Abstract:

With migration and globalization on the rise, contemporary classrooms around the world are becoming increasingly multilingual (Krulatz et al., 2022). Results from research point to multiple benefits of multilingualism and in the last two decades, there have been abundant calls to teach through a multilingual lens (Stathopoulou, 2016). However, monolingual pedagogies that idealize monolingual native speakers as a norm for language learners, establish strict boundaries between languages, and even ban the use of languages other than the target language in the classroom have continued to dominate many educational contexts (Rowe, 2022). To ensure that teachers embrace multilingualism as an asset and that they possess the knowledge and skills needed to implement multilingual teaching practices (MTPs), teacher education programs must revise their curricula and incorporate research-based findings that would help teachers develop identities as multilinguals and teachers of multilinguals, but also equip them with the knowledge and skills to implement MTPs.

This paper presents innovations to a pre-service English language teacher curriculum that have recently been implemented at a large public university in Norway. We first give a general overview of the program of study, and then zoom in on two courses that specifically focus on topics related to multilingualism. The first course, which is obligatory for English majors in the fourth year of their integrated master’s program, introduces students to the current key theoretical and methodological perspectives on English language development in multicultural and multilingual settings. It allows students to engage with theory through the application of critical thinking and problem-solving techniques. Its objective is to broaden students’ knowledge of how to support the literacy and English language learning development of learners from multilingual backgrounds and apply this knowledge into professional practice. The second course, which the English majors must take in the fifth year of their integrated master’s program, introduces students to the current novel approaches to teaching English as an additional language, focusing specifically on MTPs. The course provides an overview of the existing instructional approaches that promote multilingualism. It gives a rationale for implementation of the following practices to promote multilingualism: 1) Classrooms as multilingual spaces; 2) Interaction and grouping configurations; 3) Teacher and learner language use; 4) Language and culture attitudes; 5) Metacognition and metalinguistic awareness; 6) Teaching materials; 7) Multiliteracy. The practice-oriented presentation will include examples of course topics, activities, and assignments that promote multilingual ways in teaching and learning and may give the participants ideas and inspirations for their own programs.

References:
[1] Krulatz, A., Neokleous, G., & Dahl, A. (Eds.). (2022). Theoretical and applied perspectives on teaching foreign languages in multilingual settings: Pedagogical implications. Multilingual Matters.
[2] Rowe, L. W. (2022). Disrupting monolingual ideologies: Constructing biliterate composing practices in a second‐grade classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(4), 1149-1166.
[3] Stathopoulou, M. (2016). From ‘languaging’to ‘translanguaging’: Reconsidering foreign language teaching and testing through a multilingual lens. Selected papers on theoretical and applied linguistics, 21, 759-774.

Keywords:

EAL Instruction, Multilingual Teaching Practices, Multilingual Classrooms, Teacher Education, Pedagogical Innovations, Pre-service Teachers.