PIEInteractiveLiteratureReview

Pluriliteracies in Education

What is it and why should you try it in your classrooms?

A Simple Guide to Broader Perspectives

Start

How to use this resource

This interactive resource has been designed to be intuitive and easy to navigate.

• To consult a source, simply click on the underlined author’s name; this will take you directly to the original reference.
• You can also access the original illustrations by clicking on the images.
• If you prefer to consult all references in one place, a complete list of sources used in this interactive literature review is available on the final page and can be accessed directly

there

Pluriliteracies

"Approaches that recognise and promote the hybrid nature of literacy practices rooted in situated contexts. These approaches advocate for the integration of plurilingual and multimodal literacy practices across various disciplines, highlighting the continuous interplay of multiple languages, scripts, discourses, dialects, and registers. Pluriliteracies go hand in hand with pedagogical innovations that enhance the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement of both students and teachers to equip them to actively contribute to responsible global citizenship." (Meunier, 2025)

Curious to discover what it concretely means?

Feel free to explore, but for best understanding, review the “What” and “Why” before the “How”.

Model inspired by Meunier, 2026.

Curious about why pluriliteracies benefit our classrooms? Click here!

You can click on any component to access more information.

What are the components of pluriliteracies?

Plurilingualism

Technology and AI

Pluriliteracies

Agency

Critcial thinking

Cognition

Pedagogy

Content knowledge

Curious about the components of pluriliteracies? Click here!

You can click on any component to access more information.

Why are pluriliteracies necessary in education?

Promote deeper learning

Fight ideology

Put research into practice

Support decolonisation

Why

Value different languages and registers

Promote knowledge co-construction

Value alternative meaning-making systems

Adapt our practices to a super-diverse world

How can we include pluriliteracies in our practices?

Which subject would you like to explore from a practical perspective?

Food for Thought - Why Arts Matter in Pluriliteracies

Without explicitly drawing on the tradition of pluriliteracies, Pippa Stein’s work illustrates how fostering a synergy of expressive modes in the classroom can enhance creativity and reveal students’ emotional engagement, thereby strengthening their sense of agency. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of not overlooking art and craftsmanship when seeking to integrate pluriliteracies into educational practice. This also demonstrates that you can adapt modes depending on your students’ social contexts. Doing so can help transform the classroom atmosphere, creating a more relaxed and playful environment. We suggest fostering a synergy between modes and literacies learning, enabling learners to negotiate knowledge and practise multiple skills. This, in turn, can lead to deeper learning experiences.

Do you want to know more about how we can implement pluriliteracies? Click here!

(Stein, 2003 in Jewitt and Kress, 2003)

Pluriliteracies in the Geography Classroom

Did you know?Language classes are not the only setting in which pluriliteracies and plurilingualism can be fostered. In her article, Nicole Berg presents a learning episode built around the skills needed for geographic literacy, including problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, and multicausal reasoning. Students also develop communicative competence and meaning-making across the four activity domains of deeper learning: doing, organising, explaining, and arguing geography. To foster agency, Berg proposes that students create a podcast in their target language to present the results of their inquiry, connected to their own interests.

This illustrates the possibility of developing pluriliterate skills and plurilingualism through subject-based learning episodes, not only in language classes.

Do you want to know more about how we can implement pluriliteracies? Click here!

Berg, 2023

How? Integrating pluriliteracies into deeper learning episodes throughout the school year does not require a fully holistic approach. It can also be implemented through shorter, focused learning sequences. Activities examples:

• For high school and higher education students: Multilingual Legal Reasoning in the Age of AI (Meunier, 2026)
• For kindergarten and primary school students: Le Grand Livre des Musiques (Meunier, 2026)

Click here

Click here

Where? Fostering pluriliteracies can take place across a wide range of learning environments and doesn't have to be limited to the traditional classroom. However, it should be developed in alignment with students’ immediate contexts and lived experiences. Encouraging multiple forms of literacy supports the creation of more informal and creative learning spaces that recognize and value students’ diverse skills and competencies.

