Young migrants
Supporting multilingual classrooms

Local organiser: Gabriele Isak, PH Kärnten

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

Participants: 19 (foreign language teachers, students in the teacher training programme, policymakers)

“Supporting Multilingual Classrooms offered excellent opportunities for raising awareness for the needs of multilingual learners, for developing plurilingual competences and for promoting a positive attitude to linguistic and cultural diversity. The practical examples, plurilingual activities, digital tools and intercultural approaches showed a variety of methods and materials that can actually be used in the classroom. The two very competent ECML representatives, Brigitte Gerber and Chantal Muller, gave insight into various ECML projects and materials, they provided links to the projects and created a detailed PowerPoint presentation and a Padlet with further information and activities that participants can also use in the future.

The participants (mainly university and college of education lecturers and students) were very interested in the materials, methods and approaches and took part actively in the activities. All in all, the workshop gave the participants a whole range of ideas, materials and approaches that they can put into practice in the classroom.”

Gabriele Isak, local organiser, 28 October 2021

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local organiser: Soraya Sobrevía, Mother Tongues

ECML experts: Terry Lamb, UK; Chantal Muller, Belgium

Participants: 20 (teachers of other subjects/teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling, policymakers/ curriculum writers, speech and language therapist, home school liaison)

“The SMC workshop in Dublin was a success! Despite it being online, it was well attended and very well received by participants because the training modules were adapted to meet the participants’ different needs. The ECML experts were very knowledgeable in the topic. There was time spent guiding us through a dedicated section on the ECML website with key resources for multilingual classrooms. Judging by the feedback we heard, everyone seemed very happy with the sessions devoted to discovering how to draw on children’s heritage languages as a rich resource for learning. We would strongly recommend hosting this workshop in your setting.”

 Soraya Sobrevía, local organiser, 12 October 2021

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Organisatrice locale : Karine Dekeukelaere, Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles

Expertes du CELV : Catherine Carré-Karlinger, Autriche; Mercè Bernaus, Espagne

Participants : 30 (enseignants de langues étrangères, enseignants de la langue de scolarisation, décideurs politiques/ rédacteurs de programmes, administrateurs scolaires)

“Nos contrées accueillent de plus en plus de populations migrantes. Les enfants qui les accompagnent ont besoin d’un accueil scolaire adapté, spécifique et de qualité pour leur donner un maximum de chance pour les accompagner dans leurs efforts d’intégration sociale et scolaire. Ce sont ces défis que les écoles et les enseignants doivent surmonter en étant bien outillés.

Les ateliers proposés par le ECML-CELV sont encadrés par des experts de grande qualité soucieux de partager leur connaissance et leur savoir-faire dans ce domaine. Les ateliers sont construits de telle sorte que la progression dans la réflexion soit garantie pour permettre à tous les participants de transférer les idées présentées à leur propre réalité scolaire. Cette activité est facilitée par la participation ciblée de plusieurs membres d’un même établissement scolaire. La présence du chef d’établissement est un atout et contribue à la mise en place d’une politique d’accueil et d’accompagnement harmonisée et commune dans l’école.

La multiplication des exemples concrets et les moments d’échanges en groupe apportent une valeur ajoutée pratique au travail effectué. En permettant aux participants de prendre le temps de réfléchir dans un contexte confortable des outils pédagogiques peuvent être construits. Ne passons pas à côté de cette offres”

Karine Dekeukelaere, organisatrice locale, 12 octobre 2021

Site web du projet du CELV : Valoriser les classes multilingues ‒ UE-CELV accord de coopération 2020-2021 « Méthodologies et évaluation innovantes dans l'apprentissage des langues »

Local organiser: Lekh Baral, Kaja Haugen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

ECML experts: Katja Schnitzer, Germany; Catherine Carré-Karlinger, Austria

Participants: 18 (foreign language teachers, teachers of other subjects, teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling)

“The Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop was held in Bergen, Norway on 23 and 24 September 2021. The workshop was organised at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences through the research group Analysing and Assessing Linguistic Multicompetence. The online workshop welcomed teacher educators, pre-service and in-service teachers from across Norway. ECML coordinators Katja Schnitzer and Catherine Carré-Karlinger led the participants through working with attitudes toward plurilingualism, teaching in a multilingual environment, languages as a bridge for successful education, and how to build a whole school approach.

The workshop was held in the light of the Norwegian curriculum reform in 2020, where multilingualism is explicitly valued as a resource. A number of ECML projects (e.g. Maledive, Illey, FREPA/CARAP, Marille, PlurCur) were presented and discussed in light of the Norwegian context (see e.g. Bjarnø, Nergård & Aarsæther, 2017; Krulatz, Dahl & Flognfeldt, 2018).

