnolinguistic minorities can be observed in HEIs
established in English-speaking countries. If we take the US as an exam-
ple, around 20% of the population speaks English as a second or other
language (Russell 152), and although bilingualism – in the shape of
speaking English plus one’s own language – is encouraged for the inter-
national community, immigrants to the US are asked to give up their own
language and adhere to English-only monolingualism (García et al. 174,
178). García and her associates also argue that immigrant students in US
HEIs are often seen as strangers in academia and perceived as unquali-
fied, and they explain how these institutions take different positions on
bilingualism and multilingualism depending on who is speaking. So,
whereas international students are welcomed and perceived as a finan-
cial asset, immigrant students are received with caution; whereas the
diverse linguistic background of international students is seen as natu-
ral, bilingualism in immigrant students is perceived as a challenge; and
whereas international students have full access to content classes, immi-
grant students are often excluded until they develop English proficiency
(192–193). In reference to Canada, Marshall also contends that the bilin-
gual and/or multilingual background of many students who belong to
what is often referred to as the 1.5 generation, that is, people living in two
worlds and somewhere between first- and second-generation immigrants,
is often seen as a deficit rather than a wealth, as a problem rather than
an asset (42–43, 47). Cultural clashes may also emerge with international
students, as pointed out by Cadman and Song in reference to Australia
and the Asianization that some of their HEIs are confronting because of
the arrival of thousands of students from different Asian countries (7).
According to several authors, the problem lies in the fact that, despite
the multilingual and multicultural setting of many of these HEIs, they
are monolingual at heart, and the Western style of education no lon-
ger reflects or meets the needs of the new students, and, consequently,
researchers and practitioners of education often find the situation chal-
lenging (Preece and Martin 3–4; Doiz et al. “Internationalisation” 346;
Cadman and Song 7; Marshall 42). And although universities welcome
cultural difference in general, linguistic diversity in students is often dealt
with as a deficit and a problem to be fixed (Preece et al. 288). Shohamy
shows a critical standpoint and understands that maybe some problem-
atic issues have been overlooked because of the, sometimes, too hasty
implementation of EMI programs. She first wonders how successful
achievement of academic content may be if students have a language
deficit in English and how successful the improvement of English lan-
guage is by studying it through content. Next, she poses the inequalities
regarding academic achievements that may emerge for some immigrant
and language-minority students when they have to study through what
can become their third language. Finally, she mistrusts the biases that
may result when using a monolingual type of assessment in contrast to
the multilingual class discourse (Shohamy 202–205).
The implementation of EMI programs also means a new approach to
the learning of English as a foreign or second language, since the main
purpose is to increase the exposure of students to the English language.
This switch to the use of EMI reflects a big shift in the approach to
language teaching (Shohamy 197). As posed by Walkinshaw and his
associates, this change means that English becomes a medium of instruc-
tion rather than an object of instruction (2). And this shift in focus from
teaching English as a foreign or second language to turning it into both
an academic discipline and the mode of delivery makes it necessary to
re-think the teaching of English as a foreign or second language (Perrin
153; Heugh et al. 260). This new scenario poses some new challenges too:
on one hand, that English language is no longer the possession of those
who were born to it and different varieties have to be considered and, on
the other, how to combine in the most appropriate way the learning of
the English language and the contents taught through this medium.
Second Language Acquisition and the Development

of Competences
As stated earlier, linguistic diversity is an extremely valuable asset for
Europe and the issue of languages has always been an important concern
for the Council of Europe, which – instead of promoting the use of a
lingua franca – opted for a model through which multilingualism and
multiculturalism are fostered (Coperías-Aguilar “ICC in the Context”
244). After years of joint work by several institutions, in 2001, the final
document known as the Common European Framework of Reference
for languages (CEFR) was published (Council of Europe). In a previous
working paper, Van Ek had argued that foreign language teaching should
not only be concerned with training in communication skills but should
also involve the personal and social development of the learner as an
individual (33). The CEFR, in fact, aimed at developing European citi-
zenship, promoting the learning of several languages as a powerful factor
of intellectual development and a tool to enable the acquisition of inde-
pendence and autonomy as learners, and encouraging open-mindedness.
Even if the CEFR was initially designed to be deployed in Europe, it has
now been adopted globally (Leung and Lewkowicz 62), and these aims
can be applied to language learning in many other parts of the world.
In Europe, the CEFR has been developed in parallel to the European
Higher Education Area (EHEA), an educational project aimed at making
Europe a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy that can
only become a reality if the different actors involved – students, teachers,
researchers, and institutions – are able to communicate with one another
in an effective way (Tudor 22). One of the principles underlying the
EHEA is engaging both students and teachers in preparing democratic
European citizens for the new century through the adoption of multi-
disciplinary approaches and the acquisition of the skills and attitudes
necessary for life in multicultural societies, as well as competences, such
as those of listening to, understanding, and interpreting other people’s
arguments. And this should be achieved through a learner-centered meth-
odology that trains students in critical thinking (Coperías-Aguilar “ICC
in the Context” 243–244; Kelly et al. 23).
Even if EHEA is concerned with Europe, the aims and principles just
mentioned have been or are being implemented by many other HEIs
around the world since, as Jiménez Raya argues, many universities are
aware that employers are looking for workers “possessing the capacity to
think critically, analyze issues, solve problems, communicate effectively,
and take leadership” (120, see also Badger and White 9). In a compara-
tive analysis of foreign language teaching in higher education between the
United States and Europe, Pérez Cañado contends that, at present, lan-
guage studies must have a relevant role on the agendas of HEIs because, if
in the past language studies were reserved to specialists, now the acquisi-
tion of languages is fundamental for everyone (“Globalization” 394). She
also comments on the different circumstances that have fueled language
policies on both sides of the Atlantic (diversity, in the case of Europe, and
language deficits detected in the US after the events of 9/11) but also on
some similarities, among them, the development of competences in order
to engage people in lifelong learning (404).
With the arrival of communicative language teaching in the 1970s,
the prevalent linguistic competence – the ability to use the forms of a
language correctly – to be acquired when learning a second language
was superseded by communicative competence (CC), which took into
consideration not only linguistic competence but also discourse, socio-
linguistic, and strategic competences among others (Coperías-Aguilar
“ICC as a Tool” 88; Dooly 78–79). In the 1990s, Byram introduced
the concept of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which
recognized the intercultural dimension when communicating in multi-
lingual and multicultural settings. Baker, though acknowledging how
useful it has been, especially in relation to education, criticizes ICC for
not considering the role of English as a global language of communica-
tion when used in settings other than Anglophone ones (32). In turn,
he presents two alternatives: Kramsch’s symbolic competence (“The
Symbolic Dimensions”) and Canagarajah’s performative competence
(Translingual Practice). Without rejecting either CC or ICC, symbolic
competence takes on a more critical view of culture and addresses
ideological, historic, and aesthetic aspects, as well as the complexity
yielding from numerous meanings and interpretations when intercul-
tural communication takes place. As for performative competence, it
emphasizes the processes of multilingual intercultural communication
and the role of communicative strategies. At a different level, an ad hoc
committee on foreign languages created within the Modern Language
Association in the United States and chaired by Mary Louise Pratt,
in a position paper on the transformation of college and university
foreign language departments in the country, recommended making
translingual and transcultural competence (TTC) the goal of language
learning. In the paper, the learning of a language in addition to English
is encouraged, and TTC is aimed at placing “value on the multilingual
ability to operate between languages,” (289) and the proposed route to
achieve this is an integrated curriculum in which language and content
go hand in hand.
Changing Models of Speaker and Teacher in Multilingual