Diving a bit deeper

PIE Instagram's page

Podcast on plurilingualism: CU.mil podcast #1 - Conversation with Jérémie Séror (UOttawa)

Join (and contribute to) our Zenodo community: PIE

Illustration generated with ChatGPT

Back to the introduction

References

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. Annual review of psychology, 52, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1 Baynham, M. & Prinsloo, M. (2013). Literacy studies. Sage. Berg, N. (2023). Geography: Exploring Pluriliteracies through a Deeper Learning Episode on Global Warming. In: D. Coyle, O. Meyer, & S. Staschen-Dielmann (Eds.), A Deeper Learning Companion for CLIL: Putting Pluriliteracies into Practice (pp. 97–124). chapter, Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043755.010 Blommaert, J. & Backus, A. (2013). Superdiverse Repertoires and the Individual. In: Saint-Georges, I.d. & Weber, JJ. (eds.) Multilingualism and Multimodality. The Future of Education Research. SensePublishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-266-2_2 CARAP. Les approches plurielles des langues et des cultures. https://carap.ecml.at/fr/Pluralistic-approaches [accessed 18/05/2026] Chavez Munoz, M. Decolonising the Curriculum, University of Liverpool. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-innovation-in-education/resources/all-resources/decolonising-the-curriculum.html [accessed 18/05/2026]Cole, M., & Distributive Literacy Consortium. (2006). The fifth dimension: An after-school program built on diversity. Russell Sage Foundation. Council of Europe. (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Companion volume. Council of Europe Publishing. https://www.coe.int/en/web/commoneuropean-framework-reference-languages/cefrcompanion-volume Coyle, D., & Meyer, O. (2021). Beyond CLIL: Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning. Cambridge University Press.

Back to the introduction

References

Coyle, D., Meyer, O., & Staschen-Dielmann, S. (Eds.). (2023). A Deeper Learning Companion for CLIL: Putting Pluriliteracies into Practice. Cambridge University Press.CU.mil. (2025). The Circle U. Language Compass (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17377697 Decorte, R. (2024). From Chalkboards to Chatbots: Will AI Claim our Language Classrooms? Journée d’étude CLUB : À quoi ressembleront l’apprentissage et l’enseignement des langues à l’université dans 5 ans ?, Université Libre de Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/214687 Decorte, R. (2026). Multilingualism vs. plurilingualism illustrated_MMR. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18925263 Decorte, R., & Meunier, F. (2024). Leveraging AI for effective lesson plan design in language education. AI in Language Education, UCLouvain St Louis, Brussels. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/213257 Dhokotera, C. (2023). Decolonising multilingualism in Africa: Recentering silenced voices from the Global South. In: Ndhlovu, F. & Makalela, L. (eds.) Μultilingual Matters, 20(2), 682–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2021.2012475 Ehlers-Zavala, F.P., Back, M. & Ortega, Y. (Eds.). (2025). Decolonising Language Teacher Education: Voices from the Global North and Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2026.2658707 Gómez-Estern, B. M., Martínez-Lozano, V., & Vásquez, O. A. (2015). “Real Learning” in Service Learning: Lessons from La Clase Mágica in the US and Spain. IJREE–International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 2(2), 13-14. hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: a pedagogy of hope. Routledge. International Society for Technology in Education (ed.). (2016). The 2016 ISTE Standards for Students. https://iste.org/standards/students Jewitt, C. & Kress, G. (2003). Multimodal Literacy, Peter Lang. Marshall, S., & Moore, D. (2018). Plurilingualism amid the panoply of lingualisms: addressing critiques and misconceptions in education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2016.1253699

Back to the introduction

References

Meunier, F. (2025). Pluriliteracies. In: McCallum, L., Tafazoli, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51447-0_244-1Meunier, F. (2026). Le Grand Livre des Musiques_activité pédagogique_éveil aux langues_TLR. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19480979Meunier, F. (2026). Pluriliteracies as an integrated learning ecology_MMR (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18732357Meunier, F. (2026, March 8). Multilingual Legal Reasoning in the Age of AI_Higher Ed_TLR. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18916172 Meyer, O., Coyle, D., Halbach, A., Schuck, K., & Ting, T. (2015). A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning – mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.1000924 Moore, E. & Vallejo, C. (2018). Practices of conformity and transgression in an out-of-school reading programme for ‘at risk’ children. Linguistics and Education, 43, 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.09.003 Piccardo, E. (2013). Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design: Toward a Synergic Vision. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 600–614. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43268036 Stein P. (2003). The Olifantsvlei Fresh Stories Projet, In: Jewitt, C. & Kress, G. (2003). Multimodal Literacy (123-138). Peter Lang. Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701599465 Wandruszka, M. (1981). Die Mehrsprachigkeit des Menschen [The plurilingualism of the human being]. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. https://archive.org/details/diemehrsprachigk0000mari

Value alternative meaning-making systems

Research in New Literacy Studies (Baynham & Prinsloo, 2013) has shed light on the highly ideological nature of literacy: what counts a being ‘literate’ is always embedded in a particular context, a particular world-view and in relationships of power.