It was particularly impressive to see the level of engagement among the participants in working with tasks/activities following multilingual approach. This is an indicator of how adopting a multilingual approach can enhance engagement among the learners.”

Lekh Baral, Kaja Haugen, local organisers, 1 October 2021

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local organiser: Katerina Konstantinides-Vladimirou, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth

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

Participants: 35 (foreign language teachers, teachers of the language of schooling, policymakers/ curriculum writers, school administrators)

“The workshop ‘Supporting Multilingual Classrooms’ which was organised by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth in Limassol, Cyprus in collaboration with ECML has been a success. The two ECML experts, Merce Bernaus and Katja Schnitzer have, through their lively presentations, interactive approaches, and teaching-learning techniques, enlightened the audience with new knowledge and perspectives to use in their classrooms and schools. The audience consisted of teachers of Greek who teach many periods in the migration biography classrooms of secondary education, and teachers of English.

The workshop has added value, ideas and practices to the policy of student migration biography, a policy upon which the Ministry of Education invests programmes aiming to enable young migrants to integrate in the education system of Cyprus without difficulty. To achieve this aim, there is a Migration Biography Committee in the Ministry of Education which focuses on the improvement of teachers’ knowledge and skills necessary for those students’ induction.

At the school level, emphasis is given on the learning of methods and techniques that would help migrant students to learn Greek as a second language more easily in order to communicate with others (students, teachers), and develop a sense of ownership in our schools. The workshop has contributed a lot to the learning of interactive and creative methods. Each school organises activities, every year, which engage student migrants and make them develop emotional literacy besides literacy (reading and writing). The workshop has given to teacher participants many ideas of activities that indicate acceptance and respect to the diversity of people and, more specifically, students.

The workshop ‘Supporting Multilingual Classrooms’ constitutes an educational innovation for secondary education, signifies progress, and empowers teachers to continue to invest energy, time, effort and love in their classrooms. In general, the workshop has added high value to teacher professional development and learning. The participant teachers are now richer in interactive methods, teaching techniques, and emotional intelligence and using these in their teaching job, they can make their classrooms flourish!”

Katerina Konstantinides-Vladimirou, local organiser, 22 September 2021

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Belgium has become the 34th member state of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the European Centre for Modern Languages!

The Belgian authorities notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, of the country’s accession on 20 July 2021.

Belgium, which is one of the founder members of the Council of Europe, has been invited to nominate ECML national contacts and will henceforth be able to fully participate in the Centre’s programme of activities.

Belgium is set to host its first activity as an official member state of the ECML on 7-8 October in Brussels - a "Supporting Multilingual Classrooms" national training event, wihin the framework of the Centre's joint action with the European Commission.

Local organiser: Denisa Ďuranová, National Institute for Education

ECML experts: Katja Schnitzer, Switzerland; Chantal Muller, Belgium

Participants: 23 (primary and secondary schools with the Slovak language as a language of instruction, primary and secondary schools with a national minority language as a language of instruction)

"In the Slovak Republic, the workshop Supporting multilingual classrooms 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 developed a greater awareness of the value of plurilingualism and the language competence required in the language of schooling in order to achieve educational success and to support the inclusion of children with a migration background. The June workshop was focused on teaching in a multilingual environment and providing  language support for these children, especially on the following topics: multilingualism and plurilingualism – identities and contexts; pluralistic approaches in the language classroom; benefiting from multilingualism across the curriculum; language and cultural awareness; developing competences supporting second language development across all subjects; whole school approaches to multilingualism and plurilingualism.

Information about the workshop Supporting multilingual classrooms is available online: https://www.statpedu.sk/sk/vyskum/vzdelavacie-aktivity/podpora-multilingvalnych-tried-ii/"

Denisa Ďuranová, local organiser, 24 June 2021

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local coordinators from 9 countries (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden) met with the project team in an online meeting on 10 March to advance preparations for national workshops to be hosted on the themes of Supporting Multilingual Classrooms.

The series of events targeting practitioners, multipliers and administrators at national level will take place between April and mid-December 2021. In view of the ongoing pandemic, a number of the workshops will be delivered online, with the possibility of face-to-face events from late summer/autumn depending upon the situation.

The Supporting Multilingual Classrooms initiative, providing training to Member States of the European Union and the European Centre for Modern Languages, is organised through a joint cooperation action with the European Commission - first launched in 2013. The action will offer training and consultancy over the next year to around 500 language professionals within national systems.

Further details on the events and how to participate will be made available on the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms website.