The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education: Opportunities and Challenges

324 Pages·2014·2.679 MB·

by  Jean Conteh, Gabriela Meier

The Multilingual Turn in
Languages Education
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
Series Editor: Professor Viv Edwards, University of Reading, Reading, UK
Two decades of research and development in language and literacy education
have yielded a broad, multidisciplinary focus. Yet education systems face
constant economic and technological change, with attendant issues of iden-
tity and power, community and culture. This series will feature critical and
interpretive, disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on teaching and
learning, language and literacy in new times.
Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can
be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to
Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1
2AW, UK.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION: 40
The Multilingual Turn in
Languages Education
Opportunities and Challenges
Edited by
Jean Conteh and Gabriela Meier
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Buffalo • Toronto
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education: Opportunities and Challenges/Edited by
Jean Conteh and Gabriela Meier.
New Perspectives on Language and Education: 40
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and languages—Study and teaching. 2. Multilingualism—Social aspects.
3. Multicultural education. 4. Education, Bilingual. I. Conteh, Jean, editor. II. Meier,
Gabriela, editor.
P53.45.M85 2014
418.007dc23 2014014812
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-223-9 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-222-2 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA.
Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada.
Website: www.multilingual-matters.com
Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters
Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com
Copyright © 2014 Jean Conteh, Gabriela Meier and the authors of individual chapters.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without permission in writing from the publisher.
The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are
natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable for-
ests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, prefer-
ence is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC
and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted
to the printer concerned.
Typeset by Techset Composition India (P) Ltd., Bangalore and Chennai, India.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the Lavenham Press Ltd.
Contents
Contributors vii
Acknowledgments xiii
Foreword xv
Joseph Lo Bianco
Introduction 1
Jean Conteh and Gabriela Meier
Part 1: S ocietal Perspectives on the Multilingual Turn
in Language(s) Education 15
1 Socialized into Multilingualism: A Case Study of a Mauritian
Pre-school 17
A.M. Auleear Owodally
2 Exploring the -lingual Between Bi and Mono: Young People and
Their Languages in an Australian Context 41
Ken Cruickshank
3 Multilingualism as Portrayed in a Chinese English Textbook 64
Guangwei Hu and Sandra Lee McKay
4 Looking Through the Language Lens: Monolingual Taint
or Plurilingual Tint? 89
Andrea Young
Part 2: Perspectives on the Multilingual Turn in Education 111
5 From Normalization to Didactization of Multilingualism:
European and Francophone Research at the Crossroads
Between Linguistics and Didactics 113
Laurent Gajo
v
vi The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education
6 Our Mother Tongue is Plurilingualism: A Framework of
Orientations for Integrated Multilingual Curricula 132
Gabriela Meier
7 Multilingual Teachers’ Resources in Three Different Contexts:
Empowering Learning 158
Jean Conteh, Fiona Copland and Angela Creese
8 Multilingualism and Social Cohesion: Two-way Immersion
Education Meets Diverse Needs 179
Gabriela Meier
Part 3: V isions of the Multilingual Turn in Pedagogy
and Practice 209
9 Multilingual Pedagogy in Primary Settings: From the Margins to
the Mainstream 211
Jean Conteh, Shila Begum and Saiqa Riasat
10 Plurilingualism and Empathy: Beyond Instrumental Language
Learning 234
Enrica Piccardo and Joëlle Aden
11 Translanguaging as Process and Pedagogy: Developing the
English Writing of Japanese Students in the US 258
Ofelia García and Naomi Kano
12 Transforming Learning, Building Identities: Arts-based
Creativity in the Community Languages Classroom 278
Jim Anderson and Yu-Chiao Chung
Conclusion: The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education 292
Gabriela Meier and Jean Conteh
Author Index 300
Subject Index 301
Contributors
Joëlle Aden ([email protected]) is full professor at Le Mans University
(France) and a member of the INEDUM (Innovation in Education) research
group within the CREN (Centre for Research in Education). She conducts
research projects on the impact of empathy on language interaction and
the role of embodiment in language learning and teaching. In her latest
projects she analyses theatre activities from the point of view of the enac-
tion theory (Varela) and paves the way for a new perspective on the poten-
tial role of arts education, namely drama/theatre, in developing empathetic
skills, which she proposes to consider as part of transcultural compe-
tence. Doctoral theses under her supervision explore the links between the
arts and SLE.
