Key concepts for educating in and for plurilingualism

Abstract

This book provides theoretical tools for language teachers to help them address the educational needs of all students in inclusive multilingual classrooms. On one hand, the authors introduce sociolinguistic phenomena that help understand how languages and their speakers interact. They also reflect on the impact of these phenomena on language policies, including School Language Projects. In the case of Catalonia, such school language policies aim to support students’ learning and use of Catalan, while also valuing their full language repertoires. On the other hand, the authors suggest theoretical notions for describing the competences of plurilingual individuals and their language uses. They offer suggestions, from a language teaching perspective, on how to take advantage of learners’ existing competencies and skills to support their learning of new languages. The authors present some student-centred teaching approaches and highlight the importance of classroom communication and the use of plurilingual resources in interaction between students and teachers for facilitating knowledge building across all curricular areas.