and Multicultural Second Language Acquisition
As hinted at in previous sections, at present, the number of speakers of
English is made up of a minority of native speakers (NS) and a majority of
those who speak it as a second or foreign language in a myriad of complex
and diverse situations. And despite the fact that, for many, learning English
is no longer aimed at communicating with native people but rather with
other speakers who are learners of the language themselves, the idealized
model of the NS is still prevalent and a target. As several studies have
shown (Leung and Lewkowicz 63; Gray “TESOL” 94; Sifakis and Bayy-
urt 457), this model is supported by some of the best-selling textbooks
aimed at the international market, which – incidentally – are produced by
publishing companies based on either the United Kingdom or the United
States. Consequently, the sources of many of the authentic materials used
are predominantly from these countries or other countries that are mem-
bers of the Anglophone world; the topics selected are mostly of interest
for people in these nations; and accents are very often British – mainly RP
and modified RP – or standard American. The position of textbooks is
further reinforced by international examinations, teacher education cur-
ricula and policies for teaching English as a second language. Regarding
HEIs, the situation is not much different, and the NS is still taken as a
yardstick from the very beginning of the students’ education process if,
for instance, we take into consideration the language tests, which are
often an entry requirement (Smit 391). The English language used in aca-
demic exchanges is based on that of an NS, and students are required to
replicate it (Wingate 427); their linguistic academic competence is also
assessed against the model of the educated NS (Pratt et al. 289).
However, the dominance of the native English norms and of the eth-
nocentric values associated to them (Galloway 470) in the teaching of
English as a second language has been long criticized and called into
question (Ball and Lindsay 51). The idea that the language used by a
learner of English has to be as authentic as possible so as to represent the
reality of the NS was one of the tenets of the communicative approach
to foreign language teaching and learning, but taking this NS as a model
becomes an impossible target, and even if the learner should manage to
acquire this degree of perfection, it might not be the correct kind of com-
petence (Coperías-Aguilar “ICC as a Tool” 90). On one hand, this would
mean that learners somehow have to abandon their own language; on
the other, our knowledge of a language – including our native tongue –
is never complete, as there will always be some areas out of our reach
(Coperías-Aguilar “ICC in the Context” 246). Also, as Corbett argues,
few native English speakers entirely conform to “standard English in
their output and how ironic it is that second language learners are often
required institutionally to conform to standards that are more rigorous
than those applied to native speakers” (39–40).
In 1993, Kramsch introduced the notion of the learner of a second
language as a mediator (Context and Culture 233–259), and a year later,
Byram and Zarate put forward the idea of the intercultural speaker (IS)
as someone who has the ability to manage communication and interac-
tion between people of different cultural identities and languages and is
able to handle different interpretations of reality (53). This IS will most
probably be less skilled than an NS regarding the mastery of the language
but has a privileged vantage position between the home and the target
culture, and in no case are the standards of achievement expected of the
foreign language learner lowered (Coperías-Aguilar “ICC in the Context”
250). In an attempt to respond to the current complexities of multicultur-
alism and hybridity, Guilherme took this idea further and developed the
notion of the critical IS (124–132). A couple of years later, Phipps and
Gonzalez went beyond the idea of the IS and introduced the concept of
being intercultural – with emphasis on being over knowledge – for which
a key tenet is that of languaging, that is, emphasis on real communication
and dialogue rather than on artificial language tasks, engaging with the
other, and reflecting critically (111).
More recently, Llurda has emphasized the distinction between learners
and users and established the aim of becoming successful users even if
we are incomplete learners of standard native English. In this case, multi-
lingualism is understood as an ordinary accompanying element, and the
knowledge of the language by a second language user and an NS will be
different but neither better nor worse (520). Then, language mixtures,
code-mixing, and translanguaging are considered as legitimate linguistic
possibilities to make effective communication possible, rather than being
constantly discouraged or even banned from the language classroom. In
light of this, code-switching can be seen as an expression of the bilingual
or multilingual competence of the speakers and not as a deficiency (Cogo
359), and translanguaging – which has been defined as “the adoption
of bilingual supportive scaffolding practices” (Doiz et al. “Future Chal-
lenges” 218) and focuses on the languaging process rather than the code
of the language – is even more readily accepted (Heugh et al. 264).
The figure of the second- or foreign-language teacher has also revolved
around an idealized NS (Llurda 523) who thus represented a prescriber
of linguistic rules, an ambassador of the cultural mores, or a custodian
of correct English, whatever correct might mean. Instead, the teacher of
a second language should become a mediator or a facilitator who has
to give priority not to the amount of knowledge to be acquired but to
the development of new attitudes, skills, and critical awareness in the
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VIII.
THE BAG OF SAND
Of course, I knew at once by the expression of her face that morning

