Embracing linguistic diversity in education is key to developing inclusive societies that respect diversity and difference (Council of Europe, 2008). Scholars have expressed concern about the lack of multilingual pedagogy in the classroom that includes and draws on all students' existing language resources (Auger, 2007; Cenoz & Gorter, 2017).
This paper provides new knowledge by reporting from the LANGUAGES project, combining student perspective and observed perspective on the use of students' language resources in language lessons in England, France and Norway. LANGUAGES is a longitudinal project that examines the teaching and use of English and French in three national contexts, where these languages have different statuses and where students' language resources vary extensively (European Commission, 2012). The project aims to spotlight the role that teaching plays in developing students' ability to communicate in more than one language. The classes in this project were strategically sampled to include language homogeneous and heterogeneous contexts in the three countries and includes eight French classes and eight English classes in each country (n=48), among students aged 13–15 (n=1440).
This paper reports on findings from the first year of the project and includes two strands of data: (1) a thoroughly validated student survey (Haukås et al., 2021), where the project obtained a quantitative and systematic overview of all students' reported linguistic repertoires, and (2) a well-proven video observation design in the classroom (Brevik & Rindal, 2020), where the project systematically recorded four consecutive lessons in each language class (n=192). Video recordings provide examples of how teachers prompt students to draw on their language resources and identities in the language classroom and how such prompting and use of resources lead to inclusion by students, for example by engaging in uptake of students' ideas, responding in ways that expand on student ideas or enable students to further explain, clarify and specify their thinking. Adopting a mixed-methods approach (Greene, 2007), this study focuses on findings relating to similarities and differences between students' reported language resources and the use of languages in the classroom. The contribution relates to trends across the three contexts, exemplifying effective and helpful practices for capitalising on students' language resources and identities in the language classroom.
Auger, N. (2007). Enseignement des langues d'origine et apprentissage du français: Vers une pédagogie de l'inclusion. [Mother tongue instruction and French language learning: Towards an inclusive pedagogy]. Le français aujourd'hui, 158(3), 76-83.
Brevik, L., & Rindal, U. (2020). Language use in the classroom: Balancing target language exposure with the need for other languages. TESOL Quarterly, 54(4), 925-953
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2017). Minority languages and sustainable translanguaging: Threat or opportunity? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38, 901-912.
Council of Europe. (2008). Multilingualism: An asset for Europe and a shared commitment. European Commission.
European Commission (2012) First European survey on language competences: Final report.
Greene, J. (2007). Mixed methods in social inquiry. Wiley & Son.
Haukås, Å., Storto, A., & Tiurikova, I. (2021). Developing and validating a questionnaire on young learners' multilingual identity. The Language Learning Journal.
