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Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils

Introduction
Why assess?
What are the principles of assessment?
Whose competences
to assess,
and how?
By
which means
 to assess?
How to get involved?
This page will be available in English soon. Please refer to the pages in French.


COMPLEX CHALLENGES
linked to the diversity of mobility and travel situations


HOW TO WORK WITH THE DIVERSITY
of languages when dealing with assessment


SOME OF THE PRECONCEIVED IDEAS
that the RECOLANG resources seek to transform


LEARNER
STATEMENTS


EXPLORATORY
RESEARCH

The complex issues linked to the diversity of learners’ mobility and travel situations

Education

The role of education is to promote equity and diversity as values to optimise learners' access to social and civic life. These values are linked to each other. From the RECOLANG team’s perspective, they involve ensuring that awareness of learners' linguistic and cultural competences is at the heart of educational institutions.

Assessing the home language competences of bi- and plurilingual learners (whether or not they have a history of migration) means that, in their school careers, they can be seen, as having competences that are linked to learning, and not as a tabula rasa. They are not seen solely in terms of their deficiencies or their shortcomings in relation to what is expected at school (mastery of the language(s) of schooling, ease in dealing with the school’s codes of behaviour and organisation, etc.).

Bi- and plurilingual learners also have assets and talents in terms of their languages and cultural competences. The aim is to assess these competences so that the learners can mobilise them, continue to develop them, use them in their actions and thinking, and also share them with the other learners they come into contact with.

The changes needed

Adopting these values in education requires a change of ‘representation’, especially as concerns models of language teaching/learning. 

This change puts these models at the heart of plurilingual and intercultural education (Coste, Moore & Zarate, 1997/2009; Gorter & Cenoz, 2017; De Backer, Slembrouck & Avermaet, 2020) and its current challenges. 

"The crucial issue of representations leads to methods used in teaching or by learners’ families that are not yet satisfactory given current scientific knowledge. From a sociolinguistic and didactic point of view, there are therefore two possible ways of bringing about a transformation of practices and representations: by providing training/information for the various people involved, whether parents, learners or teachers, but also by proposing concrete ways of working."
Auger, 2018 : 60

This changed model of teaching and learning liberates us from ideologies where languages are seen as hierarchical and assigned different values (similar to the "language market" idea, Calvet, 2012). It also implies stepping away from approaches that are based on a monolingual and straight-jacketed view of language teaching.

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Video by Nathalie Auger

Council of Europe recommendation

As stated in the Council of Europe Recommendation on the importance of plurilingual and intercultural education for a democratic culture 
(2 February 2022):

"The efficient functioning of democracies depends on social inclusion and societal integration, which in turn depend on an understanding of, respect for and engagement with linguistic and cultural diversity. This recommendation aims to give fresh impetus to the promotion, development, and implementation of plurilingual and intercultural education, recognising its importance for personal and professional development, equity, societal integration, the exercise of human rights and participation in democratic culture."

Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec (2022) 1, (page 11)

The Committee of Ministers also recommends that Member States:

"support the efforts of relevant bodies to encourage public debate about languages and cultures, language learning and plurilingualism, and their importance for personal and professional development, quality education, social integration and access to human rights and democracy". (ibid, page 10).

This recommendation reinforces the right of children to have access to quality education throughout their lives (article 30 of UNESCO) and supports the Council of Europe's Action Plan on the Protection of Refugee and Migrant Children in Europe, which aims to guarantee them access to their rights.

Who are the learners concerned?

The bi- and plurilingual school populations for whom the assessment of home language competences is relevant are diverse and of all ages. They include newly arrived learners, learners who are already established in the education system, learners on vocational courses, and young adults in vocational training. In addition, the assessment of home language competences can take place:

  1. at different levels: local, regional, national
  2. at different times, in particular when entering the education system or at other times, to validate a diploma, to progress to another level of study, etc.

The important thing is to ensure consistency and to coordinate these different stages by clarifying the issues at the appropriate times. The diversity of learners also reflects the diversity of the educational contexts in which they grow up: the organisation of educational systems, the place of educational cultures, etc. These factors make the relationship with learners more complex.

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