Teaching The Mother Tongue In A Multilingual Europe

In a time when the increasing cultural diversity and population mobility of the continent calls for good communication skills, this fascinating book features a wealth of data and critical opinion on the topic of mother tongue education.In the first part of the book, the two editors address central cultural, political and educational concerns relating to the mother tongue, using some of the findings of their European Commission funded research on the changing European classroom. The second part presents case study articles by practitioners from nine countries which have significant regional or immigrant mother tongue populations. These include Welsh in Wales, Catalan and Galician in Spain, Turkish and Greek in Germany, Arabic and Corsican in France, and Belorussian in Poland, as well as critical accounts of the main first language situation in England, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, post-Soviet Russia, and Spain. The concluding part of the book looks at language awareness as a possible approach to linguistic diversity. It examines the preparation of teachers at all levels, as experinced by the editors through their involvement in an in international language study group based in Calgary, Cambridge, Mainz and Bialystock.Teaching the Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Europe is packed with original information which will be of use to all teachers and educationalists concerned with language.

This edited volume offers an overarching, yet detailed view of fast-changing language policy and practice in Europe and beyond. It provides a thorough investigation of different linguacultural scenarios, exploring how language policy has repercussions on research and initiatives in the field of language education. With contributions from a range of European settings as well as Turkey and the USA, the book discusses topical issues related to language learning and explores how these can shape our identities. Chapters present cutting-edge research on translanguaging, English Medium Instruction, multilingualism and minority languages in Europe. The volume forecasts what future educational policies might look like, and questions how evaluating and rethinking educational practices can produce positive effects on language practices as well as language policies. The book has a wide-reaching international focus and will be an important resource for researchers, academics, language experts and postgraduate students in the fields of applied linguistics, language education and sociolinguistics.

This publication explores the roles and tasks carried out by language educators - teachers, teacher trainers, materials writers and others - and the way in which these might develop in the years to come.Emphasis is placed on the educative role of language teachers and the importance of adapting the language education to meet the needs of an increasingly multilingual and multicultural Europe.The authors suggest that this may lead to the development of a new paradigm for language teaching and that this will require a new didactic approach. Language education will be influenced by technological d.

The ECML's Languages for social cohesion programme (2004-2007) involved approximately 4500 language professionals from Europe and beyond. This publication focuses on key developments in language education promoted through the work of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML). It serves three main functions. Firstly, it summarises the ECML's contributions to fostering linguistic and cultural diversity in European societies. Secondly, it contains the proceedings of the ECML Conference, held in September 2007 at the University of Graz, to communicate the results of this programme to the wider public. Thirdly, it provides a preview of the projects which comprise the next programme of the ECML (2008-2011): 'Empowering language professionals: competences - networks - impact - quality'. In this way the publication both provides an overview of current issues and trends in European language teaching and indicates perspectives for the future.

Multilingual Approaches for Teaching and Learning outlines the opportunities and challenges of multilingual approaches in mainstream education in Europe. The book, which draws on research findings from several officially monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual countries in Europe, discusses approaches to multilingual education which capitalise on students’ multilingual resources from early childhood to higher education. This book synthesises research on multilingual education, relates theory to practice, and discusses different pedagogical approaches from diverse perspectives. The first section of the book outlines multilingual approaches in early childhood education and primary school, the second looks at multilingual approaches in secondary school and higher education, and the third examines the influence of parents, policy-makers, and professional development on the implementation and sustainability of multilingual approaches. The book demonstrates that educators can leverage students’ multilingualism to promote learning and help students achieve their full potential. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of language education, psychology, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.

Multilingualism is a crucial if often unrecognized marker of new European identities. In this collection of essays, we observe how a plurilinguist and pluricultural political entity practices and theorizes multilingualism. We ask which types of multilingualism are defined, encouraged or discouraged at the level of official policies, but also at the level of communities. We look at speakers of hegemonic or minority languages, at travellers and long-term migrants or their children, and analyse how their conversations are represented in official documents, visual art, cinema, literature and popular culture. The volume is divided into two parts that focus respectively on “Multilingual Europe” and “Multilingual Europeans.” The first series of chapters explore the extent to which multilingualism is treated as both a challenge and an asset by the European Union, examine which factors contribute to the proliferation of languages: globalisation, the enlargement of the European Union and EU language policies. The second part of the volume concentrates on the ways in which cultural productions represent the linguistic practices of Europeans in a way that emphasizes the impossibility to separate language from culture, nationality, but also class, ethnicity or gender. The chapters suggest that each form of plurilingualism needs to be carefully analysed rather than celebrated or condemned.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

There is a growing interest in teaching languages to young children. This publication brings together papers from 18 countries. It gives a cross section of major achievements and problem areas as well as an insight into research issues.