Rethinking Education

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 resulted in the immediate indefinite suspension of traditional contact classes across the world in a bid to contain the spread of the virus. This disrupted the normal instructional routine leaving institutions with only one option: e-learning. E-learning is a technological pedagogy that supports teaching and learning using electronic mail, the internet, the world wide web and can either be synchronous or asynchronous. Today's multilingual technology has gone beyond the question of which language dominates the educational space. The acknowledgment and accommodation of heteroglossic perspectives in e-learning rejects engraved ideologies that posit monolingualism as a norm in education. It further justifies acknowledging that multilingualism is not new, even if the dramatic secularisation of the term seems recent. Through sociolinguistic lens embedded in the funds of knowledge, this chapter seeks to explore the role language plays in e-learning and how educators can use multilingualism as a teaching/learning resource.