• Publishing Information
• Preface
• Field 1 - Development of schools and professionalism
• Supporting New Teachers at the Beginning of their Professional Careers: A Collegial Mentoring Project in Styria, Austria
• Using Social Software on Erasmus Exchange: A Qualitative Study of How Erasmus Outgoing Students from the University College of Teacher Education are using Social Software during their Erasmus Student Exchanges
• Happiness Makes School
• Field 2 - Early childhood
• An Analysis of Preschool Children’s Perspectives on their Relationships with Adults
• Field 3 - Language
• Support of Plurilingualism of Students in Narva College of the University of Tartu, Estonia by Implementing CLIL and Trilingual Educational Model
• Learning Space Deutschlandsberg – Creating Language Friendly Learning Environments
• MALEDIVE - Diversity in Majority Language Learning - Supporting Teacher Education
• Field 4 - Diversity
• When Perception is Upside Down
• Field 5 - Natural Science and Health
• Inquiry-based Learning and Teaching for the Development of Students’ Competences in Science
• Living with Type 1 Diabetes
• Appendix
• Editors

MALEDIVE - Diversity in Majority Language Learning - Supporting Teacher Education

Dagmar Gilly

In multilingual schools the range of learners’ first languages is wide. This means that the language taught in the majority language (ML; "mother tongue") classroom is L1 for only a few learners. Indeed, all the learners in the classroom are plurilingual, as they learn many foreign languages in school and master different varieties of their first language. ML teaching has thus far been kept separate from other language subjects. However, in multilingual schools we should not ignore learners’ proficiency in various languages; rather, all language teaching should enhance learners’ individual and multilayered language repertoires and support the development of a holistic linguistic identity. This is essential in developing literacies and effective learning and teaching for all learners.

In the Maledive project (Diversity in Majority Language Learning - Supporting Teacher Education - http://maledive.ecml.at/) we aim to develop concrete tools and study modules for changing the mindset in ML teacher education from monolingual to plurilingual and promote collaboration between teachers of all languages and also other subjects. The developmental work is done in close collaboration with international networks in many workshops arranged in different countries. The project is part of a program operated by the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML – http://ecml.at), the mission of which is to encourage excellence and innovation in language teaching and to help Europeans learn languages more efficiently.

When developing a more pluralistic approach to majority language teaching, the key issues are

• How can learners’ plurilingual repertoire and intercultural competences be developed?
• How can a plurilingual approach be embedded in the ML curriculum and integrated with other learning contents?
• How can productive cooperation and shared vision between teachers of different types of languages (majority language, foreign languages, second languages, first languages) be enhanced?
• What kinds of approaches can be used for developing learners’ language repertoire in the majority language classroom?
• How can teacher education be developed to prepare teachers to practice more inclusive, plurilingual approaches?

References

Project Handbook: http://marille.ecml.at/Handbook/tabid/2597/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Belke, Gerlind (2012): Mehr Sprache(n) für alle: Sprachunterricht in einer vielsprachigen Gesellschaft. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengeren.

Busch, Brigitta (2013): Mehrsprachigkeit, UTB: facultas.wuv .

Cummins, J. & Early, M. (Eds) (2011) Identity texts: The collaborative creation of power in multilingual schools. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.

Contact

dagmar.gilly@phst.at