Description and contextualization of the subject

The course “Multilingual education: theoretical and research perspectives” focuses on multilingual education. It explores the theoretical tenets underlying languages in contact within the educational setting. It also deals with bilingualism and multilingualism as it relates to third language acquisition. In addition to that, factors affecting the development of communicative competence in three languages with a special focus on minority languages will also be considered.

The course is offered in the first quarter.





SKILLS

- Analyse and synthesize in a reflexive and critical way the available information on language teaching in multilingual contexts.

- Be able to synthesize information in order to write an academic paper that meets the expected formal and conceptual prerequisites including the most suitable references related to multilingual education.

- Analyse the importance of the sociolinguistic context in foreign language teaching in order to understand current European Union language planning policies.

- Analyse and synthesize available information on acquiring languages in multilingual settings.

- Being able to apply the MA contents to different professional contexts.





LEARNING OUTCOMES

- Examine the influence of learners’ sociolinguistic variables on the use and the acquisition/learning of the English language.

- Examine the importance of the sociolinguistic context in foreign language learning.

- Examine current studies dealing with the influence of bilingualism and multilingualism on third language use.

- Critically analyse the impact of adopting various sociolinguistic approaches in order to assess their effect on language use.

Ordinary call: orientations and renunciation

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA



Students' performance will be assessed following these criteria:



1. Individual class presentation: (30%)

2. Class participation: (30%)

3. Research outline: (40%)



1. Individual class presentation (30%)

Working individually, each student will have to prepare a 30-minute presentation on one of the topics of the course. The topic should be chosen from the list of compulsory reading/watching materials. The presentation will be based on one or two related materials (mostly reading) on a topic. Presenting students will have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and a hand-out to support their presentation. Clarification and discussion promoting questions or comments should be raised at the end of the presentation (discussing time 10 minutes). The rest of the students will have to complete a presentation frame.



2. Class participation (30%)

Attending classes is not enough. A respectful, proactive and dynamic attitude to class participation should be exhibited. At the end of each class, the content will be summarized by commenting on the individual class-frame and/or presentation frames.

Class attendance is compulsory. The students should let the teacher know of any planned absences, and they have to be justified.



3. Research outline (40%)

Working individually, students will have to submit a written research proposal which aims to investigate one of the areas reviewed in class (a thorough analysis of a topic related to multilingual education/research and possible consequences for language planning, the teaching of minority languages, the effects of age, CLIL, among others).

It has to include the following compulsory sections: introduction + review of the literature + aims and research questions/hypotheses/predictions + method (participants, instruments and procedure) + expected results + references.



In order to pass the assignments a minimum grade of 5 out of 10 is necessary.

Extraordinary call: orientations and renunciation

The student will carry out a final assignment similar to the research outline (100%) in case of failing the first call.

Temary

AIMS

- Raise awareness about the naturalness of multilingualism.

- Underline the importance of education to promote and maintain multilingualism.

- Understand the psycholinguistic effects of being a multilingual.

- Define the variables to boost multilingualism in education.

- Comprehend the reality of teaching through minority languages.

- Recognize the variables and factors affecting foreign language teaching.



METHODOLOGY

The classes are meant to be interactive, with opportunities for discussion on the topics covered in class, as well as the carrying out of some practical exercises. The students are expected to read the articles in advance autonomously, so that they can discuss them with the rest of the class. They will also prepare an individual class-presentation on one of the compulsory readings, and search for information on the topics covered in the class. Moreover, as a final assignment they will have to prepare a research outline individually.

Bibliography

Compulsory materials

The material for the course (handouts for each thematic unit, Power-Point presentations and complementary readings) will be available in e-Gela. Compulsory readings will be available in pdf format.



A list with the oral presentations (titles of papers and student/pair presenting) will also be available in due course.



It is the students’ responsibility to download this material.

Basic bibliography

Some of the readings that will be considered during the course are:



Baetens Beardsome, H. and Swain, M. (1985) Designing bilingual education aspects of immersion and “European School” models. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 6, 1-15.



Bialystok, E., Peets, K.F., and Moreno, S. (2014) Producing bilinguals through immersion education: Development of metalinguistic awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 177-191.



Cenoz, J. (2009a) Achievements and challenges in bilingual and multilingual education in the Basque Country. AILA Review, 21, 13-30.



Cenoz, J. (2009b) Towards Multilingual Education. Basque Educational Research from an International Perspective. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.



Dewaele, J.M., Housen, A. and Wei, L. (2003) Bilingualism: Beyond Basic Principles. Festschrift in Honour of Hugo Baetens Beardsome. Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.



Extra, G. (2017) The constellation of languages in Europe. Comparative perspectives on regional minority and immigrant minority languages. In Kagan, O., Carreira, M. and Chik, C. (Eds.), Handbook on Heritage Language Education. (pp.11-21) Routledge: NYC.



García, O. and Sylvan, C. (2011) Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Journal, 95, 385-400.



Muñoz, C. (2011) Input and long-term effects of starting age in foreign language learning. IRAL, 49, 113-133.



Muñoz, C. (2012) (ed.) Intensive Exposure Experiences in Second Language Learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.



Nikula, T., Dalton-Puffer, C. and Llinares, A. (2013). CLIL classroom discourse. Research from Europe. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 1, 70-100.



Ruiz de Zarobe, L. and Ruiz de Zarobe, Y. (2015) New perspectives on multilingualism and L2 acquisition: an introduction. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12, 393-403.



Unsworth, S. (2013) Current issues in multilingual first language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33, 21-50.

Journals

- Annual Review of Applied Linguistics



- Applied Linguistics



- Bilingualism: Language and Cognition



- ELT Journal



- International Journal of Bilingualism



- International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism



- International Journal of Multilingualism



- International Review of Applied Linguistics



- Language Acquisition



- Language Learning



- Language Teaching Research



- Studies in Second Language Acquisition



- TESOL Quarterly



- The Modern Language Journal

Links

- AAAL (American Association of Applied Linguistics):http://www.aaal.org



- AESLA (Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada):http://www.aesla.org.es/es



- AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée):http://www.aila.info



- ALS (Australian Linguistic Society):https://als.asn.au/



- BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics):http://ww.baal.org.uk



- Centre for Applied Linguistics (USA):http://www.cal.org/



- Ethnologue (The languages of the world)http://www.ethnologue.com/



- EUROSLA (European Second Language Association):http://eurosla.org/home.html



- HABE biblioteca/Liburutegia:http://www.habe.euskadi.eus/s23-5492/es/



- Mercator. European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning: https://www.mercator-research.eu/en/



- National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition:https://ncela.ed.gov/



- Red ALExI:https://sites.google.com/view/red-alexi/p%C3%A1gina-principal?authuser=0



- The European Commission Language divisionhttp://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/



- The Linguist List:http://www.linguistlist.org