Early Language Education in Luxembourg

Abstract

This chapter examines recent language education laws in Luxembourg as well as the ways in which early years practitioners appropriated the new policies and put them into practice. The chapter begins with a brief introduction of the linguistic landscape in Luxembourg and a summary of the dynamic development of the country's early childhood education system. Special emphasis is put on recent changes in language education policies, which call for a more inclusive and multilingual early language education. Monolingual practices now need to open up to flexible language use and offer children opportunities to capitalize on their entire semiotic repertoire for communicating, meaning-making, and learning. The central concerns of this chapter are the ways in which policy changes influence educational practices in formal and non-formal settings and how professional development shapes this process. In order to address these questions, the authors review literature on language education policy, translanguaging, and professional development and examine studies on early language education in Luxembourg. Next, they discuss recent initiatives of professional development in formal and non-formal early years settings as well as their outcomes. Finally, they present critical issues such as the practitioners' reflexivity and responsibility and the sustainability of professional development. Future research directions include family language policies, partnerships between families and early childhood institutions and children's languaging practices inside and across these institutions.

Value-added scores show limited stability over time in primary school

“…After preparing the data sets and imputing the missing data, we estimated the VA scores for the schools. Part of the data preparation and the estimation of school VA scores were analogous to the study by Levy et al [20], who used different data from the school monitoring programme [55] from the years 2014 and 2016.…”

“…Within one cycle, students typically have the same class teacher until they progress to the next cycle, where they get a new class teacher. Thus, longitudinal studies conducted in Luxembourg, such as the Luxembourg school monitoring programme [55], are usually conducted every other year to correspond to the structure of the learning cycles. In this way, similar results within one learning cycle, for example, due to having the same class teacher, are not overinterpreted.…”

“…The present study drew on longitudinal large-scale data from the Luxembourg School Monitoring Programme Épreuves Standardisées (ÉpStan) [55]. The ÉpStan assesses all students in…”

“…The participating students and their parents or legal guardians were duly informed before the data were collected and had the opportunity to opt out. All data were pseudonymized with a so-called "Trusted Third Party" (for more information, see [55]), in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation, to ensure the privacy of students and their families. In the present study, we used an anonymized data set.…”

Translanguaging in Early Childhood Education in Luxembourg: From Practice to Pedagogy

“…The present chapter focuses on the translanguaging practices of professionals in early education and a day-care center in Luxembourg. Early childhood education is divided into formal and non-formal institutions (Kirsch and Seele 2020). Formal education for young children is organised within the official school system and comprises a two-year compulsory preschool for four-to six-year-olds and an optional preschool year for three-year-olds called the éducation précoce (early education).…”