Language Policy Unit - DG II Council of Europe, Strasbourg, Francewww.coe.int/lang

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The language dimension in all subjects:

Equity and quality in education

Intergovernmental conference Strasbourg, 14 – 15 October 2015

Handbook: Implementation and Teacher

Training

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

Making a dream come true:

In the future all students – not only those at risk – will benefit from quality education being based on a new

language sensitive classroom culture that extends across the whole curriculum so that teachers are able to tap the full

cognitive potential of young people entrusted to their care.

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)5

“Implement … the measures … in order to provide opportunities for all to acquire competences in the language(s) of schooling which are necessary for their success in the various school subjects”

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)5

• Make explicit the specific linguistic norms and competences in individual school subjects;

• Highlight convergences in the linguistic dimensions of the various subjects;

• Emphasise the special place which this language holds in curricula for LaS because of its cross-cutting effect on all the learning processes.

Education standards

,Curricula

Authors of textbooks and educational materials

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)5

Language dimension in pre-service t. training for all subjects

Coherent whole-school language policies (plurilingual) resources

Evaluation, assessment, diagnostics

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

Decision makers, political priorities

Administrators, statutes

Support agencies

School leadersSubject specialists =

teachers, teacher trainers

CoE´s Language Policy Unit, ECML (Graz)

THE LANGUAGE DIMENSION IN ALL SUBJECTS: STRASBOURG, 14 – 15 OCTOBER 2015

• Misconceptions of what the language dimension in content teaching really amounts to;

• Deeply rooted disciplinary professional beliefs, attitudes and behavioural patterns;

• Lack of knowledge and skills how to actively support subject literacy and at the same time meet the curricular challenges of the discipline.

What keeps us from making this dream come true?

Strategies for implementation on the classroom level• Initiate language sensitivity and raise awareness of

actors instead of passing on prefabricated „truths“ and recipes.

• Familiarise actors with intuitive and functional approaches to academic language use instead of instruction in systemic lexico-grammatical linguistics.

• Demonstrate and practice techniques of modelling and apprenticeship (e.g. genre-based approaches to reading and writing factual prose).

Strategies for implementation on the classroom level• Acquaint actors with the theoretical background

and with strategies and techniques of scaffolding as temporary language assistance (systemic vs. point-of-need scaffolding).

• Offer options for diagnostic testing and assessment of academic language acquisition and proficiency for fine-tuning for long-term planning of language support.

Strategies for implementation on the school level

• Set up cross-curricular steering committee for academic language teaching and learning.

• Revise school-based syllabi and align subject-specific content and language teaching teaching targets.

• Support initiatives of teaching improvement, e.g. mutual criteria-based classroom observation.

• Actively participate in local / regional networks of change-ready schools.

Strategies for implementation on the systemic level

• Enact mandatory components for the language dimension in all subjects for initial teacher training.

• Offer academic language focused provisions for continuous professional teacher development as well as regional support through teacher centres.

• Establish a system of qualified literacy coaches (academic language teaching advisors).

• Step up empirical research on the language dimension of teaching and learning in formal education

• Integrate academic language requirements into education standards for all subjects.

Two maps of empirical research projects in Germany with active links: (a) federally funded, (b) funded by

Mercator Foundation

www.kombi-hamburg.de

www.mercator-institut-sprachfoerderung.de/

foerderung/projektkarte/