Collaborative Language Learning, Multilingual Identities and Interculturality
Experiencing otro mundo in language cafes
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Channel View Publications Ltd
Publishing:16th Feb '27
£119.95
This title is due to be published on 16th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

This book showcases the human endeavour of communicating across languages and cultures as a pleasureand a sought-after experience. It explores language cafes, which provide an informal conversational space for people interested in speaking a specific language or languages, fulfilling a specific gap in the social ecologies of multilingual speakers.
Offers a window into the lived experiences of multilinguals, not only as learners, but as languagers, highlighting language cafés as meaningful beyond their potential for informal language socialization
This book showcases the human endeavour of communicating across languages and cultures as a pleasureand a sought-after experience.
It explores language cafes, which provide an informal conversational space for people interested in speaking a specific language or languages, thereby fulfilling a specific gap in the social ecologies of multilingual speakers (including both learners and proficient speakers), who look for opportunities to use and socialise in languages with multilingual and cultural others without the need to travel far.
The author expands notions of language and intercultural learning, blurring the boundaries between learning and leisure, and putting the multilingual and intercultural subject in interaction with others at the heart of the learning process. The focus on what happens outside of the language classroom will raise teachers’ and learners’ awareness of how to create and maintain better interconnected language learning ecologies.
What a fascinating and inspiring book! Its vivid account of language cafés deeply resonated with my experiences as both a language learner and an applied linguistics researcher. A powerful celebration of how multilingual and intercultural socialisation enriches our lives and reminds us why language learning is such a transformative journey. * Xuesong (Andy) Gao, UNSW Sydney, Australia *
In this highly engaging study of two language cafés in the United Kingdom, Nuria Polo-Pérez invites readers to explore new vistas in language, learning, and social interaction. In doing so, she brings exciting new perspectives to contemporary debates on collaborative language learning, interculturality, and identity in our increasingly multilingual world. Très bien! * Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada *
This important book celebrates what it means to be multilingual, and the enrichment gained from informal language learning and intercultural socialisation in language cafes. As AI and anti-immigration discourses marginalise language learning, this book affirms the human value and pleasure of ‘dwelling’ in other languages. It also showcases processes of ‘researching multilingually’ as Polo-Pérez, a multilingual herself, uses her multiple languages in the study. * Prue Holmes, Durham University, UK *
ISBN: 9781836682530
Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 15mm
Weight: unknown
198 pages