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4 - Multilingual Education in Formal Schooling: Conceptual Shifts in Theory, Policy and Practice

from Part One - Becoming and Being a Multilingual Child

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2022

By
Latisha Mary  and
Christine Hélot
Edited by
Anat Stavans  and
Ulrike Jessner
Anat Stavans
Affiliation:
Beit Berl College, Israel
Ulrike Jessner
Affiliation:
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria
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Summary

This chapter examines models of multilingual education currently implemented in formal education systems around the world. Within the presentation of these models the chapter addresses the ideologies underlying the conceptualisations of the various programmes, the issue of the choice of language to be learned in relation to local contexts, types of learners enrolled in these programmes and the diverse outcomes of these models. This overview will (1) provide a backdrop to a discussion on the dominance of English and dominant European languages within these curricula, and (2) address the minoritisation of migrant and indigenous minority speakers’ bi-multilingualism and home languages. We conclude with a discussion of new approaches to the conceptualisation of multilingual education as a more flexible and dynamic process and the impact of such findings for language policymakers and educators at all levels.

Keywords

bilingual educationmultilingual educationearly foreign language learningideologiesminorisationlanguage policymother-tongue educationsocial justicetrilingual education
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism , pp. 82 - 110
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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