Supporting multilingual classrooms

Supporting Multilingual Classrooms: ECML national training workshop (6 – 7 June 2024, Belgrade, Serbia)

Local organiser: Milena Kostić & Tamara Đorđević, Foundation Tempus

ECML experts: Terry Lamb, Brigitte Gerber

Participants: 17 (teacher educators, mentors, teachers organising professional development activities, school leaders)

The workshop organised on 6 and 7 June 2024 in Belgrade brought together teacher educators, mentors, teachers organising professional development activities and school leaders from primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions across Serbia.

The workshop offered sessions involving individual and group work. The participants learnt about valuing plurilingual identities and attitudes towards diversity in the classroom, developing competences to support the learning of other languages in the classroom, how to support multilingualism across the curriculum and in the whole school. The importance of cooperation at the school level was emphasised with the aim of raising awareness of multilingualism and interculturality. The participants could apply the insights and knowledge they gained while creating joint projects.

The participants found it particularly useful that they could observe how students feel in the classrooms where they neither speak nor understand (well) the language of schooling and to reflect on and discuss the ways of integrating them. During the workshop, the moderators presented the activities in which – in addition to teachers – peers, parents and the wider community could also participate, as they are important in the process of welcoming foreign students and introducing them to the new language and culture.

Milena Kostić and Tamara Đorđević, local organisers, 18 June 2024

• ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms, ECML-EC cooperation agreement 2024 “Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning”

The European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe together with the European Commission are launching a new round of workshops within the joint action on Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning focusing on the following initiatives:

• RELANG – Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference
• Supporting Multilingual Classrooms
  
• ICT-REV – Using ICT in support of language teaching and learning

The activities are scheduled to take place between end of February and mid-December 2024, the three initiatives offering up to 17 national workshops during this period.

The call is open to current European Union member states and the additional member states of the ECML until 10 January 2024.

For further information, please contact Adelina Rosca (adelina.rosca@ecml.at), the ECML-EU cooperation agreement coordinator.

“Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences” – Join the livestream!

The conference represents the culmination of the four years of work of the ECML’s “Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences”  programme, involving, among others, 9projects, 1think tank, 12offers of training and consultancy (TaC) and a series of initiatives developed with the support of the European Commission.

The conference is aimed at all language education professionals and in particular at ECML stakeholders, policy makers and persons with a professional focus on the practice of language education (curriculum development, teacher education, material design…).

The programme involves plenary presentations, speeches, a round table, a series of smaller workshops for the presentation and discussion of programme outputs and outcomes as well as envisaged links to activities in the 2024-2027 programme.

The workshops on the second day of the conference will be organised thematically:

• Language teacher and learner competences,
• Transversal dimension of language education / Competences for life and work,
• Plurilingual and intercultural education,
• Languages of schooling; language in subjects.

Within each given theme there will be a focus on the completed project resources and related TaC activities from the current programme. Presenters will focus on the inspiring and innovative aspects of their TaC activity/new resources and will consider how the different approaches and materials presented in their thematic session complement one other.

This will also be an excellent opportunity to get a preview of the new ECML programme “Language education at the heart of democracy” (2024-2027).

In order to ensure access to a wider audience, the event will be streamed in both working languages (English and French) and the recordings made available on the ECML website.

Conference web page: English – French

Conference programme: English – French

Join the live streaming here – no registration required: English – French

#ECMLCELVconf2023

Local organisers: Karine Dekeukelaere, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

ECML experts: Catherine Carré-Karlinger, Austria; Françoise Hänggi, Switzerland

Participants: 27 (foreign language teachers/teachers of other subjects/teacher educators, teachers of the language of schooling, school administrators / leaders / school advisers)

“Our regions are welcoming more and more migrant populations. This situation is a source of enrichment, but it is also a destabilising factor for the society, including in schools. The young people attending these schools need special, high-quality schooling to give them the best possible opportunities and to support them in their efforts to integrate socially and academically. These are the challenges that schools and teachers must overcome by being well equipped.

The workshops offered by the ECML are led by high-quality experts keen to share their knowledge and know-how in this field. The workshops are constructed in such a way as to guarantee a progression in thinking, enabling all participants to transfer the ideas presented to their own school reality. This activity is facilitated by the targeted participation of several members of the same school. This is an asset and contributes to the implementation of a more harmonised and shared policy of welcome and support in the school.

The large number of concrete examples and the group discussions add practical value to the work carried out. By allowing participants to take the time to reflect in a comfortable setting, teaching tools can be developed. We can't afford to miss out on this offer.”

Karine Dekeukelaere, local coordinator, 9 October 2023

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2023 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Local organisers: Denisa Ďuranová (National Institute of Education and Youth, Slovak Republic) and Jitka Tůmová (National Pedagogical Institute, Czech Republic)

ECML experts: Terry Lamb, United Kingdom; Catherine Carré-Karlinger, Austria

Participants: 9 participants from the Slovak Republic, 10 participants from the Czech Republic (foreign language teachers/teachers of other subjects, teachers of the language of schooling, teachers of the language of schooling as a second language, school administrators, school advisers, policymakers)

“On 20 – 21 June 2023 the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML) in cooperation with the National Institute of Education and Youth in the Slovak Republic and the National Pedagogical Institute in the Czech Republic carried out a two-day workshop on Supporting Multilingual Classrooms. The workshop, resulting from a joint initiative of the ECML and European Commission, was organised in the Slovak Republic for the fourth year, and in 2023 it was the first international workshop involving two countries - bringing together both Slovak and Czech experts.

One of the main reasons behind this joint event is that curriculum reform for primary and lower secondary education is underway in both the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, with a priority on the educational standards for Slovak/Czech as a second language. This is due to the increasing numbers of pupils with migrant backgrounds, with many coming in particular from Ukraine as a result of the ongoing war.

The primary aims of the two-day workshop were to: promote access to quality education for migrant children; bridge the gap between foreign pupils and other pupils; strengthen teachers' professional competences in the field of assessment and evaluation of pupils' language competences; improve the quality of language teaching and to support the development of plurilingual competences of all pupils in multilingual classrooms, based on the linguistic and cultural diversity of pupils. The workshop was also devoted to international networking among participants and experts of the international initiative.

The workshop focused on: experiences and practices in the field of language education of migrant children; reflection on attitudes towards linguistic and cultural diversity; plurilingual activities and classroom management; development of the plurilingual dimension in all subjects; issues of assessment in multilingual schools/classrooms; building relationships and collaboration between schools and the community.

The workshop facilitators explained how to work with parents, plan activities, promote inclusion and collaboration with other actors, such as school organizations. Participants identified priorities that will enrich their own practice.

The video developed during the event provides a flavour of the atmosphere and collaborative spirit during this very successful Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop.

More information about the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms workshop in the Slovak Republic is available at https://www.statpedu.sk/sk/vyskum/vzdelavacie-aktivity/podpora-multilingvalnych-tried-iv/"

 Denisa Ďuranová in collaboration with Jitka Maříková Tůmová

ECML project website: Supporting multilingual classrooms – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2023 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"