that my dear lady had some important business on hand.
She had a bundle in her arms, consisting of a shabby-looking coat
and skirt, and a very dowdy hat trimmed with bunches of cheap,
calico roses.
“Put on these things at once, Mary,” she said curtly, “for you are
going to apply for the situation of ‘good plain cook,’ so mind you look
the part.”
“But where in the world——?” I gasped in astonishment.
“In the house of Mr. Nicholas Jones, in Eaton Terrace,” she
interrupted dryly, “the one occupied until recently by his sister, the
late Mrs. Dunstan. Mrs. Jones is advertising for a cook, and you
must get that place.”
As you know, I have carried obedience to the level of a fine art.
Nor was I altogether astonished that my dear lady had at last been
asked to put one of her dainty fingers in that Dunstan pie, which was
puzzling our fellows more completely than any other case I have
ever known.
I don’t know if you remember the many circumstances, the various
contradictions which were cropping up at every turn, and which
baffled our ablest detectives at the very moment when they thought
themselves most near the solution of that strange mystery.
Mrs. Dunstan herself was a very uninteresting individual: self-
righteous, self-conscious and fat, a perfect type of the moneyed
middle-class woman whose balance at the local bank is invariably
heavier than that of her neighbours. Her niece, Violet Frostwicke,
lived with her: a smart, pretty girl, inordinately fond of dainty clothes
and other luxuries which money can give. Being totally impecunious
herself, she bore with the older woman’s constantly varying caprices
with almost angelic patience, a fact probably attributable to Mrs.
Dunstan’s testamentary intentions, which, as she often averred,
were in favour of her niece.
In addition to these two ladies, the household consisted of three
servants and Miss Cruikshank. The latter was a quiet, unassuming
girl who was by way of being secretary and lady-help to Mrs.
Dunstan, but who, in reality, was nothing but a willing drudge. Up
betimes in the morning, she combined the work of a housekeeper
with that of an upper servant. She interviewed the tradespeople, kept
the servants in order, and ironed and smartened up Miss Violet’s
blouses. A Cinderella, in fact.
Mrs. Dunstan kept a cook and two maids, all of whom had been
with her for years. In addition to these, a charwoman came very
early in the morning to light fires, clean boots, and do the front steps.
On November 22nd, 1907—for the early history of this curious
drama dates back to that year—the charwoman who had been
employed at Mrs. Dunstan’s house in Eaton Terrace for some
considerable time, sent word in the morning that in future she would
be unable to come. Her husband had been obliged to move to
lodgings nearer to his work, and she herself could not undertake to
come the greater distance at the early hour at which Mrs. Dunstan
required her.
The woman had written a very nice letter explaining these facts,
and sent it by hand, stating at the same time that the bearer of the
note was a very respectable woman, a friend of her own, who would
be very pleased to “oblige” Mrs. Dunstan by taking on the morning’s
work.
I must tell you that the message and its bearer arrived at Eaton
Terrace somewhere about 6.0 a.m., when no one was down except
the Cinderella of the house, Miss Cruikshank.
She saw the woman, liked her appearance, and there and then
engaged her to do the work, subject to Mrs. Dunstan’s approval.
The woman, who had given her name as Mrs. Thomas, seemed
very quiet and respectable. She said that she lived close by, in St.
Peter’s Mews, and therefore could come as early as Mrs. Dunstan
wished. In fact, from that day, she came every morning at 5.30 a.m.,
and by seven o’clock had finished her work, and was able to go
home.
If, in addition to these details, I tell you that, at that time, pretty
Miss Violet Frostwicke was engaged to a young Scotsman, Mr.
David Athol, of whom her aunt totally disapproved, I shall have put
before you all the personages who, directly or indirectly, were
connected with that drama, the final act of which has not yet been
witnessed either by the police or by the public.
2
On the following New Year’s Eve, Mrs. Dunstan, as was her

