Diversity in majority language (language of schooling) learning

Supporting teacher education

Project working languages: English and German

Project term: 2012-2015

Project team: 


Eija Aalto (coordinator)
Finland

Dagmar Gilly
Austria

Auli Kotimäki
Finland

What is it about?

The project will focus on teacher education for the majority language or language of schooling (e.g. French in France, Polish in Poland).  It aims to provide access to plurilingual approaches so that teachers can address and build on linguistic and cultural diversity in classrooms. The project will also promote collaboration between teachers of all languages.

Target audience involved in project activities

  • teachers
  • teacher educators
  • decision-makers: curriculum developers

Expected outcomes and outputs

Major outputs: A review (with bibliography) of practice in teacher education for teachers of the language of schooling; models with sample teaching materials to illustrate good practice, with guidelines for teacher educators.

Major outcomes:  Teacher training institutions use the guidelines in pre-service training to promote an intercultural and plurilingual approach by teachers teaching the language of the school as a subject.

 

Maledive in action: envisaged contexts for application

Envisaged benefits for target groups involved in the project

Example 1: Teacher educators: Concrete modules, materials and activities based on the plurilingual and inclusive pedagogical approach to be adapted in their work.

Example 2: Teachers: Concrete examples of inclusive, differentiated practice and managing language diversity in the classroom. Advice for developing shared activities with teachers of different language subjects. 

Envisaged benefits for the ultimate beneficiary of the project – the learner

Example 1: Optimally the learners develop a confidence enabling them to expand their linguistic repertoire throughout their lives in order to be able to adapt to any situation which might arise.

Example 2: Learners perceive their language repertoire as a unified entity and are able to apply skills mastered in one language to another, and thus make optimal use  of all the languages in their repertoire.