Promising practices

Students are led to produce texts (written, spoken, visual, musical, or combinations in a multimodal form) in which their identity is reflected in a positive light. Students invest their identities in these texts, and when they share the texts with multiple audiences (peers, teachers, sister classes, etc) they are likely to receive positive feedback and develop their self-confidence when interacting with these audiences. This approach can be implemented in the language of schooling/students’ first language, mother tongue, second language, third language.

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Here are some examples of ways to implement the ideas expressed by Toshinobu Nagamine (2014) in his article entitled “Emotionality and language learning: Forging bonds by sharing emotions”. Nagamine states that a new focus by teachers on emotions is necessary to strengthen bonds in the classroom to improve foreign language learning. At the International School of Bergen (Norway), students are allowed to use their own native languages in the first learning phases in order to build their confidence and to scaffold their learning.

Link: www.bbc.com (What is the best age to learn a language?)

Implementation of a pilot project for a priority education school (= welcomes socially fragile pupils) which places the language of schooling at the centre of all learning, in all subjects:

• valuing the students' language biographies,
• setting up a school-network abroad
• developing intercultural and plurilingual skills to favour democratic competences.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Learning environments where modern languages flourish (2016-2019)

Link: Youtube: Projet EOL, Collège Vauban, Belfort, France

The Heinrich-Heine Gymnasium in Cologne, Germany, offers a plurilingual drama group. Nearly all of the languages spoken by the members of the group are used. These languages are not just the language of schooling and the context language, but also the local dialect, foreign languages taught at the school and pupils’ family and heritage languages.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Towards whole-school language curricula (2012-2015)

Link: How can participating in a drama group promote plurilingualism?

Group work with 4-5 students who share the same mother tongue (Greek in this example) while having varying degrees of German/English proficiency. Each student brings/writes a short story (his/her own experience in a new environment, a familiar game, a song, a recipe, etc.) in the language he/she feels most confident with. This can be alternatively/preferably assigned at home or produced during a different lesson. The peers then collaborate to mediate (not translate) the same stories (etc.) in German or English, creating a scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86) for the less proficient speakers to express themselves in the other local languages of schooling (in German in Germany for that matter, but in any language if the project is implemented in another member state) and/or in English which is used both as a common foreign language and as a lingua franca.
The practice takes into consideration the Zone of Proximal Development with regard to Vygotsky’s work.

Link: I hate Maths

To celebrate the European day of languages (26th September) or International Mother Language Day 21st February), migrant students display their language prowess to their peers: a group of 7/8 students is selected from the school population to read out a sentence each in their first language (L1) over the Public Address system (PA). Their peers have to guess which language is being read out by how it sounds.

An added dimension would be to give students the script of the languages they are hearing (numbered 1 to 7) and they have to identify the language they hear with how it is written. Some minority languages should be included to add an added level of difficulty – or oral languages that are spoken but not widely written. Alternatively, the sentences could be displayed on posters in school corridors and students gather around them at break time to discuss whether writing sample 1 is Chinese or Russian etc. A prize could be given to the class which guesses all 7 answers correctly.

Link: Yellow Flag Programme. Celebrating Diversity, Promoting Inclusion, Challenging Racism

Link: Sample Yellow Flag Student Survey

Paired reading is a tried and tested short-term reading intervention used in Post Primary schools in Ireland. Senior students (age 17 approx) are trained to be tutors to first-year students (age 12) who are new to the school. The older students are then paired with a younger student to support the younger student to engage with reading for pleasure (see links to videos below). Parents are informed and come to a meeting in the school. They, too can be a paired reader and work with their son/daughter to support each other in their literacy development and enjoyment of reading. The programme can take place during the first term from Sept to Dec. A rota is drawn up of other volunteers in case one volunteer is absent. It happens during lunchtime from 3 to 5 days a week for 10/15 mins a day.