invariable custom on that day, went to her married brother’s house to
dine and to see the New Year in.
During her absence the usual thing occurred at Eaton Terrace.
Miss Violet Frostwicke took the opportunity of inviting Mr. David Athol
to spend the evening with her.
Mrs. Dunstan’s servants, mind you, all knew of the engagement
between the young people, and with the characteristic sentimentality
of their class, connived at these secret meetings and helped to
hoodwink the irascible old aunt.
Mr. Athol was a good-looking young man, whose chief demerit lay
in his total lack of money or prospects. Also he was by way of being
an actor, another deadly sin in the eyes of the puritanically-minded
old lady.
Already, on more than one occasion, there had been vigorous
wordy warfare ’twixt Mr. Athol and Mrs. Dunstan, and the latter had
declared that if Violet chose to take up with this mountebank, she
should never see a penny of her aunt’s money now or in the future.
The young man did not come very often to Eaton Terrace, but on
this festive New Year’s Eve, when Mrs. Dunstan was not expected to
be home until long after midnight, it seemed too splendid an
opportunity for an ardent lover to miss.
As ill-luck would have it, Mrs. Dunstan had not felt very well after
her copious dinner, and her brother, Mr. Nicholas Jones, escorted
her home soon after ten o’clock.
Jane, the parlour-maid who opened the front door, was, in her own
graphic language, “knocked all of a heap” when she saw her
mistress, knowing full well that Mr. Athol was still in the dining-room
with Miss Violet, and that Miss Cruikshank was at that very moment
busy getting him a whisky and soda.
Meanwhile the coat and hat in the hall had revealed the young
man’s presence in the house.
For a moment Mrs. Dunstan paused, whilst Jane stood by
trembling with fright. Then the old lady turned to Mr. Nicholas Jones,
who was still standing on the doorstep, and said quietly:
“Will you telephone over to Mr. Blenkinsop, Nick, the first thing in
the morning, and tell him I’ll be at his office by ten o’clock?”
Mr. Blenkinsop was Mrs. Dunstan’s solicitor, and as Jane
explained to the cook later on, what could such an appointment
mean but a determination to cut Miss Violet out of the missis’s will
with the proverbial shilling?
After this Mrs. Dunstan took leave of her brother and went straight
into the dining-room.
According to the subsequent testimony of all three servants, the
mistress “went on dreadful.” Words were not easily distinguishable
from behind the closed door, but it seems that, immediately she
entered, Mrs. Dunstan’s voice was raised as if in terrible anger, and
a few moments later Miss Violet fled crying from the dining-room,
and ran quickly upstairs.
Whilst the door was thus momentarily opened and shut, the voice
of the old lady was heard saying, in majestic wrath:
“That’s what you have done. Get out of this house. As for her,
she’ll never see a penny of my money, and she may starve for aught
I care!”
The quarrel seems to have continued for a short while after that,
the servants being too deeply awed by those last vindictive words
which they had heard to take much note of what went on
subsequently.
Mrs. Dunstan and Mr. Athol were closeted together for some time;
but apparently the old lady’s wrath did not subside, for when she
marched up to bed an hour later she was heard to say:
“Out of this house she shall go, and the first thing in the morning,
too. I’ll have no goings-on with a mountebank like you.”
Miss Cruikshank was terribly upset.
“It is a frightful blow for Miss Violet,” she said to cook, “but perhaps
Mrs. Dunstan will feel more forgiving in the morning. I’ll take her up a
glass of champagne now. She is very fond of that, and it will help her
to get to sleep.”
Miss Cruikshank went up with the champagne, and told cook to
see Mr. Athol out of the house; but the young man, who seemed very
anxious and agitated, would not go away immediately. He stayed in
the dining-room, smoking, for a while, and when the two younger
servants went up to bed, he asked cook to let him remain until he
had seen Miss Violet once more, for he was sure she would come
down again—he had asked Miss Cruikshank to beg her to do so.
Mrs. Kennett, the cook, was a kind-hearted old woman. She had
taken the young people under her special protection, and felt very
vexed that the course of true love should not be allowed to run quite
smoothly. So she told Mr. Athol to make himself happy and
comfortable in the dining-room, and she would sit up by the fire in
the library until he was ready to go.
The good soul thereupon made up the fire in the library, drew a
chair in front of it, and—went fast to sleep.
Suddenly something awoke her. She sat up and looked round in
that dazed manner peculiar to people just aroused from deep sleep.
She looked at the clock; it was past three. Surely, she thought, it
must have been Mr. Athol calling to her which had caused her to
wake. She went into the hall, where the gas had not yet been turned
off, and there she saw Miss Violet, fully dressed and wearing a hat
and coat, in the very act of going out at the front door.
In the cook’s own words, before she could ask a question or even
utter a sound, the young girl had opened the front door, which was
still on the latch, and then banged it to again, she herself having
disappeared into the darkness of the street beyond.
Mrs. Kennett ran to the door and out into the street as fast as her
old legs would let her; but the night was an exceptionally foggy one.
Violet, no doubt, had walked rapidly away, and there came no
answer to Mrs. Kennett’s repeated calls.
Thoroughly upset, and not knowing what to do, the good woman
went back into the house. Mr. Athol had evidently left, for there was
no sign of him in the dining-room or elsewhere. She then went
upstairs and knocked at Mrs. Dunstan’s door. To her astonishment
the gas was still burning in her mistress’s room, as she could see a
thin ray of light filtering through the keyhole. At her first knock there
came a quick, impatient answer:
“What is it?”
“Miss Violet, ’m,” said the cook, who was too agitated to speak
very coherently, “she is gone——”
“The best thing she could do,” came promptly from the other side
of the door. “You go to bed, Mrs. Kennett, and don’t worry.”
Whereupon the gas was suddenly turned off inside the room, and,
in spite of Mrs. Kennett’s further feeble protests, no other word
issued from the room save another impatient:
“Go to bed.”
The cook then did as she was bid; but before going to bed she
made the round of the house, turned off all the gas, and finally bolted
the front door.
3
Some three hours later the servants were called, as usual, by Miss
Cruikshank, who then went down to open the area door to Mrs.
Thomas, the charwoman.
At half-past six, when Mary the housemaid came down, candle in
hand, she saw the charwoman a flight or two lower down, also
apparently in the act of going downstairs. This astonished Mary not a
little, as the woman’s work lay entirely in the basement, and she was
supposed never to come to the upper floors.
The woman, though walking rapidly down the stairs, seemed,
moreover, to be carrying something heavy.
“Anything wrong, Mrs. Thomas?” asked Mary, in a whisper.
The woman looked up, pausing a moment immediately under the
gas bracket, the by-pass of which shed a feeble light upon her and
upon her burden. The latter Mary recognised as the bag containing
the sand which, on frosty mornings, had to be strewn on the front
steps of the house.
On the whole, though she certainly was puzzled, Mary did not
think very much about the incident then. As was her custom, she
went into the housemaid’s closet, got the hot water for Miss
Cruikshank’s bath, and carried it to the latter’s room, where she also
pulled up the blinds and got things ready generally. For Miss
Cruikshank usually ran down in her dressing-gown, and came up to
tidy herself later on.
As a rule, by the time the three servants got downstairs, it was
nearly seven, and Mrs. Thomas had generally gone by that time; but
on this occasion Mary was earlier. Miss Cruikshank was busy in the
kitchen getting Mrs. Dunstan’s tea ready. Mary spoke about seeing
Mrs. Thomas on the stairs with the bag of sand, and Miss
Cruikshank, too, was very astonished at the occurrence.
Mrs. Kennett was not yet down, and the charwoman apparently
had gone; her work had been done as usual, and the sand was
strewn over the stone steps in front, as the frosty fog had rendered
them very slippery.
At a quarter past seven Miss Cruikshank went up with Mrs.
Dunstan’s tea, and less than two minutes later a fearful scream rang
through the entire house, followed by the noise of breaking crockery.
In an instant the two maids ran upstairs, straight to Mrs. Dunstan’s
room, the door of which stood wide open.
The first thing Mary and Jane were conscious of was a terrific
smell of gas, then of Miss Cruikshank, with eyes dilated with horror,
staring at the bed in front of her, whereon lay Mrs. Dunstan, with one
end of a piece of indiarubber piping still resting in her mouth, her jaw
having dropped in death. The other end of that piece of piping was
attached to the burner of a gas-bracket on the wall close by.
Every window in the room was fastened and the curtains drawn.
The whole room reeked of gas.
Mrs. Dunstan had been asphyxiated by its fumes.
4
A year went by after the discovery of the mysterious tragedy, and I

