Language Awareness in Multilingual Classrooms in Europe

From Theory to Practice

Christine Helot editor Sven Sierens editor Carolien Frijns editor Koen Gorp editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:De Gruyter

Published:23rd Apr '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Language Awareness in Multilingual Classrooms in Europe cover

Within the scope of today’s globalisation, linguistic diversity is a given fact of the world we live in. In several educational contexts in Europe, language awareness (LA) activities have been introduced with the objective to prepare pupils cognitively, socially and/or critically for life as multilingual, open minded and/or empowered citizens in a diverse world. Despite previous research in various contexts, the concept of LA remains problematic: a generally accepted, evidence-based conceptualisation is missing. This confronts both research and education with a challenge: in order to develop LA activities, implement them successfully in educational contexts and achieve the expected outcomes, we should know what the concept stands for, how it works and why we would choose to implement it in classrooms (or not). This volume focuses on three apparent simple questions: what, how and why? The first question – what? – refers to the concept(ual mess) of LA. The second question – how? – refers to the implementation of LA activities in several educational contexts. The third question – why? – is a recurrent theme running through all the chapters and deals with a reflection on the way we deal (un)consciously with LA activities in education.

ISBN: 9781501510434

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 580g

317 pages