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Contemporary globalized society is characterized by mobility and change, two phenomena that have a direct impact on the broad linguistic landscape. Language proficiency is no longer seen as a monolithic phenomenon that occurs independently of the linguistic repertoires and trajectories of learners and teachers, but rather shaped by uneven and ever-changing competences, both linguistic and cultural. In the European context, research conducted over the past 20 years in multilingual realities of local communities and societies has brought to the forefront the notion of plurilingualism, which is opening up new perspectives in language education. In North American academia, the paradigm shift from linguistic homogeneity and purism to heteroglossic and plurilingual competence in applied linguistics has been observed in the emergence of such concepts as disinventing languages, translanguaging, and code-meshing. Starting from a historical perspective, this article examines the shared principles upon which such innovative understandings of linguistic competence are based. In particular, it investigates the specificity of plurilingualism as an individual characteristic clearly distinct from multilingualism in the light of different theoretical lenses. The author discusses the potential of such vision together with its implications. Finally, this article offers pedagogical implications for English language education in the North American context, and suggests ways to investigate the new active role that English language learners and teachers can adopt in shaping their process of learning English.

Contemporary TESOL methodologies have been characterized by compartmentalization of languages in the classroom. However, recent years have seen the beginning signs of paradigmatic change in TESOL methodologies that indicate a move toward plurilingualism. In this article, the author draws on the case of Hong Kong to illustrate how, in the past four decades, deep-rooted ideologies of linguistic purism combined with dominant TESOL knowledge claims have made it difficult to develop locally appropriate methodologies. She outlines the innovative work of some teachers who build up plurilingual pedagogies in content classrooms despite these difficulties, and on this basis proposes suggestions for future work.

The development of non-native varieties of English in Third World countries (e.g. West Africa, the Philippines, South Asia) is of linguistic, cultural, pedagogical and sociolinguistic interest. The attitude of TESL specialists, among others, toward such varieties of English on the two sides of the Atlantic is evaluated in Prator (1968). One such attitude, endorsed by Prator, and represented by him as typically American, may be termed linguistic purism and linguistic intolerance-a pragmatically unrealistic attitude. If one follows Prator's language, this attitude may be categorized as one of "seven attitudinal sins." These "sins" seem to be the result of a formally and functionally unjustifiable position which some scholars in TESL, following Prator, have adopted. Such views have naturally resulted in various types of "heresies," which are theoretically suspect and without empirical evidence. In linguistically and culturally pluralistic Third World countries, the motivations for the study of English-its social educational and other roles-have to be view in terms of the typical native sociolinguistic parameters. An interrelationship has to be established between the formal and functional aspects of language to understand the pragmatics of the Third World Englishes and their linguistic innovations and "deviations." Data from Indian English is discussed to provide arguments against the attitudinal "sins" and "heresies," and to present the pragmatics of Indian English-one of the Third World Englishes.