can assure you that our fellows at the Yard had one of the toughest
jobs in connection with the case that ever fell to their lot. Just think of
all the contradictions which met them at every turn.
Firstly, the disappearance of Miss Violet.
No sooner had the women in the Dunstan household roused
themselves sufficiently from their horror at the terrible discovery
which they had just made, than they were confronted with another
almost equally awful fact—awful, of course, because of its
connection with the primary tragedy.
Miss Violet Frostwicke had gone. Her room was empty, her bed
had not been slept in. She herself had been seen by the cook, Mrs.
Kennett, stealing out of the house at dead of night.
To connect the pretty, dainty young girl even remotely with a crime
so hideous, so callous, as the deliberate murder of an old woman,
who had been as a mother to her, seemed absolutely out of the
question, and by tacit consent the four women, who now remained in
the desolate and gloom-laden house at Eaton Terrace, forbore to
mention Miss Violet Frostwicke’s name either to police or doctor.
Both these, of course, had been summoned immediately; Miss
Cruikshank sending Mary to the police-station and thence to Dr.
Folwell, in Eaton Square, whilst Jane went off in a cab to fetch Mr.
Nicholas Jones, who, fortunately, had not yet left for his place of
business.
The doctor’s and the police-inspector’s first thought, on examining
the mise en scène of the terrible tragedy, was that Mrs. Dunstan had
committed suicide. It was practically impossible to imagine that a
woman in full possession of health and strength would allow a piece
of indiarubber piping to be fixed between her teeth, and would,
without a struggle, continue to inhale the poisonous fumes which
would mean certain death. Yet there were no marks of injury upon
the body, nothing to show how sufficient unconsciousness had been
produced in the victim to permit of the miscreant completing his
awesome deed.
But the theory of suicide set up by Dr. Folwell was promptly
refuted by the most cursory examination of the room.
Though the drawers were found closed, they had obviously been
turned over, as if the murderer had been in search either of money or
papers, or the key of the safe.
The latter, on investigation, was found to be open, whilst the key
lay on the floor close by. A brief examination of the safe revealed the
fact that the tin boxes must have been ransacked, for they contained
neither money nor important papers now, whilst the gold and
platinum settings of necklaces, bracelets, and a tiara showed that
the stones—which, as Mr. Nicholas Jones subsequently averred,
were of considerable value—had been carefully, if somewhat
clumsily, taken out by obviously inexperienced hands.
On the whole, therefore, appearances suggested deliberate,
systematic, and very leisurely robbery, which wholly contradicted the
theory of suicide.
Then suddenly the name of Miss Frostwicke was mentioned. Who
first brought it on the tapis no one subsequently could say; but in a
moment the whole story of the young girl’s engagement to Mr. Athol,
in defiance of her aunt’s wishes, the quarrel of the night before, and
the final disappearance of both young people from the house during
the small hours of the morning, was dragged from the four unwilling
witnesses by the able police-inspector.
Nay, more. One very unpleasant little circumstance was detailed
by one of the maids and corroborated by Miss Cruikshank.
It seems that when the latter took up the champagne to Mrs.
Dunstan, the old lady desired Miss Violet to come to her room. Mary,
the housemaid, was on the stairs when she saw the young girl, still
dressed in her evening gown of white chiffon, her eyes still swollen
with tears, knocking at her aunt’s door.
The police-inspector was busy taking notes, already building up in
his mind a simple, if very sensational, case against Violet
Frostwicke, when Mrs. Kennett promptly upset all his calculations.
Miss Violet could have had nothing to do with the murder of her
aunt, seeing that Mrs. Dunstan was alive and actually spoke to the
cook when the latter knocked at her bedroom door after she had
seen the young girl walk out of the house.
Then came the question of Mr. Athol. But, if you remember, it was
quite impossible even to begin to build up a case against the young
man. His own statement that he left the house at about midnight,
having totally forgotten to rouse the cook when he did so, was amply
corroborated from every side.
The cabman who took him up to the corner of Eaton Terrace at
11.50 p.m. was one witness in his favour; his landlady at his rooms
in Jermyn Street, who let him in, since he had mislaid his latchkey,
and who took him up some tea at seven o’clock the next morning,
was another; whilst, when Mary saw Miss Violet going into her aunt’s
room, the clock at St. Peter’s, Eaton Square, was just striking twelve.
I dare say you think I ought by now to have mentioned the
charwoman, Mrs. Thomas, who represented the final, most
complete, most hopeless contradiction in this remarkable case.
Mrs. Thomas was seen by Mary, the housemaid, at half-past six
o’clock in the morning, coming down from the upper floors, where
she had no business to be, and carrying the bag of sand used for
strewing over the slippery front-door steps.
The bag of sand, of course, was always kept in the area.
The moment that bag of sand was mentioned Dr. Folwell gave a
curious gasp. Here, at least, was the solution to one mystery. The
victim had been stunned whilst still in bed by a blow on the head
dealt with that bag of sand; and whilst she was unconscious the
callous miscreant had robbed her and finally asphyxiated her with
the gas fumes.
Where was the woman who, at half-past six in the morning, was
seen in possession of the silent instrument of death?
Mrs. Thomas had disappeared. The last that was then or ever has
been seen of her was when she passed underneath the dim light of
a by-pass on the landing, as if tired out with the weight which she
was carrying.
Since then, as you know, the police have been unswerving in their
efforts to find Mrs. Thomas. The address which she had given in St.
Peter’s Mews was found to be false. No one of that name or
appearance had ever been seen there.
The woman who was supposed to have sent her with a letter of
recommendation to Mrs. Dunstan knew nothing of her. She swore
that she had never sent anyone with a letter to Mrs. Dunstan. She
gave up her work there one day because she found it too hard at
such an early hour in the morning; but she never heard anything
more from her late employer after that.
Strange, wasn’t it, that two people should have disappeared out of
that house on that same memorable night?
Of course, you will remember the tremendous sensation that was
caused some twenty-four hours later, when it transpired that the
young person who had thrown herself into the river from Waterloo
Bridge on that same eventful morning, and whose body was
subsequently recovered and conveyed to the Thames Police station,
was identified as Miss Violet Frostwicke, the niece of the lady who
had been murdered in her own house in Eaton Terrace.
Neither money nor diamonds were found on poor Miss Violet. She
had herself given the most complete proof that she, at least, had no
hand in robbing or killing Mrs. Dunstan.
The public wondered why she took her aunt’s wrath and her
probable disinheritance so fearfully to heart, and sympathised with
Mr. David Athol for the terribly sad loss which he had sustained.
But Mrs. Thomas, the charwoman, had not yet been found.
5
I think I looked an extremely respectable, good plain cook when I

