Search results

1 – 10 of over 2000
Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2021

Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown and Bridget Goodman

This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and…

Abstract

This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The first strand is mixed methods research on the policy and practice of L1-based multilingual education programs, and their contribution to raising educational quality and addressing equity and inclusiveness worldwide. The second strand is qualitative, community-based research of educational programs aimed toward revitalization of minoritized, indigenous, and/or endangered languages. The third strand is empirical and theoretical research that seeks to document, contest, and reconceptualize the dynamics among dominant and non-dominant languages within and between international contexts. The authors explore points of synergy between studies, examine publication in the field from a meta-perspective, and suggest encouraging directions of future research, while highlighting the value of non-dominant languages as resources for education and life.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2020
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-907-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2021

Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown and Bridget Goodman

This essay provides an overview of key contemporary issues researched by scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The authors present this…

Abstract

This essay provides an overview of key contemporary issues researched by scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The authors present this scholarship around three main themes: L1-based multilingual education; language revitalization and education; and the power dynamics between dominant and non-dominant languages in educational settings. Research in all three themes challenges the view of monolingualism as the norm and invites the view that all languages are resources. These perspectives are relevant to the goals of educational development, particularly to equitable access to quality schooling. Recent research examines some stakeholders’ resistance to supporting and sustaining local languages and cultural practices. While language-in-education policy change may be slow, there are promising directions in research on how educators and communities exercise agency in transforming educational institutions to support plurilingualism and intercultural understandings. Scholars highlight the ideological, pedagogical, and policy-level supports needed for sustainable development of multiple languages, literacies and learning across contexts.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2020
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-907-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 June 2020

Naomi Fillmore

The history of Nepal gives some insight into its current status as a diverse and multilingual nation with more than 123 languages. Multilingualism is part of the founding…

Abstract

The history of Nepal gives some insight into its current status as a diverse and multilingual nation with more than 123 languages. Multilingualism is part of the founding philosophy of the country but since it was unified in 1768, government attitudes to language and language education have fluctuated. Though historically education in Nepal has been delivered exclusively in the Nepali language and, more recently, in English, the Government of Nepal is now committed to introducing mother tongue-based, multilingual education (MLE).

Nepal has among the lowest literacy rates in the world (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2015) and the government seeks to turn this trend around, particularly for students who do not speak Nepali as a mother tongue. The commitment to strengthening mother tongue-based MLE features prominently in the Constitution of Nepal (2015), the Act Relating to Compulsory and Free Education (2018) and the School Sector Development Plan (MOEST, 2018). This new constitution declares that “all the mother tongues spoken in Nepal shall be the national language” (2015 article 6).

Implementing these policy commitments in over 120 languages across seven provinces and 753 municipalities is the next challenge for the fledgling democracy. As a “wicked hard” policy area, doing so will require a solid understanding of local attitudes, beliefs, resources, and capacities. This chapter gives a unified review of the history, languages, ideologies, beliefs, and trends that currently influence MLE in Nepal and are likely to play a role into the future.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2019
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-724-4

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2022

Abstract

Details

Global Meaning Making
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-933-1

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2022

Debra A. Giambo

The prioritization of multilingual and multicultural education (MME) must spread beyond educators and researchers, who have long known the benefits, to the politicians and…

Abstract

Purpose

The prioritization of multilingual and multicultural education (MME) must spread beyond educators and researchers, who have long known the benefits, to the politicians and policymakers and to the general public. This paper aims to propose that the MME field needs a good economist who can explain MME benefits in terms of the language of economy, clarifying that economic advantages extend beyond diverse individuals, including those who may be ideologically opposed, via increased economic output to potentially benefit all.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a conceptual framework, connections are demonstrated between MME and increased cultural and linguistic sensitivity as well as between the effects of increased sensitivity on the potential for economic benefits. These connections can be logically extended to consider the effects of MME on economic output.

Findings

Research indicates that MME can increase cultural and linguistic sensitivity and that increased sensitivity to cultural and linguistic diversity can affect economic output. A logical bridge between the two fields of research is illustrated.

Originality/value

This paper uses a practical approach to support the flourishing of MME. If MME is, ultimately, to result in benefits that all can appreciate, it is imperative to get groups with various purposes on board. Then, maybe we can look forward to the effective and pervasive implementation of MME. The challenge remains that this message has not been reaching the general public, and a good economist’s communication could be the key.

Details

Journal for Multicultural Education, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-535X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 26 November 2020

Silvia-Maria Chireac

This chapter discusses of the role of Spanish as the language of instruction in a multilingual classroom with Erasmus students at the Faculty of Teacher Training of the University…

Abstract

This chapter discusses of the role of Spanish as the language of instruction in a multilingual classroom with Erasmus students at the Faculty of Teacher Training of the University of Valencia (Spain). The author also examines the role that first languages play in multilingual classroom integration as they have little place in the school system.

The author also discusses the use of digital technology as a means of expression and defense of the linguistic rights of minority languages. In that respect, collective linguistic production and the use of different languages relates to the aim of preserving mother tongues in their original contexts.

The current study focuses on a key element: artistic productions using new technology are characterized as having great communicative value, and an important potential for social change, which can improve the linguistic attitude of minority language speakers toward their mother tongue and reinforce their awareness of participating in a process of collectively and interactively creating the final product. This is a highly important collaborative tool meant to help preserve and maintain one’s language and identity.