Link: Link to extension initiative called “Readalong”

There are many reasons why we should know about one another’s languages, including the following:

• to give bilingual children the opportunity to demonstrate the language skills they bring to school;
• to enhance the status of bilingual children;
• to broaden the horizons of monolingual English ­speakers;
• to show respect for other languages and cultures;
• to give parents an opportunity to be actively involved in their children’s learning.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Collaborative community approach to migrant education (2012-2015)

Link: Language-of-the-Month-Activities-Booklet

Link: Collaborative community approach to migrant education – A virtual open course for educators (EducoMigrant)

Try to find five competences that could be important for your role as a teacher of the language of schooling in a linguistically diverse environment. These competences can focus on knowledge, attitudes and skills.

• What has to be changed with regard to L1 teaching, considering the linguistic diversity of the learners?
• What are your teaching experiences in this context? Include the observations of other teachers.
• Try to find 5 good reasons why it is important to support plurilingualism through L1 teaching.
• You can make use of these reflective questions for teachers (see MARILLE project “Majority language in multilingual settings”).
• You can also have a look at this video on the subject of Polish in Poland.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Majority language in multilingual settings (2008-2011)

Link: Moving from monolingual to plurilingual

Link: Waldemar Martyniuk – European Multilingualism Policy AD 2021 - YouTube

Kamishibaï (紙芝居 in Japanese) means “Paper Theatre”. It is a narrative technique of Japanese origin, a kind of travelling theatre, that street storytellers originally used to tell stories to children by sliding illustrated boards into a wooden castelet: the butaï. Each board features an episode of the story, on the front side the image and on the back side a short and simple text.

Multilingual Kamishibahai is both a captivating and playful way to tell stories and a powerful pedagogical tool to promote the learning of reading, writing, oral and artistic expression. In addition, it promotes communication and cooperation between children, both at the time of creation and after the performance. He can address all levels from the nursery school onwards. It can be used in schools as well as in libraries, leisure centres, crèches, etc. or among health professionals such as speech therapists.

Link: Le kamishibaï plurilingue pour découvrir des histoires et des langues

The series “Materials for heritage language teaching” offers an introduction to the teaching methods currently used in Western and Northern European schools. The different volumes not only provide theoretical background information, but also numerous practical suggestions for daily teaching. Thanks to the present website, all the materials can be easily accessed and downloaded. The aim is to support heritage language teachers all over the world in their important and challenging job.

Link: I. Introduction: low-threshold level writing examples and activities to promote motivation

Teachers will discover some practical multilingual classroom activities that encourage students to use home languages in the classroom. Moreover, the eWorkshop is designed to support teachers in talking with each other about the use of language. The essential question reflects how well this eWorkshop adequately responds to the following statements: how can I set up routines and learning activities that promote the use of home languages in my classroom?

Link: Home languages in the classroom: Week 3

Link: ICMEE

The extensive mapping material has been developed by Skolverket - the Swedish National Agency for Education and focuses on assessment and planning for the individual study planning for newcomers. The material consists of three steps:

• Step 1 (Initial screening Languages and Experiences),
• Step 2 (Literacy and Numeracy) and
• Step 3 (School subjects).

Link: Steg 1 – Elevens språk och erfarenheter

Many schools have organised native language teaching for their largest immigrant language groups. Sometimes there is no such possibility for smaller language groups. The result is that these students do not have a chance to maintain their native language skills. The solution to this was found in a multilingual native language lesson.

A multilingual native language lesson is a lesson where students speaking different languages are being taught simultaneously. The lesson is managed by two teachers – a Finnish as a second language teacher and a native language teacher (here, a Russian and Estonian teacher). The knowledge and different skills of the two teachers are united throughout the whole teaching project. Even though neither one of the teachers speaks the students’ native languages, it is still possible to provide an opportunity for the students to use and integrate their own languages into everyday school life and enlarge their vocabulary in these languages. Thus, the role of the teacher in a multilingual language group is more of a manager than a classical teacher. Co-operation with homes and families is extremely important throughout the teaching process. A lot of support is provided to families trying to preserve children’s own native languages in their new linguistic environment. The aim is also to get families to participate actively in everyday school life.