presented myself at the house in Eaton Terrace in response to the
advertisement in the “Daily Telegraph.”
As, in addition to my prepossessing appearance, I also asked very
low wages and declared myself ready to do anything except scour
the front steps and the stone area, I was immediately engaged by
Mrs. Jones, and was duly installed in the house the following day
under the name of Mrs. Curwen.
But few events had occurred here since the discovery of the dual
tragedy, now more than a year ago, and none that had thrown any
light upon the mystery which surrounded it.
The verdict at the inquest had been one of wilful murder against a
person known as Mrs. Thomas, the weight of evidence, coupled with
her disappearance, having been very heavy against her; and there
was a warrant out for her arrest.
Mrs. Dunstan had died intestate. To the astonishment of all those
in the know, she had never signed the will which Messrs. Blenkinsop
and Blenkinsop had drafted for her, and wherein she bequeathed
£20,000 and the lease of her house in Eaton Terrace to her beloved
niece, Violet Frostwicke, £1,000 to Miss Cruikshank, and other,
smaller, legacies to friends or servants.
In default of a will, Mr. Nicholas Jones, only brother of the
deceased, became possessed of all her wealth.
He was a very rich man himself, and many people thought that he
ought to give Miss Cruikshank the £1,000 which the poor girl had
thus lost through no fault of her own.
What his ultimate intentions were with regard to this no one could
know. For the present he contented himself with moving to Eaton
Terrace with his family; and, as his wife was a great invalid, he asked
Miss Cruikshank to continue to make her home in the house and to
help in its management.
Neither the diamonds nor the money stolen from Mrs. Dunstan’s
safe were ever traced. It seems that Mrs. Dunstan, a day or two
before her death, had sold a freehold cottage which she owned near
Teddington. The money, as is customary, had been handed over to
her in gold, in Mr. Blenkinsop’s office, and she had been foolish
enough not to bank it immediately. This money and the diamonds
had been the chief spoils of her assailant. And all the while no trace
of Mrs. Thomas, in spite of the most strenuous efforts on the part of
the police to find her.
Strangely enough, when I had been in Eaton Terrace about three
days, and was already getting very tired of early rising and hard
work, the charwoman there fell ill one day and did not come to her
work as usual.
I, of course, grumbled like six, for I had to be on my hands and
knees the next morning scrubbing stone steps, and my thoughts of
Lady Molly, for the moment, were not quite as loyal as they usually
were.
Suddenly I heard a shuffling footstep close behind me. I turned
and saw a rough-looking, ill-dressed woman standing at the bottom
of the steps.
“What do you want?” I asked sourly, for I was in a very bad
humour.
“I saw you scrubbing them steps, miss,” she replied in a raucous
voice; “my ’usband is out of work, and the children hain’t ’ad no
breakfast this morning. I’d do them steps, miss, if you’d give me a
trifle.”
The woman certainly did not look very prepossessing, with her
shabby, broad-brimmed hat hiding the upper part of her face, and
her skirt, torn and muddy, pinned up untidily round her stooping
figure.
However, I did not think that I could be doing anything very wrong
by letting her do this one bit of rough work, which I hated, so I
agreed to give her sixpence, and left her there with kneeling mat and
scrubbing-brush, and went in, leaving, however, the front door open.
In the hall I met Miss Cruikshank, who, as usual, was down before
everybody else.
“What is it, Curwen?” she asked, for through the open door she
had caught sight of the woman kneeling on the step.
“A woman, miss,” I replied, somewhat curtly. “She offered to do the
steps. I thought Mrs. Jones wouldn’t mind, as Mrs. Callaghan hasn’t
turned up.”
Miss Cruikshank hesitated an instant, and then walked up to the
front door.
At the same moment the woman looked up, rose from her knees,
and boldly went up to accost Miss Cruikshank.
“You’ll remember me, miss,” she said, in her raucous voice. “I used
to work for Mrs. Dunstan once. My name is Mrs. Thomas.”
No wonder Miss Cruikshank uttered a quickly smothered cry of
horror. Thinking that she would faint, I ran to her assistance; but she
waved me aside and then said quite quietly:
“This poor woman’s mind is deranged. She is no more Mrs.
Thomas than I am. Perhaps we had better send for the police.”
“Yes, miss; p’r’aps you’d better,” said the woman with a sigh. “My
secret has been weighin’ heavy on me of late.”
“But, my good woman,” said Miss Cruikshank, very kindly, for I
suppose that she thought, as I did, that this was one of those
singular cases of madness which sometimes cause innocent people
to accuse themselves of undiscovered crimes. “You are not Mrs.
Thomas at all. I knew Mrs. Thomas well, of course—and——”
“Of course you knew me, miss,” replied the woman. “The last
conversation you and I had together was in the kitchen that morning,
when Mrs. Dunstan was killed. I remember your saying to me——”
“Fetch the police, Curwen,” said Miss Cruikshank, peremptorily.
Whereupon the woman broke into a harsh and loud laugh of
defiance.
To tell you the truth, I was not a little puzzled. That this scene had
been foreseen by my dear lady, and that she had sent me to this
house on purpose that I should witness it, I was absolutely
convinced. But—here was my dilemma: ought I to warn the police at
once or not?
On the whole, I decided that my best plan would undoubtedly be to
communicate with Lady Molly first of all, and to await her
instructions. So I ran upstairs, scribbled a hasty note to my dear lady,
and, in response to Miss Cruikshank’s orders, flew out of the house
through the area gate, noticing, as I did so, that Miss Cruikshank
