Across Europe, school classrooms are more linguistically diverse than in the past. Because of this, research encourages the implementation of pedagogical approaches that embrace the diversity of students and the increasing role of home languages in the school curriculum (Aronin & Singleton, 2012; Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; May, 2014). As a result, the changing demographics and composition of students have also altered teachers’ classroom settings from traditionally homogenous to those that are more diverse in nature (Lorenz et al., 2021; Rosnes & Rossland, 2018). However, some EAL classrooms have not been adequately prepared to cater to the needs of multilingual students as their settings have essentially been defined as homogeneous by the educational systems in which they work (Lorenz et al., 2021).

According to Wernicke et al. (2021), attention should be paid to multilingualism and multiculturalism in educational settings to increase awareness and recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity at individual and societal levels. Further, research articulated that historical, ideological, social, economic, and political factors need to be taken into consideration, as well as language policy and the diverse language practices of teachers and students (Choi & Ollerhead, 2018). Multilingual education presupposes not only the teachers’ proficiency in several languages but also their knowledge and understanding of language acquisition processes, theoretical and pedagogical models, approaches focused on the development of multilingual competence (Hammond, 2014), teaching strategies, language, and content integration (Palincsar & Schleppegrell, 2014), and language policies and ideologies related to language teaching and language use (Flores & Rosa, 2015).

Recent research on multilingualism and language education has mainly been conducted with a focus on the learning and teaching of the English language, or in English-speaking contexts (Burns & Siegel, 2018;Matsuda, 2017). This study looks at two increasingly multilingual EAL settings, namely, Norway and Cyprus, whose recent reports (Statistics Norway, 2022 for reports on Norway and Annual Report of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, and Youth, 2021 for reports on Cyprus) identified an increase in linguistic diversity and testified to the need for effective and efficient multilingual pedagogies that would assist in optimizing the student learning experiences.

The researchers aimed to investigate pre-service EAL teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and reflections regarding the use of students’ HLs in increasingly linguistically diverse EAL classrooms in Norway and Cyprus. Fifty-nine teachers were observed during their teaching practicum and were interviewed with respect to their views, beliefs, and self-reflections on the impact and role of HL for EAL teaching and learning purposes. In both countries, data were collected through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. The field notes enabled the researchers to reflect on the documented events and the behaviors observed in practice to produce meaning and understanding. The research question the study sought to address was:

1. Do Norwegian and Cypriot pre-service EAL teachers share similar attitudes towards HL integration in the EAL classroom or are there any differences between them?

The findings revealed that more than half of the participants in both countries were in favor of employing multilingual pedagogies. However, most of them acknowledged certain challenges in their practical implementation and the need for further training. The study concludes with the authors stressing the catalyst role teacher educators could play in making EAL classrooms more inclusive for multilingual learners (Neokleous & Karpava, 2023). The significance of this study is in its comparative nature and in its potential for providing further evidence in the exploration of linguistically and culturally responsive teaching and deeper insights into EAL teachers beliefs and cognitions but also how teacher training can effectively prepare pre-service teachers on enhancing learning in linguistically diverse settings (Kart et al., 2022).

In both countries, data were collected through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. Notes taken during the observations were later written up as field notes constituted the third data collection strategy. The field notes enabled the researchers to reflect on the documented events and the behaviors observed in practice to produce meaning and understanding. A convenience sampling method was implemented to recruit participants (Mathieson, 2014), who were all attending a pre-service EAL university course in one institution in Cyprus and one institution in Norway. Participants were at the same level in their English language teacher education program of study. A total of 30 undergraduate students in Cyprus and 29 undergraduate students in Norway, who self-identified as future EAL teachers, took part in the study. In Cyprus, 17 participants were male and 13 were female. Their ages ranged from 18 to 26 years old. In Norway, 19 were female and 10 were male. Their ages ranged from 18 to 23 years old. To comply with the ethical decisions raised to conduct the study, approval was granted from the Norwegian Centre for Research and Data and the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee. The study complied with the ethical guidelines of the two participating countries and institutions to ensure that the participants make a fully informed decision about whether to participate in the research. For the interviews with the participants, an interview protocol was created. The interviews were semi-structured with questions that were common for all participants while also leaving the window open for probing and clarification inquiries. However, the fourth section contained questions that were specific for each of the participating classrooms based on the observations and the practices of the teachers. The interviews with the participants were conducted in English. An interpretational approach was employed to address the three research questions. Gall et al. (1999) defined interpretational analysis as a process which “involves a systematic set of procedures to code and classify qualitative data to ensure that the important constructs, themes, and patterns emerge” (p. 315). Once transcribed, the interviews were thematically analyzed. The transcripts were attentively reviewed: repeating themes were identified, the data were coded, and based on the keywords and phrases, categories were created (Rolland et al., 2020). Abiding by the interpretational approach guidelines, the interviews with the pre-service teachers were transcribed and coded using Saldaña’s (2009) two coding cycle methods.

Even in classroom settings that have traditionally been described as monolingual with students and teachers sharing a majority language, because of rapid increases in mobility and migration, increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms have become the norm. As a result, EAL classrooms both in Norway and Cyprus now represent a range of different HLs. Current pedagogical approaches embraced the multilingual turn in education that prompted teachers to make use of the students’ entire linguistic repertoires to perform and negotiate TL functions (Aronin and Singleton, 2012; Shin et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to unearth pre-service teacher attitudes toward the integration of HLs and the purposes they should serve in the classroom but also to identify differences and similarities between two traditionally monolingual but incrementally multilingual settings. As it emerged from the results of this comparative study, the pre-service teacher participants were aware of the current classroom reality and the ensuing challenges that the linguistic diversity might bring in their teaching. As the participants elaborated, the challenges stemmed from a lack of adequate training and relevant teaching experience that would equip them with the required skills and knowledge to face the diverse needs of the student body in multilingual settings. Because of this unpreparedness, the participants were hesitant and in certain cases reluctant to immerse themselves in a classroom without feeling confident about the pedagogical practices and approaches they would employ. The results cement the significance of ensuring coherence between theory and practice in teacher education programs regarding the preparation of pre-service teachers for their work with diverse pupils. These findings can be used in teacher training programs to assist prospective teachers in better understanding the natural linguistic behavior of multilingual students but also how to effectively use the students’ entire linguistic repertoires as a resource.

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