The chapter concludes that education through multilingual language learning and mobility remains an important means of supporting and sustaining the first languages of Erasmus students, the successful acquisition of Spanish as the official language of the host country, and the use of English as an additional language in order to help students gradually master curriculum content, while improving their linguistic skills and language proficiency.

Details

Technology-enhanced Learning and Linguistic Diversity: Strategies and Approaches to Teaching Students in a 2nd or 3rd Language
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-128-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2018

Patience A. Sowa

This chapter examines how the author, a teacher educator, uses self-study to reframe and reconceptualize her teaching of Emirati preservice teachers. The author describes how…

Abstract

This chapter examines how the author, a teacher educator, uses self-study to reframe and reconceptualize her teaching of Emirati preservice teachers. The author describes how conducting self-study helped her shift from using monolingual approaches to teaching Emirati preservice teachers and a focus on improving their English language proficiency, to affirming their bilingual identities, and becoming more culturally responsive. Initially, the researcher posed the question, “how do I frame and reframe my teaching to support the English language learning of my Emirati preservice teachers?” then progressed to asking and answering the question “how can I affirm the bilingual identities of my Emirati preservice teachers and support their English language proficiency?”

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2022

Patience Sowa

This chapter reviews successful pedagogical interventions in teaching literacy in languages of teaching and learning in the upper primary grades in low- and middle-income…

Abstract

This chapter reviews successful pedagogical interventions in teaching literacy in languages of teaching and learning in the upper primary grades in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and explores how researchers and teachers decolonized classroom spaces to ensure student achievement of learning outcomes. Themes emerging from the analysis of data are biliteracy interventions, interventions in official and national languages, teacher professional development, and ecological interventions. Results of the review indicate that researchers decolonized classroom spaces by using student linguistic repertoires, evidence-based pedagogical strategies student cultural capital and engaging families and communities. The review also reveals that more research needs to be conducted on teaching and learning in upper primary grades. The linguistic diversity of LMICs provides rich contexts for more research in bilingual education and L2 acquisition which could be useful worldwide as stakeholders in the education process explore the best ways to improve learning outcomes in schools.

Book part
Publication date: 3 February 2015

Heather Homonoff Woodley

This chapter builds on theories of culturally responsive teaching and translanguaging pedagogies to explore teaching strategies that linguistically, culturally, and educationally…

Abstract

This chapter builds on theories of culturally responsive teaching and translanguaging pedagogies to explore teaching strategies that linguistically, culturally, and educationally empower Muslim immigrant emergent bilinguals in the classroom. These students are often speakers of less commonly used languages, not shared with other adults in the school, thus teachers and school leaders often do not know how to use home languages as teaching tools. This study sought to find practical solutions by going straight to the source – the students themselves. Through a one-year qualitative arts-based study, 15 recently arrived Muslim immigrants provided information about their language use and meaning-making of school experiences. Using interview, observation, and student-created artifacts, data were collected during after-school sessions that also included intensive group discussion and peer interviews in home languages. It was found that these students are facilitating and regulating their own bilingual and multilingual educations through cultural communities of practice. However, it was also found that these students perceived messages from the larger school community as discriminatory, thereby negatively impacting feelings of belonging and value in a school setting. One classroom where students and their languages were valued is profiled in this chapter offering practical ways teachers can engage learning through all languages, especially minority languages, regardless of a teacher’s own linguistic abilities. This chapter offers transferable ideas that may be adapted to diverse classrooms with similar student populations and needs. It is understood that classroom contexts differ based on resources, students’ home language literacy, and curricular demands.

Details

Research on Preparing Inservice Teachers to Work Effectively with Emergent Bilinguals
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-494-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 26 November 2020

Francesca D’Angelo

Traditional didactic approaches to multiple language learning have mainly focused on the differences and similarities between languages. However, in the language learning…

Abstract

Traditional didactic approaches to multiple language learning have mainly focused on the differences and similarities between languages. However, in the language learning classroom, the willingness to activate prior language knowledge has been generally overlooked, despite being a fundamental part of the actual process of language learning Accordingly, the author suggests that the traditional contrastive method should be complemented by a psycholinguistic approach with the aim of exploiting the interlinguistic strategies used in language teaching and learning. An alternative methodological approach that looks at the whole linguistic repertoire of students is needed in order to exploit the benefits of multilingual education, going beyond linguistic similarities and differences. Following a detailed analysis of the relevant literature in the field, which identifies metalinguistic awareness as the most important factor enhancing bilinguals’ outcomes in additional language learning, the present chapter deals with its implications for a multilingual didactic approach. In particular, students must be stimulated and assisted in the process of conscious reflection and manipulation of language, learning strategies, and linguistic skills developed in previous linguistic systems to observe a positive and significant outcome in third (or additional) language acquisition (TLA). School curricula and teaching practices could benefit from placing the multilingual learners and their entire linguistic repertoire at the center of the learning process, rather than focusing exclusively on the target language.

Details

Technology-enhanced Learning and Linguistic Diversity: Strategies and Approaches to Teaching Students in a 2nd or 3rd Language
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-128-8

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000