Therefore, valuing different literacies within groups makes it possible to recognize students’ diverse skills, understand learners more holistically, and question existing power dynamics.

COGNITION

What?Adopting a pluriliteracies approach entails strengthening cognitive processes, organizing cognitive strategies, and fostering students’ engagement in metacognitive processes.

Why ? "The goal is to leverage pluriltieracies to build a repertoire of cognitive and metacognitive strategies to understand, analyse, interpret and construct a range of text types and genres for meaning,social purpose and context." (inspired from Coyle and Meyer, 2023)

Promote Knowledge co-construction

Adopting pluriliteracies and plurilingual approaches helps create inclusive and empowering pedagogical opportunities for both learners and teachers, who become collaborative co-creators of knowledge. It also supports processes of both production and reproduction, while encouraging active participation in allyship aimed at resisting injustice and promoting social change. These approaches challenge the status quo by reshaping how competence and knowledge are distributed between adults and children. By focusing on the development of children’s skills, they call into question previously assigned roles and categories, particularly as these are negotiated and redefined through interaction. (Moore and Vallejo, 2018)

AGENCY

What? As Bandura (2003) defined it, there are three types of agency: and

proxy agency

individual agency,

collective agency

Depending on the learning episode, pluriliteracies can support the development of the different types of agency, either individually or in combination.

Why? Building agency is a reciprocal process:

• Teachers can build on students’ crosslinguistic and crosscultural competences and make them aware of their metalinguistic and metacognitive resources, thereby strengthening self-esteem, agency, and self-efficacy.
• Educators do not need to speak every learner’s language, but they need to move beyond a monolingual mindset and focus on the whole person rather than only on language. In doing so, they help learners become more autonomous, connect formal and informal learning, and reflect more effectively on their own learning.
• As Piccardo (2013) argues, teachers should also be willing to share some of the learning responsibility with students and engage with the cultural meanings carried by different languages.

(Piccardo, 2013)

PROMOTE DEEPER LEARNING

"As a pedagogic approach, pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning (PTDL) aims to facilitate deeper learning through an explicit focus on disciplinary literacies. By extending the concept across languages and all subjects of schooling learners will be guided towards textual fluency. This will encourage successful communication across cultures and prove a key stepping stone towards becoming responsible global citizens."

(Coyle & Meyer, 2021)

Deep learning and pluriliteracies development are closely intertwined: learners progressively acquire the ability to construct and express knowledge through the disciplinary literacies of each field.

(Adapted from Coyle, Meyer et al., 2015)

Value different languages and registers

"When educational settings become places that have as their central goal the teaching of bourgeois manners, vernacular speech and languages other than standard English are not valued. Indeed, they are blatantly devalued. While acknowledging the value of standard English the democratic educator also values diversity in language." (hooks, 2003)

Students whose first language is not English can strengthen their bilingual self-esteem when their home language is validated in the classroom. By adopting inclusive teaching practices, educators can value diversity, support code-switching, and foster intercultural competence and plurilingualism. This helps students with a stigmatised or less valued L1 see their linguistic resources not as a weakness, but as an asset. (inspired by hooks, 2003)

CRITICAL THINKING

What ?Critical thinking is about how students can reuse the skills they have learned to act as citizens. Critical thinking involves the capacity to communicate and negotiate knowledge appropriately. “Critical framing” supports learners in critically reflecting on their own meaning-making processes within their sociocultural context (Coyle and Meyer, 2021).

Why?Public schools are required to teach to use notions, content knowledge and competences to engage in some form of critical thinking (hooks, 2003). It allows students to interrogate information sources, reflect on how knowledge is constructed, and develop an open-minded perspective.

PEDAGOGY

Pluriliteracies can meaningfully inform the way teachers design and enact pedagogical practices.

Why?It makes it possible to build innovative deeper learning episodes and inclusive classroom practices. "Plurilingual and [pluriliterate] pedagogy thus brings the focus on the classroom strategies employed by both teachers and learners to raise language awareness and foster intercultural awareness and competence to support learning in the class." (Marshall and Moore, 2016)

What? Pluriliterate pedagogies work deliberately and systematically across different literacies to foster creativity, reshape knowledge, and support diverse forms of learning in an integrated, ecological way (inspired by Jewitt & Kress, 2003).

Plurilingualism

"We are all plurilingual: everyone uses different registers with different audiences and in different situations; [we] use common foreign words without translating them [...]" (Wandruszka, 1981).

