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

Espaces d'apprentissage et autonomie de l'apprenant

This article refers to a programme aired on Radio France Culture in which the challenges of the MOOCs are presented in relation to language learning and the promotion of plurilingualism.  MOOCs may be another way to promote plurilingualism. Read more

Plurilingual education

The Language Policy Unit and the ECML of the Council of Europe seek to contribute to making an "education of quality" available to all. But what do we mean by quality? The title of the present programme of the ECML is "promoting inclusive, plurilingual and intercultural education" which implies that these approaches really do improve the quality of education for all. This raises the question : in what way? Read more