Migration, Multilingualism and Education


Book Description

This book explores the question of how equitable and inclusive education can be implemented in heterogeneous classes where learners' languages and cultures reflect the social reality of mass migration and everyday plurilingualism. The book brings together researchers and practitioners working in inclusive teaching and learning in a variety of migration contexts from pre-school to university. The book opens with an exploration of the relationship between language ideologies and policies with respect to the inclusion of learners for whom the language of education is not the language spoken in the home. The following section focuses on innovative pedagogical practices which allow migrants to be socially, culturally and institutionally included at school and at university while using their plurilingual competences as resources for learning/teaching and allowing them to fully realise their potential.




Multilingualism in European Language Education


Book Description

This book explores how different European education systems manage multilingualism. Each chapter focuses on one of ten diverse settings (Andorra, Asturias, the Basque Country, Catalonia, England, Finland, France, Latvia, the Netherlands and Romania) and considers how its education system is influenced by historical, sociolinguistic and legislative and political processes and how languages are handled within the system, stressing the challenges and opportunities in each area of study. The chapters provide the reader with insights around three key aspects: the management of the guarantee of the rights of regional language minorities; the incorporation of the language background inherited by immigrants living in Europe (whether they are European citizens or not) and the need to promote the learning of international languages. Individually, the chapters offer deep insights into a specific education system and, together, the studies allow for a comparison and holistic understanding of multilingualism in European education.




Rethinking the Education of Multilingual Learners


Book Description

Over the past 40 years, Jim Cummins has proposed a number of highly influential theoretical concepts, including the threshold and interdependence hypotheses and the distinction between conversational fluency and academic language proficiency. In this book, he provides a personal account of how these ideas developed and he examines the credibility of critiques they have generated, using the criteria of empirical adequacy, logical coherence, and consequential validity. These criteria of theoretical legitimacy are also applied to the evaluation of two different versions of translanguaging theory – Unitary Translanguaging Theory and Crosslinguistic Translanguaging Theory – in a way that significantly clarifies this controversial concept.







Social Justice through Multilingual Education


Book Description

The principles for enabling children to become fully proficient multilinguals through schooling are well known. Even so, most indigenous/tribal, minority and marginalised children are not provided with appropriate mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) that would enable them to succeed in school and society. In this book experts from around the world ask why this is, and show how it can be done. The book discusses general principles and challenges in depth and presents case studies from Canada and the USA, northern Europe, Peru, Africa, India, Nepal and elsewhere in Asia. Analysis by leading scholars in the field shows the importance of building on local experience. Sharing local solutions globally can lead to better theory, and to action for more social justice and equality through education.




Towards Multilingual Education


Book Description

This volume focuses on research in bilingual and multilingual education. It discusses the results of research conducted in different multilingual educational contexts and particularly in Basque schools and universities where Basque, Spanish and English are used as subjects and as languages of instruction.




Bilingual and Multilingual Education in the 21st Century


Book Description

This book includes the work of 20 specialists working in various educational contexts around the world to create comprehensive and multidimensional coverage of current bilingual initiatives. Themes covered include issues in language use in classrooms; participant perspectives on bilingual education experiences; and the language needs of bi- and multilingual students in monolingual schools.




The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education


Book Description

Starting from the key idea that learners and teachers bring diverse linguistic knowledge and resources to education, this book establishes and explores the concept of the ‘multilingual turn’ in languages education and the potential benefits for individuals and societies. It takes account of recent research, policy and practice in the fields of bilingual and multilingual education as well as foreign and second language education. The chapters integrate theory and practice, bringing together researchers and practitioners from five continents to illustrate the effects of the multilingual turn in society and evaluate the opportunities and challenges of implementing multilingual curricula and activities in a variety of classrooms. Based on the examples featured, the editors invite students, teachers, teacher educators and researchers to reflect on their own work and to evaluate the relevance and applicability of the multilingual turn in their own contexts.




Flexible Multilingual Education


Book Description

This book examines the benefits of multilingual education that puts children’s needs and interests above the individual languages involved. It advocates flexible multilingual education, which builds upon children’s actual home resources and provides access to both the local and global languages that students need for their educational and professional success. It argues that, as more and more children grow up multilingually in our globalised world, there is a need for more nuanced multilingual solutions in language-in-education policies. The case studies reveal that flexible multilingual education – rather than mother tongue education – is the most promising way of moving towards the elusive goal of educational equity in today’s world of globalisation, migration and superdiversity.




Multilingual Higher Education


Book Description

This book argues that a multilingual approach to higher education is imperative in an increasingly globalised education environment. Higher education cannot afford a narrow focus on English language proficiency; this book addresses the need to acknowledge other languages explicitly in classroom instruction and student learning to improve student success, to widen access and to internationalise institutions.