Jim Anderson ([email protected]) is senior lecturer in languages in
education at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work at Goldsmiths has
built on his long experience of teaching languages in multilingual London
secondary schools and it is here that he developed his interest in more inte-
grated and inclusive approaches to language learning. Jim has led the develop-
ment of the PGCE in Arabic, Bengali, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu at
Goldsmiths and also leads a masters module on ‘Teaching language in mul-
tilingual contexts’. His research interests lie in the areas of second language
learning pedagogy and community/heritage languages.
A Mooznah Auleear Owodally ([email protected]) is senior lecturer
at the University of Mauritius. Her studies in Newcastle and Durham
made her conscious of the wealth of her language and literacy experiences,
and she became interested in the challenges Mauritian children face as
they join school. This interest came home with the arrival of her daugh-
ters; she thus started a PhD with the University of Cape Town investigat-
ing the emergent literacy practices of pre-school children in multilingual
Mauritius. After her PhD, she developed a keen interest in religious literacy
practices in multi-religious Mauritius. Her publications relate mainly to
these two areas.
vii
viii The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education
Shila Begum ([email protected]) arrived in England from
Bangladesh in the 1980s at the age of five. Encouraged by her parents, she
developed literacy skills in her heritage language. She holds a degree in child-
hood studies and a PGCE, and has four children, one of whom is autistic.
She has worked in a range of roles including an early years teacher, inter-
preter and researcher. For the past 10 years, she has worked in the Bilingual
Learning and Teaching Association, teaching complementary Saturday
classes and working with families and mainstream teachers to promote the
benefits of bilingualism and strategies to encourage bilingual learning with
primary children.
Yu-chiao Chung ([email protected]) obtained her first degree in English
and education. She was an English teacher at a secondary school in Taipei,
Taiwan. She obtained a PGCE in teaching Mandarin as a second/foreign
language from the National Taiwan University. After coming to the UK, she
began to teach Mandarin to learners of different levels, both children and
adults. She received an MA in English in education and an MRes in education
and professional studies from Kings College, University of London. She
obtained her PhD in education at Goldsmiths, University of London. This
study was entitled ‘Schools at home: parental support for learning Mandarin
as a second or foreign language’. Yu-chiao’s research interests include bilin-
gualism and biculturalism, multilingualism and multiculturalism, creativity
and e-learning in language teaching. She contributes to MA and CPD work
in these areas at Goldsmiths.
Jean Conteh ([email protected]) is senior lecturer in the School of
Education at the University of Leeds, UK. Her interest in multilingualism
and social justice came from her work as a primary teacher and teacher
educator in multilingual contexts in different countries, and from the
experiences of her own, dual-heritage children. She completed her PhD in
2001, investigating the factors which contributed to the success of pupils
from minority ethnic backgrounds in multilingual primary schools in
England. Since then, she has published many books, chapters and articles
about the issues, and continues to work with primary teachers and
students.
Fiona Copland ([email protected]) is senior lecturer in the School
of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. She
taught English for many years in Nigeria, Hong Kong and Japan and also
trained teachers in these countries. She is interested in how pedagogies for
language teaching are developed and legitimised and whose interests these
pedagogies serve. She particularly questions the belief held by many that
EFL classes should be conducted in the ‘target language’ (i.e. English) as her
experiences in classrooms round the world contradict this view. Her PhD
Contributors ix
focused on novice teacher talk in feedback conferences and she has pub-
lished in this area.
