SFU Multilingual Week
February 23 - 28, 2026
Multilingual Week (MLW) is SFU’s annual global connection on campus: your opportunity to meet new people with whom you may share language and cultural connections. To hear from different language speakers and language experts. To find out how language knowledge sets you up for success in your life and career.
Message from the President
2026 Event Schedule
Multilingual Week transforms the SFU experience by engaging with the university’s multiplicity of language speakers. Multilingual Week is a time of collaboration and respect. Everyone is welcome—students, faculty members, and staff. We look forward to seeing you there!
Multilingual Week is free. All events take place at SFU's Burnaby campus unless noted otherwise.
Keynote Presentation
Celebrate Multilingual SFU at this year's keynote with Kyra Borland, Many Worlds: Experiences working in Indigenous language revitalization outside academia. Kyra is a linguist of mixed Irish and Métis heritage. Her career has focused on training, program development, language plan implementation, and funding distribution for Indigenous Language Revitalization across British Columbia. Kyra’s academic focus is in acoustic phonetics, vowel variation, and dialectology.
Multilingual SFU proactively fosters an inclusive environment, where everyone - regardless of their native languages - feels valued and heard. This festival is about highlighting the ubiquitous presence of multilingualism in the university and contributing to a more equitable and inclusive campus where everyone can thrive.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Multilingual Pronoun Button Making
Event Type: Booth
Time: 11:00am–2:00pm
Location: AQ South Corridor
Drop by GSWS's table for a fun button making activity! Use a button press to make your own buttons sharing your preferred pronouns in various languages. Choose from pre-printed designs or use your language skills and creativity to design your own buttons.
Embrace Your Linguistic Superpowers!
Event Type: Booth
Time: 12:00pm–3:30pm
Location: AQ 2013, Global Student Center + James Douglas
Do you speak a language other than English? Come share your LINGUISTIC SUPERPOWERS with the community! Drop by the Global Student Center (GSC) to enjoy: multilingual karaoke, cultural craft, international films, language trivia, conversation circles, a photo booth & more all week long. Come for the fun, stay for the community!
“Oh, she’s all changed, she’s all Canadian”: Language and Identity Among Immigrant University Students in Canada
Presenter: Tim Mossman
Event Type: Talk
Time: 3:30–4:30pm
Hybrid: Bennett Library, Room 7200 and Zoom
This talks draws on data from a larger research project and presents an analysis of three interview extracts and one focus-group extract involving university students who migrated to Canada with their families during adolescence. Mossman shows how participants make linguistic capability relevant when accounting for identity, change, and recognition after migration.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Embrace Your Linguistic Superpowers!
Event Type: Booth
Time: 12:00pm–3:30pm
Location: AQ 2013, Global Student Center + James Douglas
Do you speak a language other than English? Come share your LINGUISTIC SUPERPOWERS with the community! Drop by the Global Student Center (GSC) to enjoy: multilingual karaoke, cultural craft, international films, language trivia, conversation circles, a photo booth & more all week long. Come for the fun, stay for the community!
Language & Culture Expo
Event Type: Experience
Time: 12:30–3:30pm
In-person: SAywell Hall Atrium Space
This dynamic, student-led event celebrates linguistic diversity by showcasing the creativity, knowledge, and cultural insights of students from our language programs. Booths will represent a wide range of languages and cultures, including Chinese, German, Greek, Indigenous languages, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, and more. Visitors are invited to engage directly through hands-on games and activities, enjoy free cultural snacks shared, listen to music from around the world, and discover customs, histories, and everyday expressions that bring each language to life.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26
Curious About Leveraging Multilingualism in your Classroom But Don’t Know How? Drop in to this Online Q&A Session!
Presenters: Eilidh Singh, Amanda Wallace
Event Type: Drop in Q&A
Time: 12:00–1:00pm
Online: Zoom
Curious about how to leverage multilingualism as an asset in your teaching but not sure where to start? Join this online drop-in session hosted by CEE’s English as an Additional Language consultants. Instructors are invited to bring questions, challenges, or ideas related to multilingual students, classroom practices, assessment, and course design. Come for a few minutes or stay longer. The session offers a low-pressure space to explore how multilingualism can support learning, participation, and equity across disciplines.
