Activating Linguistic And Cultural Diversity In The Language Classroom

This book challenges the reader to rethink and reimagine what diversity in language education means in transnational societies. Bringing together researchers and practitioners who contributed to the international LINguistic and Cultural DIversity REinvented (LINCDIRE) project, the book examines four pillars of innovation in language education: the Action-oriented approach, Plurilingualism, Indigenous epistemologies and Technology enhanced learning. The book critically discusses plurilingual pedagogical approaches that draw on learners' linguistic and cultural repertoires to encourage and support the dynamic use of languages in curricular innovation. It is a fundamental resource for language teachers, curriculum designers and educational researchers interested in understanding current thinking on the relevance and benefit of a plurilingual paradigm shift for language education in today's societies. More specifically, this book: Examines the development of plurilingualism and the potential of real-life oriented teaching and learning. Explores the concept of plurilingual and pluricultural competence. Focuses on collaboration and reflection from a humanistic tradition. Explores educational technology and explains the limitations and challenges of adopting ready-made tools. Highlights the iterative, design-based research process that informed the development of LINCDIRE’s pedagogical framework and action-oriented scenarios. Introduces practical examples of action-oriented tasks and scenarios, and illustrates the online tool (LITE) in terms of its current functionalities and design. Describes the implementation challenges and opportunities of plurilingual action-oriented tasks and discusses the results of implementation. Finally, the book examines future pedagogical innovation and research directions in order to help readers reflect on the implications of achieving sustainable change in language education. This exciting collection addresses an important question in language education: How can plurilingualism and cultural diversity be harnessed to promote sustainable innovation in language learning and teaching? Readers will find contributions from the diverse authors timely, compelling, and engaging. — Dr. Bonny Norton, FRSC, University Killam Professor, UBC Dept. of Language & Literacy Education, Canada Embracing a design-based research framework, this book offers learners and teachers powerful validation and a rich, relatable and inspiring action-oriented approach to holistic, dynamic, mediated, embodied, true-to-life, plurilingual language teaching and learning. — Dr. Elka Todeva, Professor of Applied Linguistics, MATESOL Program / Advanced Seminar in Plurilingual Pedagogy, SIT Graduate Institute, Washington, D.C. Anyone seeking innovation in Language Education will find in this volume a treasure trove of theoretical, empirical and methodological insights to answer the questions that arose among the 25 co-authors’ discussions to rethink language use, language learning, and language teaching. — Dr. Mercedes Bernaus, Emeritus Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain This thought-provoking and timely book argues convincingly for the need to reconceptualize innovation in language education in an increasingly diverse world. —Dr. Regine Hampel, Associate Dean (Research Excellence), Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK

The growing cultural, racial and linguistic diversity in schools has changed the face of language teaching in many countries. This book presents theory and research by a group of internationally recognised scholars who address the issues and challenges for teachers and their students in increasingly plurilingual and multicultural classrooms.

Distinguished multiculturalist Sonia Nieto speaks directly to current and future teachers in this thoughtful integration of a selection of her key writings with creative pedagogical features. Offering information, insights, and motivation to teach students of diverse cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds, examples are included throughout to illustrate real-life dilemmas about diversity that teachers face in their own classrooms; ideas about how language, culture, and teaching are linked; and ways to engage with these ideas through reflection and collaborative inquiry. Designed for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level students and professional development courses, each chapter includes critical questions, classroom activities, and community activities suggesting projects beyond the classroom context. Language, Culture, and Teaching • explores how language and culture are connected to teaching and learning in educational settings; • examines the sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts of language and culture to understand how these contexts may affect student learning and achievement; • analyzes the implications of linguistic and cultural diversity for classroom practices, school reform, and educational equity; • encourages practicing and preservice teachers to reflect critically on their classroom practices, as well as on larger institutional policies related to linguistic and cultural diversity based on the above understandings; and • motivates teachers to understand their ethical and political responsibilities to work, together with their students, colleagues, and families, for more socially just classrooms, schools, and society. Changes in the Third Edition: This edition includes new and updated chapters, section introductions, critical questions, classroom and community activities, and resources, bringing it up-to-date in terms of recent educational policy issues and demographic changes in the U.S. and beyond. The new chapters reflect Nieto’s current thinking about the profession and society, especially about changes in the teaching profession, both positive and negative, since the publication of the second edition of this text.

Diversity - social, cultural, linguistic and ethnic - poses a challenge to all educational systems. This book aims to address these issues by examining current policy and its implications, pedagogical practice and responses to the challenge of diversity that go beyond the language of schooling. This volume will appeal to anyone involved in the educational integration of immigrant children and adolescents.

Diversity is at the heart of today's education debates. Often, school policies and programs designed to encourage and embrace diversity are met with public ire and a deep misunderstanding of how diversity serves learning. This work explains how diversity is an essential element in classroom settings. As children from around the world continue to pour into U.S. classrooms, an understanding of cultural and linguistic diversity in its broadest sense moves to the foreground. In a post 9/11 world, the benefits of understanding diversity take on urgent meaning. The introdutory chapter, Participating in Democracy Means Participating in Schools, sets the tone for the discussion to follow. As the geographic backgrounds of immigrants becomes increasingly diverse, religion must be added to previous discussions of race, ethnicity, and language. Thus, the need for the public to understand how shifts in population affect schools, makes this work a vital resource for anyone concerned with education today.

This book explores the ways in which transcultural pedagogies can support learning and literacies in critical, creative and socially just ways, highlighting research initiatives from across the globe. Each chapter provides a different and innovative perspective with respect to reimagining language and literacy pedagogies in conjunction with students’ diverse literacies and resources. Presenting a collection of classroom and community-based research, the book addresses the intersections of plurilingualism, identity and transcultural awareness in various contexts, including schools, universities, as well as local and Indigenous communities. These settings have been deliberately chosen to profile the range of research in the field, showcasing transcultural, plurilingual, translanguaging and community-engaged pedagogies, among others.

This book will explore how language & culture are connected to teaching & learning, and examine the sociocultural & sociopolitical contexts of language & culture to understand how these contexts affect student learning & achievement.

Offers a review of sociolinguistic research and practice aimed at improving education for students who speak vernacular varieties of US English, English-based Creole languages, and non-English languages, and presents soioculturally based approaches that acknowledge on the linguistic and cultural resources students bring into the school.