Supporting multilingualism in academic writing

This study stems from the international project LUCIDE and its findings on the benefits of multilingualism in urban communities, and illustrates their applicability to the academic context and communities. The aim is to present evidence and reasons why supporting multilingualism is advisable and to offer suggestions in order to enhance multilingualism in academic writing. It draws both from the LUCIDE research on urban multilingualism and from recent research on English as a Lingua Franca and on the consequences for plurilingual researchers of the fact that English is the most widespread language in academic writing. Research in the above-mentioned fields seems to show that promoting multilingual practices brings practical advantages to researchers and institutions in terms of regained confidence in individual voices, even while still choosing to write in English. According to such research, promoting multilingualism is also important in terms of engaging with non-Anglophone (not necessarily local) communities of practice and target audiences, embracing the richness of diverse cultures and profiting from the specific abilities, creativity and competences that plurilingual researchers with a multicultural background have been shown to possess. Another reason for enhancing multilingual practices in academic communities is that it brings institutions and their practices closer to the everyday experiences and realities of multilingual and multicultural European cities.