Embrace your Linguistic Superpowers!
Event Type: Booth
Time: 12:00pm–3:30pm
Location: AQ 2013, Global Student Center + James Douglas
Do you speak a language other than English? Come share your LINGUISTIC SUPERPOWERS with the community! Drop by the Global Student Center (GSC) to enjoy: multilingual karaoke, cultural craft, international films, language trivia, conversation circles, a photo booth & more all week long. Come for the fun, stay for the community!
Many Worlds: Experiences working in Indigenous language revitalization outside academia
Presenter: Kyra Borland
Event Type: Keynote
Time: 12:30–1:30pm
Hybrid: First Peoples’ Gathering House, Ceremonial Hall or Zoom
Join us for a talk by Kyra Borland about her experiences working in Indigenous Language Revitalization. Kyra is a linguist of mixed Irish and Métis heritage. Her career has focused on training, program development, language plan implementation, and funding distribution for Indigenous Language Revitalization across British Columbia.
This talk will explore her transition from academia and in-community work to working within the public service. Says Kyra, “These three domains must work in harmony to support evidence-based, community-driven, government-funded language revitalization. Individuals working in these spaces must learn to balance the needs and protocols of each domain.” She will share stories that highlight this balancing act to illustrate lessons learned during her journey.
Kyra will also share insights about how current students can work towards careers in Indigenous language revitalization.
Multilingual Communication in Healthcare Settings: Insights from Punjabi-speaking experts
Panelists: Dr. Sharon Dodd, Dr. Jagbir Gill, and Gurjit Pawar
Moderator: Reetinder Kaur
Event Type: Panel
Time: 4:00–6:00pm
Location: City Centre Library, rm 120, Surrey campus
This panel discussion will explore the barriers faced by Punjabi-speaking patients in healthcare settings, the services currently available to support them, and the work opportunities for Punjabi language learners in these settings. Panelists will share their personal journeys of learning Punjabi language, discuss how they incorporate their language skills into their clinical practice, and inspire current and future learners, while highlighting language as a critical barrier to accessing healthcare and health information.
Career Opportunities in Languages and Literatures Panel
Presenters: Student Panel
Panel chair: Ken Seigneurie
Event Type: Panel Q&A
Time: 5:30–7:30pm
Location: AQ 5118
A panel of six former World Literatures and Languages students. Each participant gives a five-minute description of what they are doing now and how World Literatures or language-study helped them get to where they are. What they found most useful and enjoyable about their undergrad study and perhaps what they would do differently if they had to do it over.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27
Global Connect: Share Your Culture
Event Type: Social
Time: 1:30–4:00pm
Location: AQ 2013, Global Student Center + James Douglas
Many Cultures, One Community: Come Curious, Leave Connected!
Join us at our Global Connect: Share Your Culture social, a casual and inclusive event where students can celebrate their cultural backgrounds and learn from one another. Whether you’re sharing or simply curious, come connect, explore, and enjoy a warm and welcoming community atmosphere.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28
- Events coming soon
FAQs
Need help finding event locations? Use SFU's Campus Maps + Directions webpage. Select your campus first, then type in the room number. You can also download the SFU Snap app; it has a room finder, too. Download for iOS and Android.
Messages from the organizers
"Multilingual SFU is a vibrant weeklong festival that brings together students, faculty, and staff to celebrate the myriad languages spoken at the university and in our surrounding community…When institutions prioritize and embrace multilingualism, they begin to dismantle language barriers that can otherwise impede full participation and understanding”.
-- Melek Ortabasi, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programming in FASS, the organizer of Multilingual SFU 2024
"Language is a powerful form of symbolic capital, often employed to validate, include, or exclude cultural groups within social spaces. By celebrating plurilingualism through collaboration with departments, units, student groups, and professional organizations, we aim for Multilingual SFU to illuminate power dynamics and highlight the unique experiences, contributions, and challenges faced by multilingual speakers. Ultimately, we strive to foster greater intercultural understanding and empathy within our community."