A multilingual native language lesson has turned out to be a very efficient approach to developing interlinguistic skills of students with different cultural backgrounds. The students are highly motivated and enthusiastic when their own languages have been brought into the spotlight within the school area. The students have been encouraged to use their own native languages and have begun doing that more actively throughout the schoolday. Their interlinguistic skills have improved, and the ability to switch from one language to another has improved as well. The students are doing better with their reading and writing skills, both in Finnish and in their native languages.

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Green Pack Junior School provides teachers of children aged between 7 and 10 with simple, accessible materials promoting sustainable development. It helps younger children to grasp the concept of sustainability by focusing on the environmental impacts of choices made at home, in the supermarket, at school, in the park and on holiday.
The materials, divided into 10 to 12 topics, explore interactions between the environment, society and economic development. A structured lesson plan is provided for each topic, along with supporting materials required for course planning and delivery.
Each lesson plan provides teachers with background information on the topic, lesson objectives, the methodology used, the materials and time required, and suggested locations. Related factsheets, handouts, simple tests, dilemmas and stories are available at the end of each lesson plan.

Link: Green Pack (inforse.org)

Roma students are among the most underprivileged and vulnerable population of Montenegrin society. They face many challenges, including poor living standards, low educational motivation and graduating rates as well as difficulties integrating into society. Although the data show that the number of students finishing primary school is increasing, there is small progress in accepting them. Roma pupils are afraid of prejudices and stereotypes which are following them wherever they go. They are excluded because of their origin, cultural diversity and social background.
So our main goal was to make the wider local community aware of the fact that diversity, different cultures, languages and origin is great and very valuable to all of us. Inexperience leads to making prejudice. Prejudice leaves out many students without real reasons. The idea is to work on empowering our students who belong to marginalised groups. A school performance is prepared including telling poetry, acting in short drama plays and singing songs in Romani language; the food and the folk dances are presented to the audience.

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At the Beda Weber language Gymnasium in Merano, South Tyrol, Italy, the Collaborative Language Teaching Methodology project is being developed and implemented at the first stage of secondary school (secondary level I). The project focuses on cross-linguistic didactic approaches to word formation and text types in descriptions and précis-writing in six languages.
The goal of the practice is to work across languages in various classes and compare languages in order to identify differences and similarities, practise language transfer and teach pupils to think in a way that capitalises on links between languages.
The objectives are for instance to recognise word formation characteristics in different languages and transfer what pupils have learned to all the languages they learn, to develop a capacity for observation and perception, and to be able to demonstrate these skills using appropriate language tools.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Towards whole-school language curricula (2012-2015)

Link: “Schools on the way to a whole-language policy” – the Collaborative Language Teaching Methodology project at Beda Weber language Gymnasium in Merano, Italy

This video shows examples of activities and projects which underline how a school values and promotes L1 to support literacy development in the language of schooling. The school has embarked on a number of activities involving students whose first language is not the language of schooling.
The video gives voice to the students who describe the role their L1 plays in supporting the language of schooling. The activities presented include a survey of all the languages spoken in the school, a multilingual school magazine in which students translate a literary text in their L1 into English, which is in this case the language of schooling. Students also describe a peer language teaching project and how this has benefitted them. And a project in which they have to give a presentation about a cultural aspect of their home culture in English.

Link: (Also available on ECML website) St Mark’s

A multilingual drama group aims to value and appreciate cultural and linguistic diversity, promote language awareness , enhance a process of teambuilding – becoming an ensemble and allow students to experience dramatic aesthetic strategies.
ECML project flyer “Towards whole-school language curricula – Examples of practice in schools” (Plurcur)

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Towards whole-school language curricula (2012-2015)

Link: “How can participating in a drama group promote plurilingualism?” (PlurCur)

This is a set of 26 activities to be used in the classroom. The activities are designed to represent an adequate support for multilingual children by highlighting the benefits of the ability to speak multiple languages. They are designed to interest other children in languages and to reinforce the respect, curiosity and desire for further knowledge, by all participants.

