Teaching of a second language in the contexts where it is dominant has traditionally been done through immersion in the target language and culture. But the monolingual pedagogy has been increasingly seen as ideologically disempowering (Ryan, 1998; Kubota, 2003), unreflective of the learner’s sociocultural identity (Pavlenko and Blackledge, 2004), economically limiting in a globalized world (Cummins, 2003; Banks, 2004), and, whose success, from a pedagogical standpoint, is questionable (Cummins, 2009; TESOL Quarterly, 2009a). Read more

Espaces d'apprentissage et autonomie de l'apprenant 

This articles refers to the article previously published on this blog, Les MOOCs au service du plurilinguisme, in which MOOCs were promoted as another way  to promote linguistic diversity and  plutilingualism. Astrid Guillaume and Mathieu Cisel regretted the fact there didn't appear to be plethora of MOOCs dedicated to language learning. This article tries to explore the reasons. Read more

Plurilingual education

 What sounds like a paradox is the consideration of a Russian-speaking worker in an electrical plant in Germany on the tacit attitude of management and German co-workers to the use of languages other than German on the shop floor of the company where he is employed as a skilled worker; a typical case or an exception? Read more 

 Utilisation des nouvelles technologies en classe

Learning spaces and learner autonomy

The length of the school year and school days, as well as the timing of holidays, is always a controversial topic. While the debate rages in the UK about whether children should spend more time at school, in Finland – which has both one of the shortest school years in the OECD and some of the best results in international education rankings – there is a push to improve learning by developing novel ways of learning, rather than increasing school days and lesson time. Read more

In the overall context of teacher education there is very little space left for shaping the pre-service teachers’ skills and competences to work in a multicultural environment. In our days there is a growing tendency that schools in Europe and beyond enroll the children with different linguistic and cultural background. How can education facilitate the learners’ efficacy in a multicultural environment? Read more

 Learning spaces and learner autonomy

Autonomous learners and teachers have been described as active agents in their own learning and teaching, who, whilst understanding the constraints which impact on them, empower themselves by finding the “spaces for manoeuvre” (Lamb, 2000), thus avoiding resignation and disaffection.  Read more
 

Plurilingual education

According to the Guardian, the lack of language skills costs the UK £48bn per year.

For companies willing to trade internationally, “English only” is not enough and the difficulty to find skilled staff results in a loss of contracts, in recruiting locally seconded expats and more generally in difficulties to operate globally. Read more

Learning spaces and learner autonomy

Did you know that the classroom environment can help pupils’ academic performance rise by 25% over an academic year?

This is what the University of Salford (UK) and a firm of architects have found out. This pilot study has been able to correlate academic performance with learning environments. Read more