Language Policy for the Multilingual Classroom

Pedagogy of the Possible

Edited by Dr. Christine Hélot, Dr. Muiris Ó Laoire

Publication date:

08 June 2011

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847693679

With contributions from leading scholars all around the world, this volume underlines the ever-pressing need for new language in education policies to include all learners’ voices in the multilingual classroom and to empower teachers to develop responsive and transformative pedagogies. Using testimonies, narratives and examples from different international contexts, this book points clearly to what can be achieved practically in the multilingual classroom so that multilingual learners’ voices are legitimated, while also addressing the complex inter-relating sociolinguistic issues around the promotion of bilingualism and multilingualism in education.

PART 1. THE ECOLOGY OF THE MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOM: FROM COMPLEXITY TO PEDAGOGY

1A Perspectives on the learners

Angela Creese and Adrian Blackledge: Ideologies and Interactions in Multilingual Education: What can an Ecological Approach Tell us about Bilingual Pedagogy?

Carola Mick: Heteroglossia in a Multilingual Learning Space: Approaching Language beyond “Lingualisms”

Christine Hélot: Children’s Literature in the Multilingual Classroom: Developing multilingual literacy acquisition

Anne Marie De Mejía: Multilingualism and Pedagogical Practices in Colombia’s Caribbean Archipelago

1B: Perspectives on the teachers

Kate Menken, Alexander Funk and Tatyana Kleyn: Teachers at the Epicenter: Engagement and Resistance in a Biliteracy Program for “Long-Term English Language Learners” in the U.S.

Bernadette O’ Rourke: Negotiating Multilingualism in an Irish Primary School Context Pierrot Ngomo: Exploring New Pedagogical Approaches in the Context of Multilingual Cameroon

PART II: DECONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF MONOLINGUALISM Perspectives on Identities, Ideologies and Politics

Ute Walker : Linguistic Diversity as a Bridge to Adjustment: Making the Case for Bi/multilingualism as a Settlement Outcome in New Zealand

Michael Clyne: Three is too many in Australia: Questioning the Monolingual Mindset

Zvi Bekerman: Integrated Bilingual Education: Ethnographic Case Studies from the Palestinian-Jewish ‘Front’

In this book, Hélot and O’Laoire fill the gaps that Hélot has so well identified in the past with possibilities - possibilities to educate for social equity and plurilingualism. But instead of arguing for top-down language education policies, Hélot and O’Laoire open possibilities in the ecology of classrooms through the agency of teachers and students. Focusing on pedagogies of the possible, this book is ground-breaking in its ecological approach that will appeal to scholars, policy makers and educators alike.