Migration and linguistic diversity in higher education: Implications for language teaching practice and policy

An increase in migration has led in recent years to growing diversity in society, particularly linguistic diversity, which in turn is influencing higher education. A significant percentage of students now present with a mother tongue different to the medium of instruction. Many also possess additional competencies in a range of other languages. This chapter considers the challenges and opportunities which this situation poses for language teaching practice and policy in a university context. It also discusses possible implications for the design and delivery of foreign language degree programmes, if they are to better reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity in an increasingly multilingual student body, and to enhance the experience of all students studying foreign languages at university

‘We Learn Together’—Translanguaging within a Holistic Approach towards Multilingualism in Education

Within two multilingual education projects in the north of the Netherlands a holistic model for multilingualism in education is being tested. This is done through design-based interventions in which in- and pre-service teachers, teacher trainers and researchers co-develop and evaluate multilingual activities for different school types. Results show that through experimenting in a safe environment teachers gradually embraced their pupils’ multilingualism. This contradicts earlier findings on teachers strongly favouring monolingual instruction and viewing migrant languages as a deficit.<br/

Is translanguaging a possibility in a language class?: Theoretical issues and applications in an EFL class

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Language teachers' perceptions of multilingualism and language teaching: The case of the postgraduate programme "lRM"

This paper explores the language views and practices of postgraduate student-teachers attending a distance-learning Master's Programme of a Greek University, entitled "Language Education for Refugees and Migrants" (LRM). Teachers and professionals working with language learners in linguistically diverse contexts make up an interesting research sample in order to explore their perceptions and practices concerning bi/multilingualism and language learning. The study was conducted through an open-ended questionnaire, delivered and completed electronically by the student-teachers of two modules of the Programme (LRM 53: Language teaching for adult refugees and migrants and LRM54: Language teaching for children with refugee and migrant background) and included open-ended questions regarding their profile, their perceptions towards bi/multilingualism and translanguaging, language use in the school context, the first language and its relation to second language learning. Taking into account the students' sample profile, the data can provide insights into the ways student-teachers view and deal with language diversity in their classrooms. Issues of attitudes and practices towards multilingualism and language teaching are discussed in relation to students-teachers' professional development/education. Also, through comparisons between the two groups of students of the modules, the results are expected to explore some common ground assumptions on the differences between language teaching for children and adults (in the refugee context) but also potential nuances and elements of distinctiveness in the two areas. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Supporting inclusion and family involvement in early childhood education through 'ISOTIS': A case study in Greece

This article presents a case study, conducted in the Greek educational context, as part of the European collaborative project, called "ISOTIS", funded by the European Union, including 17 partners and 11 countries. The main aim of the case study was the support of students' first languages and cultures through home-based and classroom-based activities, family involvement and the professionalization of teachers using ICT environments in early childhood education. In this paper, we particularly focus on aspects of home-school partnership, as promoted through the support of children's heritage languages and cultures, drawing from the perspectives of the parents, teachers, and professionals, who participated in qualitative, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The research findings show that home-school partnership was fostered through the inclusion and support of the children's languages and cultures, the affirmation of their identities and the empowerment of their 'voices' and capitals. Last, they highlight that family involvement has a multiple impact not only for bi/multilingual families and their children, but also for teachers and all parts involved, shown to be benefited in a multidimensional way. © 2020 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved

Understanding the “Voices” of Children of Immigrant and Refugee Backgrounds

This paper presents a series of narratives on multilingualism and education based on data collected from five case studies that were conducted throughout the 2017 fall semester of the postgraduate program “Language Education for Refugees and Migrants” (LRM), offered by the Hellenic Open University. Each case study narrates the story of a child with a refugee or migrant background living in Greece. The main aim of the paper is to map the sociolinguistic profiles of the children by combining data collected using semi-structured interviews with the analysis of their identity texts. Both the sociolinguistic profiles and the identity texts “give voice” and articulate the children’s needs and thoughts and are used as a way to shed light to issues of multilingualism in education and to discuss conclusions for language teaching in diverse learning environments. The paper subsequently draws implications about language teaching in inclusive and multilingual learning contexts. © Common Ground Research Networks, Anastasia Gkaintartzi, Georgia Gkountani, Alexandra Kamaretsou, Chrysoula Kokkini, Kleio Sakellaridi, Angeliki Sireti, All Rights Reserved