In Britain, as in many other places, the “challenges” and “problems” associated with increasing linguistic diversity are rarely far from the headlines (as, for example, in the current government’s moves to make receipt of British state benefits dependent on being able to speak “reasonable” English). In the context of UK education, multilingualism – having a high proportion of students with English as an additional language – is generally regarded as a disadvantage and often, a corollary of poor attainment. This is certainly the case when it comes to the study of “English literature”. Yet the multilingual classroom presents resources for, as well as challenges to, the study of literature; moreover literature is one of the best sites for students to explore and engage with their own experiences of language. What remains is to embed an engagement with linguistic diversity into pedagogic practice in the English classroom. In this paper, I will talk about a current project run in the English department at Queen Mary University of London, working with teachers and students (mostly Sylheti speakers) from secondary schools in Tower Hamlets – Queen Mary’s home borough, and one of the most linguistically diverse in the UK – which addresses and explores these questions. Called Reading/Writing Multilingualism, it offers 16-18-year-olds opportunities to talk, read, and write about their own multilingual families and communities, and to think about how Britain’s contemporary linguistic diversity intersects with that thing we call “English Literature”. It introduces students to an exciting and challenging range of contemporary multilingual poetry, and encourages them in their own creative writing through collaborative writing workshops, culminating in the editing and publishing of an anthology of their own poetry. I will discuss the emergence of the project out of my own research, but focus on the project itself, its structure, successes, glitches, and surprises; as well as the development of some tentative pedagogic materials and tools for the integration of language, literature, and creativity in the multilingual classroom.

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