-- Jia Fei, Interim Chair of World Languages and Literatures, the organizer of Multilingual SFU 2025-2026
Connect with our Multilingual Week Partners
The Student Learning Commons SLC is a multilingual space at SFU
The SLC provides support for SFU students' writing, learning, and speaking through consultations, workshops, and semester-long partnership programs.
In the SLC, we recognize that studying in English can be complex, especially for those who did not grow up thinking, speaking, and writing in that language. Having multiple languages to draw from can also support complex thinking and problem solving! What's more, multilingual students bring diverse perspectives and lived experiences that create richer conversations and deeper learning opportunities across SFU.
Students who want to practice their spoken English may be interested in our conversation pods and Conversation Partners programs.
Students who are getting creative with their languages are encourage to submit their writing to our annual SLC writing contest in the Plurilingual Prize category.
And all students are warmly invited to connect with us for our spring soup circle discussions.
Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (OFFA)
Did you know that SFU is the only university in British Columbia that offers a variety of courses and programs taught in French at the undergraduate and graduate levels? With the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs, SFU is committed to contributing to the growth and vitality of the Francophonie by establishing strong ties with the community and offering an unparalleled student experience for all Francophones and Francophiles. Learn more.
The Centre for Educational Excellence – EAL Consultants
CEE’s EAL Consultants work collaboratively within the unit and with key stakeholders across the university to provide EAL support to SFU’s multilingual community. Seeking to counterbalance the yet still prevailing deficit positioning of EAL students (both domestic and international) (Marshall, 2009) in mainstream disciplinary classes, our team, emphasizing asset-based approaches, works with individual instructors (as well as at the program level) to resolve pedagogical challenges to better meet the needs of multilingual students thus allowing them to ‘show what they know’ beyond the perceived impediment of language. To that end, we develop instructor-facing programming that foregrounds linguistically responsive pedagogy (LRP)— “...a pedagogical approach taken up by faculty in what have been traditionally considered monolingual settings with the aims of providing well-supported teaching and learning and equitable outcomes for multilingual learners” (Haan & Gallagher, 2021, p.3).
Haan, J., & Gallagher, C. (2021). Situating linguistically responsive instruction in higher education contexts: Foundations for pedagogical, curricular, and institutional support. TESOL Quarterly. Full Article
Marshall, S. (2009). Re-becoming ESL: multilingual university students and a deficit identity, Language and Education, 24(1), 41-56, DOI: 10.1080/09500780903194044
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS (LING) | INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES PROGRAM (INLP)
The Department of Linguistics is committed to providing high quality scientific research into multilingualism, while also providing a learning and working environment that celebrates multilingualism. We believe that being multilingual is truly a superpower. Through our research initiatives, graduate studies program, and undergraduate program, we foster a cooperative and supportive spirit of collegiality for all of our students, staff, and faculty.
The Indigenous Languages Program (INLP) is housed by the Department of Linguistics. Our mission is the collective and individual empowerment of Indigenous peoples through education, using Indigenous knowledge systems, histories, ways of being, and learning. We partner with Indigenous speech communities and organizations to enable Indigenous language learning on-site within the communities. Since 1993, we have offered courses in more than 18 languages in British Columbia and Yukon.
Participating SFU units
We'd like to thank the SFU community for coming together to make this event happen. Without everyone's collaborative contributions, this "potluck" of an event couldn't have happened.
- Arts Central
- Centre for Educational Excellence
- Department of Economics
- Department of English
- Department of French
- Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
- Global Asia Program
- Department of Global Humanities
- Indigenous Languages Program
- Department of Indigenous Studies
- Department of Linguistics
- Department of Psychology
- Department of World Languages and Literatures
- Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- Faculty of Education
- Fraser International College
- Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs
- School of Communication
- Student Learning Commons
- Urban Studies
- International Services for Students
- … more being added as units join this year’s programming
Thank you
We'd also like to extend the warmest and largest thank you to SFU's Centre for Educational Excellence (CEE) for birthing Multilingual SFU in 2022. CEE carried it through 2023, while FASS continued the work in 2024 before handing over programming to WLL for 2025. We recognize that multilingualism is a superpower of a great population of the university - students, faculty members, and staff - and this is something to celebrate every week of the year. We appreciate the support and enthusiasm shared by everyone at the university to take the time to commemorate the importance of multilingualism.