The limits of (building) agency in language education: a plurilingual student’s perceptions on developing multiliteracies and agency through student-designed portfolios.
This chapter examines how portfolios can support the development of plurilingual students’ multiliteracies and agency in the L2 classroom. Since student-designed plurilingual portfolios merge languages and other meaning-makers, they can be understood as an instrument for implementing a pedagogy of multiliteracies in L2 education linked to contextualized learner agency. In this chapter, a single case study will focus on the portfolio work of a young, plurilingual student with migrant background who speaks four languages. Based on an examination of the portfolio and an interview with the student, the participant’s portfolio will be analysed in terms of its potential to develop multiliteracies and agency in learning French as L2 in a German context. In this case study the participant developed multiliteracies through enjoyment during portfolio tasks, agency through pressure, and agency within multiliteracies through creative, plurilingual, and open portfolio work. The study contributes to understanding how agency and multiliteracies, developed jointly via portfolios, have the potential to ensure linguistic equity in language education at school. At the same time, this case study also reveals the limits of the school context for developing agency and critical thinking in language education.