Young migrants
Supporting multilingual classrooms

The European Centre for Modern Languages is launching a series of 48 national training and consultancy workshops . The workshops which are hosted in member states offer a wide range of European expertise in language education and are adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries. This year represents the highest ever number of events organised according to this format by the ECML and reflects the increasing popularity of the Centre’s training and consultancy activities.

25 of the events will take place within the framework of the “Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning” cooperation action between the ECML and the European Commission. These activities, covering member states of the ECML and the European Union, focus on Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (RELANG), Supporting Multilingual Classrooms and Use of ICT in support of language teaching and learning

The other 23 events targeting the member states of the ECML focus on the following areas: Action research communities, CLIL and beyond – pluriliteracies, Language for work, Language of schooling in subject learning, Plurilingual and intercultural approaches (CARAP/FREPA), The ROADMAP – a self-assessment tool to foster school development, Setting up learning environments where modern languages flourish.

The events combine professional input from the ECML and expertise in the member state to initiate quality developments – the workshops can assist in change processes in language education at local, regional and national levels. The first of the events, a RELANG workshop, will take place at the Lithuanian National Agency for Education in Vilnius on 7-9 March.

A series of national workshops will take place within the “Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning” cooperation action between the ECML and the European Commission. The RELANG, Supporting Multilingual Classrooms and ICT-REV workshops will be hosted in the following countries:

RELANG: Albania, Armenia, Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Romania. For more details on workshop dates and venues, please visit the RELANG event page. RELANG focuses on relating foreign/second language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Supporting Multilingual Classrooms: Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Sweden. For more details on workshop dates and venues, please visit the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms event page. Supporting Multilingual Classrooms focuses on the linguistic integration of migrant learners in schools across Europe.

ICT-REV: Armenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany and Poland. For more details on workshop dates and venues, please visit the ICT-REV event page. ICT-REV promotes a pedagogically-based use of ICT tools and open resources in support of quality language teaching and learning, including online and blended learning settings.

The European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe together with the European Commission are launching a new round of workshops within the joint action on Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning focusing on the following initiatives:

• RELANG – Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference

• Supporting Multilingual Classrooms

• ICT-REV – Using ICT in support of language teaching and learning

The activities are scheduled to take place between end of February and mid-December 2023, the three initiatives offering up to 23 national workshops during this period.

The call is open to current European Union member states and the additional member states of the ECML until 6 January 2023.

For further information, please contact Adelina Rosca (adelina.rosca@ecml.at), the ECML-EU cooperation agreement coordinator.

Local organiser: Lília Vicente, Ministry of Education Portugal

ECML experts: Mercè Bernaus, Spain; Katja Schnitzer, Germany

Participants: 26 (school principals, school administrators / leaders / school advisers, policymakers)

"The Directorate General for School Administration, as the promoter of continuous training for school cluster directors, and through its Team for Interdisciplinary Projects and Training, organised a workshop on 10 and 11 November in Lisbon on the theme "Developing language-aware schools”.

The Supporting Multilingual Classrooms event, part of a cooperation agreement between the ECML and the European Commission, has the objective of helping the Member States to guarantee access to quality education for migrant and refugee pupils and to close the performance gap between migrant and national pupils, was led by trainers from the Centre.

School principals and other educational actors from school clusters that show a diversified cultural and linguistic reality were invited, in order to provide them with moments of sharing and reflection on their contexts and practices, and, above all, to show that multilingualism and cultural diversity are added values in the life of schools, contributing to promote inclusion.

In fact, due to migration issues, we are witnessing differentiated and increasingly intense waves of migration throughout Europe. In Portugal, particularly in some regions, school clusters are confronted with a population with an increasing cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, so their principals should be given access to other strategies and approaches that enable them to meet the challenges posed by these new educational contexts."

Lília Vicente, local organiser, 1 December 2022

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

Local organiser: Kati Bakradze, Tallinn Co-Educational School

ECML experts: Brigitte Gerber, Switzerland; Terry Lamb, United Kingdom

Participants: 35 (Foreign language teachers/teachers of other subjects/teacher educators, policymakers, school administrators / leaders / school advisers)

"Supporting Multilingual Classrooms is an excellent workshop for countries where foreign language teachers face the need to become more efficient in teaching and supporting multiple foreign languages throughout the school curricula and across different subjects. The main aims for the teachers were met while compiling support materials and methods for students’ linguistic development in their classes not only teaching English or other foreign languages. 

Moreover, examples and guidance of various aspects of how to be aware of valuing and supporting the students’ home languages were shared. The workshop gave insights and practical input for teachers valuing and considering the full range of students’ linguistic repertoires; being aware of students’ linguistic needs in order to be successful in their studies. 

The workshop included activities which raised teachers' confidence in their ability to support students' linguistic development and their ability to also be considerate of home languages. The acute need in schools and for teachers of all subjects was the need for tools and skills to support these and all other students who have entered the Estonian educational system. All the aspects were covered including students' own cultural and linguistic backgrounds being respected and supported in the process. The participants benefitted from high level of input in making the issue of language learning a joint effort on the whole school level."

Kati Bakradze, local organiser, 18 October 2022

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

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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