Young migrants
Supporting multilingual classrooms

The European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe together with the European Commission are pleased to announce the launch of a new round of RELANG and Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshops within the joint action on Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning. 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.

The activities are scheduled to take place between mid-March and mid-December 2021, each initiative offering up to 9 national workshops during this period. In view of the ongoing pandemic, workshops will be delivered online for the foreseeable future.

The call is open to current European Union member states and the additional member states of the ECML until 19 February 2021.

For further information on how to request a workshop, please contact Adelina Rosca (adelina.rosca@ecml.at), the ECML-EC cooperation agreement coordinator.

Local organiser: Maria Nezi, 1^st Regional Centre of Educational Planning in the Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Attica, Greece

ECML experts: Chantal Muller, Belgium; Catherine Carré-Karlinger, Austria

Participants: 30 (teacher educators)

Programme

“33 educational coordinators, responsible for the training of all language teachers (foreign language teachers and teachers of the language of schooling) from 8 Regional Centres of Educational Planning in Greece (Attica, Thessaly, Peloponnese, Crete, Western Greece, South Aegean) attended the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms (SMC) workshop on 20 -21 February 2020, held at the Intercultural Gymnasium of Athens. The two-day workshop was hosted by the Greek Ministry of Education and funded by the EU Commission and the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages).

In recent years, the number of refugees and migrants in Greece has increased greatly. As a consequence, most of the schools in Attica as well as in other Regions of Greece are coping with a heterogeneous/multicultural student population.

Creating an inclusive school environment in which all languages are valued was the main theme of the workshop. Participants explored tools to improve the quality of language teaching and support the development of plurilingual competences for all learners in multilingual classes.

As a result of the event a Moodle platform will be set up to build a network of the workshop participants for mutual support and for a blended learning training programme. A 16-page brochure summarizing the content of the workshop is also to be published.”

Maria Nezi, local organiser, 27 March 2020

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2019-2020 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

The Network of Experts working on the Social Dimension of Education and Training (NESET), one of the seven official knowledge providers of European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), has recently published a new analytical report, titled ‘The future of language education in Europe: case studies of innovative practices’.

The main purpose of this report is to explore emerging innovative approaches and strategies of language teaching in Europe supporting learners’ plurilingualism, inspire educators and policy makers to innovate and implement forward-looking policies and practices in language education, and contribute to the implementation of the EU Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages (adopted in May 2019).

The publication also refers to the work of the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) and highlights 8 projects and tools promoting plurilingual pedagogies (see pp. 4, 36, 37, 40, 61, 88, 114, 118, 128):

• Language in subjects - Developing language awareness in subject classes (ww.ecml.at/languageinsubjects)
• A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling (www.ecml.at/roadmapforschools)
• ICT-rev - Inventory of ICT tools and open educational resources (https://ict-rev.ecml.at/)
• CONBAT+ - Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in content-based teaching: A training kit (https://conbat.ecml.at/)
• CARAP - FREPA: A Framework of reference for pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures - Competences and resources (https://carap.ecml.at/)
• Maledive - Teaching the language of schooling in the context of diversity - Study materials for teacher development (https://maledive.ecml.at/)
• MARILLE - Promoting plurilingualism - Majority language in multilingual settings (https://marille.ecml.at/)
• CLIL-CD - European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education (https://clil-cd.ecml.at)

You can access the full report (English) and executive summaries (English, French and German) on the website nesetweb.eu.

Local organiser: Lília Maria Vicente, Directorate-General for School Administration, Ministry of Education and Science

ECML experts: Brigitte Gerber, Switzerland; Mercè Bernaus, Spain

Participants: 24 (school principals, heads of department of languages, representatives of school advisers and policy makers)

Programme

The Supporting Multilingual Classrooms initiative aims to help member states ensure access to quality education for migrant learners and bridge the attainment gap between these learners and non-migrant pupils. Given this context, the Portuguese Directorate-General for School Administration recently hosted the second Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop on the topic of developing language-aware schools.

Its main goals were: i) to call school principals and other education professionals’ attention to the advantages of multilingualism for promoting academic success and enabling inclusion; ii) to help principals’ and teachers developing awareness regarding the importance of multilingualism; iii) to promote the development of teaching and learning practices intended to promote multilingualism in each and every classroom; iv) to engage the wider school community and municipalities in the task of promoting multilingualism as a way to improve meaningful learning.

The school principals have to manage school clusters that incorporate pupils from many different nationalities. This requires the establishment of strategies that ensure that every member of their community has opportunities to develop awareness of the value of multilingualism for all and integrate these opportunities into their practices. Therefore, it is very important to give school principals the opportunity to share their reality with others and to get to know new ways of addressing their problems in a more effective and rewarding way.

Lília Maria Vicente, local organiser, 23 March 2020

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2019-2020 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local organiser: Lara Sammut Debono, Education Officer, Migrant Learners' Unit - Ministry of Education and Employment (MEDE)

ECML experts: Katja Schnitzer, Germany; Kristin Brogan, Ireland

Participants: 26 (foreign language teachers, teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling, school administrators and school advisers)

Programme

On the 5^th and 6^th of March 2020, under the auspices of the cooperation partnership with the European Commission, the ECML and the Maltese Ministry of Education and Employment (MEDE) organised a very beneficial training workshop on Supporting Multilingual Classrooms. It focused on developing a whole-school approach to valuing and supporting linguistic and cultural diversity and multiple ways of collaboration among teachers of various levels and subjects. Education professionals representing public entities attended the workshop. These included education officers, members of school management teams, teachers from both the primary and secondary sectors and community liaison workers. This provided a cross-section of stakeholders working at multiple levels, with the aim of exploiting multilingualism as a valuable resource.

The event demonstrated that all learners, both those speaking the majority language and those speaking minority languages, can be empowered by their own plurilingual identity in a multilingual society. Teachers were encouraged to develop positive attitudes towards linguistic and cultural diversity. The strong point of the training was the practical approach to supporting plurilingual learners in mainstream classrooms. Ideas were shared on how learning can be scaffolded and on how to develop strategies for differentiated learning. The moderators guided participants during workshops on how to apply these principles to their existing school context. The experts referred to existing ECML resources and participants discussed how these could be adapted to their learners’ needs. Formative assessment was addressed and in particular its supportive role in language development in different subjects with the help of a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach. The experts’ delivery was greatly appreciated by the participants attending the workshop.

 Lara Sammut Debono, local organiser, 14 March 2020

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2019-2020 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Given the current situation around the Coronavirus, the RELANG and Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshops under the ECML-EU cooperation initially scheduled for the period March-June 2020 had to be postponed until autumn. The experts and the local coordinators are working together to find new dates for the training workshops. Please visit the ECML website and the online calendar for updates.