What? Plurilingualism refers not onlt to the ability of an individual to use multiple languages, but more importantly, to interrelate and interconnect these languages as part of a unified communicative repertoire. (Council of Europe, 2020)

This term is used as an umbrella term including multilingualism and interculturality. (CU.mil, 2025)

Plurilingualism embraces the global individuals' linguistic and agency in several languages. Why? Being open to different languages and their intercultural competence and democratic citizenship is making it possible for a fair and equal repartition of power. Plurilingualism is a way to ensure equity and to foster inclusivity. First steps toward implementing plurilingualism with your learners can be found within the broader framework of

repertoires

(Marshall and Moore, 2018)

(Council of Europe, 2020)

"pluralistic approaches".

For a visual comparison between multi- and plurilingualism, click here.

Technology and Ai

Why ? In line with recent technological and sociocultural imperatives, creating deeper and constructive learning environments is increasingly reliant on education technology. Developing digital literacies is fundamental to becoming a pluriliterate citizen and goes far beyond the narrow interpretation of using computers in the classroom. Using technology in class can promote student agency, make room for new pedagogies and personalized support, engage parents and communities in learning, etc. (Coyle and Meyer, 2021)

What ? Developing technology/AI literacies can look like:

• Working with Chatbots
• Developing prompt-writing skills to work with generative AI
• Using technological resources to produce creative artefacts
• etc.

(Meunier & Decorte, 2024)

(Decorte, 2024)

Fight ideology

“[To strive for justice means] changing our educational system so that schooling is not the site where students are indoctrinated to support any ideology, but rather where they open their minds, engage in rigorous study and to think critically.” (hooks, 2003)

In the past, the teacher’s voice was often the only source of information. Today, schools and teachers play a different role: organizing, guiding, and giving students access to multiple sources of information. As hooks (2003) noted, democratic education should avoid reinforcing existing hierarchies: the diversity of voices and perspectives can enrich any learning experience. Therefore, the pluriliteracies approach provides a framework for rethinking our relationship with information.

Put research into practice

"Pluriliteracies works by helping learners connect what they know with how they communicate it. As students develop, they become better at expressing subject-specific ideas using the right genres, styles, and modes for different purposes and audiences. This growing ability shows that they are strengthening the link between conceptual understanding and communication. Over time, learners move from novice to more expert meaning-makers, able to adapt their language to different social and cultural contexts and use it effectively to participate in meaningful interactions." (Meyer, Coyle et al., 2015)

Putting the learner in a position where they can feel competent is highly beneficial. Several studies linked to the Fifth Dimension project and the related La Clase Mágica project which promote diversity and digital technologies, have shown how collaborative interactional contexts, in which languages and modalities are mixed as a norm, are beneficial to learning. (Moore and Vallejo, 2018)

(Cole & The Distributed Literacy Consortium, 2006),

(Vázquez et al., 2015)

Adapt our practices to a super-diverse world

As Vertovec first coined it in 2007, our contemporary situation is now charaterized by a time of "super-diversity". This imposes a renewal in our relationship with languages. (Vertovec, 2007)

In those super-diverse societies, plurilingualism comes into young people’s lives in their languaging practices across a multitude of media and modes – oral, written, spatial, aural, musical, tactile, sensory – often separated by time and space. (Moore & Vallejo, 2018) Therefore, students should be educated in plurilingualisms and pluriliteracies oriented to globalized presents and futures. (Moore and Vallejo, 2018)

Content knowledge

What?Broadening and deepening teaching by integrating pluriliterate dimensions and competencies does not sideline content knowledge. Rather, it reframes it in balance with the diverse skills developed through a pluriliteracies approach.

Why? Pluriliteracies foster deeper learning and support student's aquisition of content knowledge. Therefore, as learners progress in their understanding, they must also develop their subject-specific literacies, which enable them to make meaning and construct knowledge.

(Meyer, Coyle et al., 2015)

SUPPORT DECOLONISATION: what we teach and how we teach

Pluriliteracies can foster curriclum decolinisation, whereas in secondary education or post-secondary education by:

• Opening our language classes to languages other than English and those proeminent in the North.
• Opening studied texts and subjects to a diversity of contents and authors.
• Sharing knowledge building with our students and their cultural backgrounds.
• Fostering our students' critical thinking skills about studied contents and student's agency.

Learn more here: Ndhlovu & Makalela, 2021

Ehlers-Zavala, Back & Ortaga, 2025

In geography classes, simple adjustments might include:

• Valuing students’ geographical backgrounds and languages

• Avoiding the translation of place names (cities, countries, capitals)
• Working with sources produced in languages other than students’ first language (L1)
• Recognizing and valuing diverse forms of literacy, such as multimedia presentations
• Encouraging students to share their results in another language