was still parleying with the woman on the doorstep.
I sent the note off to Maida Vale by taxicab; then I went back to
Eaton Terrace. Miss Cruikshank met me at the front door, and told
me that she had tried to detain the woman, pending my return; but
that she felt very sorry for the unfortunate creature, who obviously
was labouring under a delusion, and she had allowed her to go
away.
About an hour later I received a curt note from Lady Molly ordering
me to do nothing whatever without her special authorisation.
In the course of the day, Miss Cruikshank told me that she had
been to the police-station, and had consulted with the inspector, who
said there would be no harm in engaging the pseudo Mrs. Thomas to
work at Eaton Terrace, especially as thus she would remain under
observation.
Then followed a curious era in Mr. Nicholas Jones’s otherwise
well-ordered household. We three servants, instead of being called
at six as heretofore, were allowed to sleep on until seven. When we
came down we were not scolded. On the contrary, we found our
work already done.
The charwoman—whoever she was—must have been a very
hard-working woman. It was marvellous what she accomplished
single-handed before seven a.m., by which time she had invariably
gone.
The two maids, of course, were content to let this pleasant state of
things go on, but I was devoured with curiosity.
One morning I crept quietly downstairs and went into the kitchen
soon after six. I found the pseudo Mrs. Thomas sitting at a very
copious breakfast. I noticed that she had on altogether different—
though equally shabby and dirty—clothes from those she had worn
when she first appeared on the doorstep of 180, Eaton Terrace. Near
her plate were three or four golden sovereigns over which she had
thrown her grimy hand.
Miss Cruikshank the while was on her hands and knees scrubbing
the floor. At sight of me she jumped up, and with obvious confusion
muttered something about “hating to be idle,” etc.
That day Miss Cruikshank told me that I did not suit Mrs. Jones,
who wished me to leave at the end of my month. In the afternoon I
received a little note from my dear lady, telling me to be downstairs
by six o’clock the following morning.
I did as I was ordered, of course, and when I came into the kitchen
punctually at six a.m. I found the charwoman sitting at the table with
a pile of gold in front of her, which she was counting over with a very
grubby finger. She had her back to me, and was saying as I entered:
“I think if you was to give me another fifty quid I’d leave you the
rest now. You’d still have the diamonds and the rest of the money.”
She spoke to Miss Cruikshank, who was facing me, and who, on
seeing me appear, turned as white as a ghost. But she quickly
recovered herself, and, standing between me and the woman, she
said vehemently:
“What do you mean by prying on me like this? Go and pack your
boxes and leave the house this instant.”
But before I could reply the woman had interposed.
“ ‘Go and pack your boxes and leave the house this instant’ ”
“Don’t you fret yourself, miss,” she said, placing her grimy hand on
Miss Cruikshank’s shoulder. “There’s the bag of sand in that there
corner; we’ll knock ’er down as we did Mrs. Dunstan—eh?”
“Hold your tongue, you lying fool!” said the girl, who now looked
like a maddened fury.
“Give me that other fifty quid and I’ll hold my tongue,” retorted the
woman, boldly.
“This creature is mad,” said Miss Cruikshank, who had made a
vigorous and successful effort to recover herself. “She is under the
delusion that not only is she Mrs. Thomas, but that she murdered
Mrs. Dunstan——”
“No—no!” interrupted the woman. “I only came back that morning
because I recollected that you had left the bag of sand upstairs after
you so cleverly did away with Mrs. Dunstan, robbed her of all her
money and jewels, and even were sharp enough to imitate her voice
when Mrs. Kennett, the cook, terrified you by speaking to Mrs.
Dunstan through the door.”
“It is false! You are not Mrs. Thomas. The two maids who are here
now, and who were in this house at the time, can swear that you are
a liar.”
“Let us change clothes now, Miss Cruikshank,” said a voice, which
sounded almost weirdly in my ear in spite of its familiarity, for I could
not locate whence it came, “and see if in a charwoman’s dress those
two maids would not recognise you.”
“Mary,” continued the same familiar voice, “help me out of these
filthy clothes. Perhaps Miss Cruikshank would like to resume her
own part of Mrs. Thomas, the charwoman.”
“Liars and impostors—both!” shouted the girl, who was rapidly
losing all presence of mind. “I’ll send for the police.”
“Quite unnecessary,” rejoined Lady Molly coolly; “Detective-
Inspector Danvers is just outside that door.”
The girl made a dash for the other door, but I was too quick for her,
and held her back, even whilst Lady Molly gave a short, sharp call
which brought Danvers on the scene.
I must say that Miss Cruikshank made a bold fight, but Danvers
had two of our fellows with him, and arrested her on the warrant for
the apprehension of the person known as Mrs. Thomas.
The clothes of the charwoman who had so mysteriously
disappeared had been found by Lady Molly at the back of the coal
cellar, and she was still dressed in them at the present moment.
No wonder I had not recognised my own dainty lady in the grimy
woman who had so successfully played the part of a blackmailer on
the murderess of Mrs. Dunstan. She explained to me subsequently
that the first inkling that she had had of the horrible truth—namely,
that it was Miss Cruikshank who had deliberately planned to murder
Mrs. Dunstan by impersonating a charwoman for a while, and thus
throwing dust in the eyes of the police—was when she heard of the
callous words which the old lady was supposed to have uttered
when she was told of Miss Violet’s flight from the house in the middle
of the night.