Link: Activities to support multilingualism at school

This is an example from a primary school in Dublin, Ireland. English is the language of schooling. The Irish language is a curricular subject that is taught in an integrated manner with English. The official Primary School Curriculum allocates 2.5 hours per week for the teaching of the Irish language at this age level. There are 27 children in this Junior Infant Class. 23 of these children speak home languages other than English. Within this group there are 10 different language backgrounds. The Primary Junior Infant programme requires that children be able to count from 1 to 10 and understand the concept of numbers from 1 to 5. By using their home language(s), children are embedding their familiarity and understanding of the concept in question (meaningful language learning). By using more than one language, they learn that whichever language is used, the integrity of the numbers and the sequence remains the same (relying on existing linguistic repertoires). Giving the children the freedom to choose which language they use helps to support learner autonomy.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Inspiring language learning in the early years (2017-2019)

Link: Inspiring stories about language learning: “One, two, trois, quatre, fünf, sechs”

Link: Histoires inspirantes sur l'apprentissage des langues : « One, two, trois, quatre, fünf, sechs »

Language descriptors illustrate what language learners can do in terms of language at different competence levels. They give examples of what students at different levels of language proficiency are able to understand when they listen and read, and what they are able to produce when speaking and writing. In order to use the descriptors in connection with specific subjects, topics and student groups, teachers will have to tailor the descriptors to suit their particular needs.

Subject-specific language descriptors for history/civics and mathematics were developed in the ECML project “Language skills for successful subject learning – CEFR linked descriptors for mathematics and history/civics” (2012-2015). The descriptors are meant to provide a starting point for (subject) teachers and students exploring and reflecting on language needs in different content subjects. Even though the descriptors contain examples related to history/civics and mathematics, teachers can adapt and transfer them to other subjects. Teachers can use the specific content-related descriptors for a variety of purposes, such as to:

• raise awareness of the language-related aspects of various school subjects;
• determine language objectives for lessons;
• use as formative assessment criteria;
• use as self-assessment criteria for students;
• help in planning and evaluating the language level that they, as teachers, apply in delivering classroom content in these content subjects.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Developing language awareness in subject classes (2016-2019)

Link: Developing language awareness in subject classes under development

In order to further develop subject teachers’ language awareness, this tool is meant to be used in collaboration with teachers of other disciplines. It asks teachers to compare what various genres mean in their disciplines. It is organised according to the same categories as Tool 1 but allows for a cross-discipline comparison of genre demands.

How to use the tool:

STEP 1: Work with a colleague who teaches another subject (or choose two subjects you teach).

STEP 2: Choose an oral or written text (e.g.: a mathematics problem, a poster, an oral presentation of an experiment, a summary in a textbook).

STEP 3: Look at the table and fill in the columns for your subjects.

STEP 4: Reflect on common points and differences and try to implement the points in your teaching.

Link: Developing language awareness in subject classes under development

This tool, which is based on a formula developed by Dr. Tara Fortune at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, demonstrates a simple but effective way to transform content objectives into language objectives. Teachers are asked to reflect on the linguistic characteristics, the function, and the vocabulary necessary for students to understand or express the content objective. Here, linguistic characteristics can mean the verb tense or other grammatical constructions that we expect students to use, a function is the action they must engage in (e.g., to describe), and vocabulary can include both academic terms (e.g., chloroform, constitution) and discourse terms (e.g., however, in that case, as a result).

This tool allows teachers to plan for more explicit language instruction, whether they use it only for themselves or give it to their students prior to the teaching unit.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Developing language awareness in subject classes (2016-2019)

Link: Developing language awareness in subject classes under development

While Tools 1 and 2 help teachers identify ultimate content/language objectives, this tool allows them to realistically differentiate their language expectations for students at lower proficiency levels. In this way, they can guide students towards the achievement of content objectives as they continue to work towards development of their academic language. This tool is intended for the teacher. It begins with the identification of the content objectives and progresses towards the definition of language objectives (primarily vocabulary objectives) that are attainable for students at A2 and B1 levels. Thus, the language level is adjusted, but the content learning objectives remain the same.

This promising practice is extracted from the following ECML project:
Developing language awareness in subject classes (2016-2019)

Link: Developing language awareness in subject classes under development