Angela Creese ([email protected]) is professor of educational linguis-
tics in the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism, University
of Birmingham, UK. She has been researching multilingual practices and
pedagogies in school settings for over 20 years. She has worked in a
number of multilingual ethnographic teams and is committed to describ-
ing the processes and benefits of researching multilingually across multi-
ple research sites. She has published widely in the areas of language
planning and policy, multilingualism and education, and linguistic
ethnography.
Ken Cruickshank ([email protected]) is associate professor
in education and lectures in TESOL, language, literacy and diversity to pre-
service teachers at Sydney University, Australia. He taught English, TESOL
and languages in schools for many years and has been a tertiary educator
since the 1990s. His doctoral study was on language and literacy practices in
Arabic communities in Australia. His present research interests include com-
munity languages, internationally educated teachers and teaching-learning
English as an additional language.
Laurent Gajo ([email protected]) is professor of linguistics at the
Faculty of Humanities, University of Geneva, where he is the Head of the
École de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises. He is a specialist of second lan-
guage acquisition, multilingualism, bilingual education and language policy.
He completed his PhD in 1999 and carried out several research projects on
bilingual education. Through a qualitative approach to classroom interaction
from the kindergarten to higher education, he continues to develop analyti-
cal tools to capture the integrated construction of linguistic and subject
knowledge in different socio-institutional contexts. He is also involved in
teacher training.
Ofelia García ([email protected]) is professor in the PhD program of
urban education and of Hispanic literatures and languages at The Graduate
Center, CUNY. She has been professor of bilingual education at Columbia
University’s Teachers College and dean of the School of Education at Long
Island University. García’s extensive publication record on bilingualism and
the education of bilinguals is grounded in her life experience in New York
City after leaving Cuba at the age of 11, teaching language minority students
bilingually, and educating bilingual and ESL teachers. Among her best
known books is Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Her
website is at http://www.ofeliagarcia.org.
x The Multilingual Turn in Languages Education
Guangwei Hu ([email protected]) is associate professor at the
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, where he teaches graduate courses in language assessment, lan-
guage acquisition and research methodology in applied linguistics. Among
his main research interests are bilingual education, family biliteracy prac-
tices, language-in-education policy and second language academic literacy.
These research interests have arisen from his own experience of learning and
teaching English as a foreign/second language. He has published extensively
in these areas of interest.
Naomi Kano ([email protected]) is assistant professor in the
Graduate School of Humanities and Science at Ochanomizu University,
Tokyo. She has taught English as a second/foreign language and Japanese as
a foreign language extensively in international schools and universities in
Tokyo and Singapore, including the United World College of Southeast Asia
and the National University of Singapore. She received her doctorate and
master of education from Columbia University, investigating the role of
translanguaging in the literacy development of transnational Japanese youth.
Her teaching experiences as well as her personal experiences as a member of
a bilingual family in these multilingual contexts for more than two decades
led her to work in the field of multilingualism and critical approaches to lit-
eracy education.
Sandra McKay ([email protected]) is professor emeritus of San
Francisco State University. Her main areas of interest are sociolinguistics
with a focus on multilingualism, English as an international language and
second language pedagogy, all areas in which she has published widely. Her
interest in these areas developed from her work in international teacher edu-
cation. Over the course of her career she has been fortunate enough to have
worked in and travelled to over 100 countries.
Gabriela Meier ([email protected]) is lecturer in language education
at the University of Exeter, UK. She speaks four languages and has always
had a keen interest in languages, social cohesion and social justice. She
started her career as an administrator, translator and language teacher and
had many different jobs in different regions of Europe before she discovered
her interest in academic work. She gained her PhD on the basis of an evalu-
ation of a two-way immersion programme in Berlin, and she has recently
conducted a study in a London bilingual project (funded by the Esmée
Fairbairn Foundation), which resulted in the Bilingual Immersion Education
Network (http://www.bien.org.uk). Her research led to a range of published
work on social implications and language learning, above all in bi/multilin-
gual programmes.