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Project Based Learning in Second

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Second Language Acquisition and Lifelong Learning 1st

Second language acquisition 1st Edition Slabakova

Understanding Formulaic Language A Second Language

Routledge Handbook of Arabic Second Language

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition

Practice and Automatization in Second Language Research

Eye Tracking in Second Language Acquisition and

Autonomy in Second Language Learning Managing the

This book showcases pedagogical tools for learning languages through

Adrián Gras-Velázquez is lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese

The Routledge Research in Language Education series provides a plat-

Books in the series include:

Teaching English for Tourism

Post-Colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia

Teaching Content and Language in the Multilingual Classroom

Project-Based Learning in Second Language Acquisition

For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/

Edited by Adrián Gras-Velázquez

List of Contributors viii

1 Diversity and Second Language Acquisition in the University

2 Project-Based Learning: A Five-Stage Framework to Guide

3 A Theoretical Approach to Project-Based Learning

4 Community Bridges and Interdisciplinary Language Learning

6 Social Activism Italian Style: Building a Community

7 Investigating Environmental Sustainability in an English

8 Project-Based Learning in the Context of Teaching Heritage

9 Círculo Juvenil de Cultura: A 10-Year Experiment in Service

10 Multilingual Justice in the Streets and in the Classroom:

12 ¿Y tú quién eres? Interviews as Project-Based Learning

13 Every Poem Matters: World Language Acquisition and

14 Films for Inclusion: LGBT+ Perspectives in the French

Mariana Achugar, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Lan-

Throughout my career in second and foreign language acquisition, I have

1) being a process and an end product

1) student learning and growth

PBL and community engagement have similar principles and goals. As

Linguistic Diversity, Linguistic Uniformity

Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Higher Education

Second Language Acquisition and the Development

Changing Models of Speaker and Teacher in Multilingual

Of course, I knew at once by the expression of her face that morning

On the following New Year’s Eve, Mrs. Dunstan, as was her

A year went by after the discovery of the mysterious tragedy, and I

I think I looked an extremely respectable, good plain cook when I

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