Session Information
31 SES 04 C, Developing Multilingualism Across the Lifespan: Effects of teacher beliefs and ideologies
Paper Session
Contribution
Globalization has not only changed our society, it has also had a profound effect on education. Many schools deal with student populations that have become increasingly multilingual due to migration. Politically, few would argue against the importance of multilingualism; rather, it is promoted to the fullest extent. The European Union (EU), for example, sets a framework strategy for multilingualism, stating three main themes, one of them being the “long-term objective to increase the individual multilingualism until every [EU] citizen has practical skills in at least two languages in addition to his or her mother tongue” (European Commission, 2005, p. 4). Moreover, the ability to communicate in one’s mother tongue as well as in a foreign language is one of the eight key competences established for lifelong learning by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (adopted in 2006 and reviewed in 2018). However, in practical terms, the challenges associated with teaching and educational policies have increased manifold as a result of linguistic diversity among student bodies. Linguistic diversity is, however, often given limited space in school-based learning, which predominantly involves monolingual ideologies (Gogolin and Duarte, 2017) and does not include students’ multilingual resources. Furthermore, teachers’ mental processes and perceptions (beliefs), considered part of teachers’ professional competence (Baumert and Kunter, 2006), have been the focus in several different academic fields. Previous research suggests that there are significant links between teachers’ beliefs and practices (e.g. Calderhead, 1996); thus teachers’ beliefs on linguistic diversity play a vital role. Do teachers’ beliefs interrelate with the implementation of students’ life-world multilingualism (Gogolin, 2004) in practice? Furthermore, reading is certainly regarded as a key learning skill in all school subjects. Reading is also highlighted in the curricula, constituting a major part of instruction in the early grades of school. Thus the question arises as to how students’ life-world multilingualism is taken into consideration when teaching reading in multilingual settings. This paper builds on case studies conducted within a thesis which explores the aforementioned aspects in greater detail, examining the bridge between the beliefs and the practice of educators in linguistically diverse settings.
Method
In a cross-disciplinary qualitative research approach, the paper draws on data from case studies in German, Swedish and Chilean grade-four classrooms within different, linguistically diverse settings. In the three countries, policies and curricula regarding reading and multilingualism were scrutinized. Classroom observations as well as teacher interviews were conducted, with special attention paid to reading and multilingualism. The study presents an insight into the complexity and diversity of teaching reading in multilingual settings, with reference to beliefs as part of professional competence. A qualitative content analysis was conducted in three analytical procedures, with a focus on how teachers’ beliefs on multilingualism are formed and how teachers deal with students’ life-world multilingualism when teaching reading in multilingual settings – which strategies are applied?
Expected Outcomes
The findings indicate that teachers’ beliefs influence the strategies significantly at different levels, even if they are not seen as monofactorial. Drawing on Garcia (2009) and Bahktin (1981), the observed beliefs were positioned on a continuum with dualistic, monoglossic beliefs at one end and dynamic, heteroglossic, diversifying beliefs at the other end. Whereas general attitudes towards multilingualism were positive and multilingualism was seen as an asset, many beliefs were observed to be of dualistic nature, in which an individual’s languages are not considered to interact. Multilingualism seemed to be considered as different autonomous linguistic systems, each of them compartmentalized and seen as developing in a linear manner (García and Wei, 2015). Dynamic interactions between the languages were not considered. Multilingualism was considered as the ability to speak several languages fluently and on a native-like level. Becoming as linguistically competent as possible (“native-like”) was seen as the goal. Moreover, a monolingual ideology was observed. In the three different contexts of the case studies, implementation in the classroom did not vary significantly between different teaching models. The instruction rarely integrated reflection on reading and multilingualism. A tendency towards pragmatic strategies, including other languages with activities such as translating words from other languages, could be found in all the case studies. This, however, seldom drew on the students’ life-world multilingualism, but was limited to some exclusive languages, mainly English. Drawing on the findings on beliefs and on the implementation, a matrix featuring four types of strategies used in teaching could be established, which can be used for reflection on teaching in linguistically diverse contexts. Furthermore, beliefs seem to have a higher influence than professional competence regarding multilingualism, providing little space for professional knowledge. This stresses the need for a change in teacher education, following the changing and increasingly linguistically diverse environments.
References
Bakhtin, M. (1981), “Discourse in the Novel”, in Holquist, M. (Ed.), The Dialogic Imagination, University of Texas Press, pp. 259–422. Baumert, J. and Kunter, M. (2006), “Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften”, Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 469–520. Calderhead, J. (1996), “Teachers: Beliefs and Knowledge”, in Berliner, D.C. and Calfee, R.C. (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology, Macmillan, New York NY, pp. 709–725. European Commission (2005), “Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism”, COM(2005) 596 final, available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52005DC0596. European Commission (2018), “Key Competences for Lifelong Learning”, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018SC0014&from=EN. European Parliament and European Council (2006), “Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning”, available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32006H0962. García, O. (2009), Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective, Wiley-Blackwell Pub., Malden, MA, Oxford. García, O. and Wei, L. (2015), “Translanguaging, Bilingualism and Bilingual Education”, in Wright, W.E., Boun, S. and García, O. (Eds.), The Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Blackwell handbooks in linguistics, Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 223–240. Gogolin, I. (2004), “Lebensweltliche Mehrsprachigkeit”, in Bausch, K., Königs, F. and Krumm, H. (Eds.), Mehrsprachigkeit im Fokus: Arbeitspapiere der 24. Frühjahrskonferenz zur Erforschung des Fremdsprachenunterrichts, Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik, G. Narr, Tübingen, pp. 55–61. Gogolin, I. and Duarte, J. (2017), “Superdiversity, Multilingualism, and Awareness”, in Cenoz, J., May, S. and Gorter, D. (Eds.), Language awareness and multilingualism, Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Third edition, Springer, pp. 375–390.
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