Multilingual language awareness and teacher education : meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse, multicultural, technology-driven society

Stella Cambrone-Lasnes, France, ID LLCE2016-368;        Our globalizing world demands a set of plurilingual competencies from individuals more than ever before, and while cultural diversity represents a potential enhancement, our educational systems are facing social challenges (migration flows, for example). In France, the new nursery school teaching programs contain the domain « Mobilizing languages in all their dimensions » integrating henceforth an awakening of linguistic diversity (Official Bulletin n°2, March 26th 2015). The consideration of multilingual education at school seems to be on the roll (Krüger, Thamin & Cambrone-Lasnes, 2016). Bi- and Multilingualism, as legislated in school, require the individual teacher to construct interaction through a multilingual perspective. This however, raises the issue of « multilingual competences » with regard to « plurilingual repertoires » within and beyond linguistic competence in a language (Wright, Boun & Garcia, 2015). In the era of globalization of exchanges, the question is not then to know « why » but « how » to prepare our young to live in an increasingly diverse, multicultural, technology-driven society ? Does a multilingual education better prepare them to participate in today’s world ?

This paper reports the first results of an action research project entitled « Awakening of languages through sport and physical activity » financed by the ministry of education (m@gistere teaching program, 2014-2016). Our logico-semantic analysis of the qualitative data, collected through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews, will highlight the main teachers’ practices and attitudes.

Keywords

Multilingual education, awakening of languages, interdisciplinary, innovation

Bibliography

Bulletin officiel spécial. (26 mars 2015, n°2). Programmes d’enseignement de l’école maternelle. France : Ministère de l’éducation nationale.

KRÜGER, A.-B., THAMIN, N. & CAMBRONE-LASNES, S. (2016). Diversité linguistique et culturelle à l’école : accueil des élèves et formation des acteurs. Revue Carnets d’Ateliers de Sociolinguistique n°11. Paris : L’Harmattan.

Wright, W. E., BOUN, S. & GARCIA, O. (eds). (2015). The Handbook of bilingual and multilingual education. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.