From a growing body of research begun in the 1970s, it is now widely recognised that learners whose first language is other than the language-of-instruction are faced with great complexity in linguistic and disciplinary appropriation of content (Cummins 1979, Collier and Thomas 2017, Adler 2002, Millon-Fauré 2020, Mendonça Dias 2020, Smythe 2022). Differences in lexical structures, grammatical conjunctions or prepositions, are all examples of the complexities that learners face (Edmonds-Wathen 2019, Durand-Guerrier 2007, Hache 2015, Beaugrand et al. 2021, Andrianarivony et al 2021). These difficulties can create obstacles to learning, as well as academic and social marginalisation (Planas & Civil, 2013). On the other hand, multilingual teaching approaches, in which two or more languages are involved, have great didactic potential for the construction of (mathematical) knowledge and for the development of intercultural understanding (Gajo 2015, Skutnabb-Kangas et al, eds. 2009; Wernicke et al, eds. 2021).

At all levels of education (primary, secondary, university, teacher education), pupils and teachers themselves can have multilingual skills. This multilingualism, internal or external, is often not mobilised in classrooms. However, language didacticians have shown that multilingualism can be a springboard into more effective teaching of mathematics, whatever the educational setting may be. Similarly, maths educators (Barton 2008, Hache 2019) affirm on the one hand that the learning of mathematics necessarily includes an acculturation to the language practices of mathematicians and mathematicians, yet on the other hand this language work is too little capitalised on.

This multilingual reality in education can manifest in various ways. Firstly, several languages can be present in the same space yet not always made use of for working purposes: as example, in classes where mathematics is taught in combination with a foreign language (in France, within the framework of so-called non-linguistic subjects in bilingual, European or international sections). As further example, learning can take place via a second language: for example, with allophone pupils in a specific educational unit, or in a French school abroad, or in territories where the language-of-schooling is not the pupils' first language. In these types of classes, teaching and learning generally take place within monolingual environments through immersion teaching. However in other cases where languages are employed for learning purposes, mathematics may be taught bilingually, or pupils may engage in translingual practices in languages determined by the pupils themselves.

The Plurimaths symposium 2022 offers an opportunity to focus on the nature and variety of multilingualism in and across teaching contexts, and the practices developed in classrooms based on this language diversity. How do educational contexts constrain or influence the choices made in the use of multilingualism in the classroom? How can the monolingual or multilingual pedagogical choices and experiences of teachers be positioned within their teaching contexts?

Proposals for presentations are invited in response to either of two thematic axes: teaching context and classroom practices (see the description of the axis on this page). Proposed papers should aim to:

1. situate linguistic work within the discipline of mathematics (emphasising teaching and learning situations), or
2. situate the teaching of mathematics within a specific multilingual context.