Language teachers’ perceptions of multilingualism and language teaching: The case of the postgraduate programme “LRM”

Abstract

This paper explores the language views and practices of postgraduate student-teachers attending a distance-learning Master’s Programme of a Greek University, entitled “Language Education for Refugees and Migrants” (LRM). Teachers and professionals working with language learners in linguistically diverse contexts make up an interesting research sample in order to explore their perceptions and practices concerning bi/multilingualism and language learning. The study was conducted through an open-ended questionnaire, delivered and completed electronically by the student-teachers of two modules of the Programme (LRM 53: Language teaching for adult refugees and migrants and LRM54: Language teaching for children with refugee and migrant background) and included open-ended questions regarding their profile, their perceptions towards bi/multilingualism and translanguaging, language use in the school context, the first language and its relation to second language learning. Taking into account the students’ sample profile, the data can provide insights into the ways student-teachers view and deal with language diversity in their classrooms. Issues of attitudes and practices towards multilingualism and language teaching are discussed in relation to students-teachers’ professional development/education. Also, through comparisons between the two groups of students of the modules, the results are expected to explore some common ground assumptions on the differences between language teaching for children and adults (in the refugee context) but also potential nuances and elements of distinctiveness in the two areas.

A Multi-Method Profiling of Adult Refugees and Migrants in an L2 Non-Formal Educational Setting: Language Needs Analysis, Linguistic Portraits, and Identity Texts

“…On the other hand, teachers did not use identity texts and language portraits as most teachers did not consider them necessary or did not know them at all. This perspective of teachers not always applying multilingual strategies could be linked to results in Faneca et al [39] but also in Haukås [40] and in Gkaintartzi et al [41], despite the positive attitudes towards multilingualism. This result has important implications for possible training courses.…”

“…This result has important implications for possible training courses. As Gkaintartzi et al [41] mention, teachers need more training and support to progress from multilingual awareness towards utilizing the students' languages in their everyday practices pedagogically. Nevertheless, there was sufficient data from research that had been conducted on the value of identity texts and language portraits in the language education of migrant children, while relevant research regarding adults was somewhat limited, especially in the Greek context.…”

Bilinguals’ Linguistic Repertoire and Foreign Language Instruction: What Do Teachers Say About Teaching Efl Through Translanguaging?

“…Based on the current finding, it is clear that it is critical to recognize translanguaging as an effective tool for multiple pedagogical practices in multilingual contexts (Carstens, 2016), such as Indonesia. Through the incorporation of the L1 into various settings in which language instruction is provided, teachers should receive specialized training on how to effectively employ multilingual pedagogical strategies and practices for educational purposes (Gkaintartzi et al, 2019). They need to have the same mentality that using multiple languages by means of translanguaging practices is acceptable in order to encourage students to use all of their linguistic potential (Anderson & Lightfoot, 2018;Nagy, 2018).…”

Survey datasets of VIKKE assessment tool on children's Finnish Sign Language development

“…3 See the toolkit implementation in the Italian context coordinated by Lorenzo Rocca: www.coe.int/en/web/language-support-for-adult-refugees/ piloting 4 Language teaching for adult refugees and migrants. 5 The research assistants are a special group of teachers/students as also presented and pointed out in Gkaintartzi, Mouti, Skourtou and Tsokalidou (2019).…”