Young migrants
Supporting multilingual classrooms

Local organiser: Denisa Ďuranová, Methodology-Pedagogy Centre

ECML experts: Terry Lamb, United Kingdom; Mercè Bernaus, Spain

Participants: 14 (foreign language teachers, teachers of other subjects, teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling, special educators)

“In the Slovak Republic, the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop was a great opportunity to promote a positive attitude towards linguistic and cultural diversity by developing an understanding of the principles and values underlying pluralistic and intercultural approaches. It allowed to improve the quality of teaching and to support the development of plurilingual competences of teachers by building on the linguistic and cultural diversity of their pupils. The participants raised their awareness of the value of plurilingualism and multilingual environment in order to achieve educational success and to support the inclusion of children with a migrant background. The workshop was focused on valuing all languages – challenging assumptions, plurilingualism as a resource in the language classrooms, benefitting from multilingualism across school subjects, democratic classrooms, scaffolding learning – supporting second language development across the curriculum, opening the school to plurilingual approaches, developing collaborative projects.  

Information about the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop is available online on the National Institute for Education website: https://www.statpedu.sk/sk/vyskum/vzdelavacie-aktivity/podpora-multilingvalnych-tried-iii/”

 Denisa Ďuranová, local organiser, 29 June 2022

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2022 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local organiser: Rachel Bowden, Technische Universität Dresden

ECML experts: Brigitte Gerber, Switzerland; Chantal Muller, Belgium

Participants: 25 (foreign language teachers, teachers of other subjects, teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling, school administrators, educational researchers)

“The first ever Supporting Mulitlingual Classrooms workshop in Germany was held on the 15^th and 16^th of June at Gymnasium Dresden Johannstadt and Friedrich Schiller Gymnasium Pirna. Participants included school leaders and teachers from GDJ and FSGP, for whom multilingual education is a central focus area; German as a second language teachers and language assistants from a number of other Dresden and Pirna schools; and teacher educators from TU Dresden.

The workshop aimed to enrich educators’ knowledge, attitudes and skills for working with multilingual students in their classrooms and schools. During the highly interactive workshop, participants reflected upon and shared their experiences, and engaged with research-based insights and practical activities. Focus areas included: multilingualism, language in all subjects, everyday language vs. academic language, language-sensitive teaching, resources for supporting multilingual classrooms.”

 Rachel Bowden, local organiser, 25 June 2022

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2022 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

One school, Many Languages (January 2022) – this attractive brochure has been designed as a practical resource for primary school teachers. It contains links to lesson plans, videos, audio resources that can be used in the classroom and articles following the latest research and best practice.

The toolkit has been designed by Mother Tongues to disseminate some of the key points from the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms national workshop, delivered in Ireland on 27th and 28th September 2021 by the ECML experts, Chantal Muller and Prof. Terry  Lamb. This event was funded by the European Union and the European Centre for Modern Languages.

In February 2022, The Irish Times featured Mother Tongues and the toolkit in an article:
“Speaking in mother tongues shows heritage is a class act – Embracing diverse languages inside the classroom gives all pupils a great advantage”.

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In response to the call for the 2022 round of “RELANG” and “Supporting Multilingual Classrooms” national workshops, a total of 27 requests from EU and ECML member states were received.
Events will take place between mid-March and mid-December 2022 in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland – with slots for one-two further workshops still to be determined.

RELANG focuses on relating foreign/second language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and Supporting Multilingual Classrooms focuses on the linguistic integration of migrant learners in schools across Europe.

These activities take place within the 9th edition of the European Commission – ECML joint action on Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning.