Abstract

In an educational system like ours, with four curricular languages in compulsory education, language integrated treatment and its contents (TILC) has to become, undoubtedly, a privileged instrument for multilingual education, because it allows to fulfil two goals at the same time: to acquire contents of different academic disciplines and to simultaneously provide competences in the language or languages with which these contents are developed. This article describes the concept of integrated language treatment and contents; the main components of this approach are also analyzed from a didactic point of view; and finally all the aspects studied will be used in the structuring of a thematic unit that includes disciplinary contents of one or more areas conveyed in a L2 and that can be used in Primary and Secondary Education contexts.

Abstract

This article deals with the current educational trends in multilingual education and the challenges they pose. It presents the current linguistic portrait in most of the educational centres where several languages coexist both inside and outside the classroom. Different educational trends related to the promotion of multilingualism are explained, such as the importance of the maintenance of first languages, the early introduction of English, and new language teaching approaches, like CLIL and EMI. We also describe an emerging new paradigm, known as translanguaging, which adopts a real multilingual perspective and includes recent research on the acquisition of additional languages and multilingual competence. Finally, some notes about multilingual didactics and future lines of research are proposed.

Abstract

The study of teachers’ attitudes towards languages has received some attention, as multilingualism has become one of the main educational targets for European school systems (Cenoz 2019; Liyanage & Tao 2020). Several authors (Lasagabaster 2017; Safont 2007) have claimed that language attitudes may play a crucial role in multilingual education. In the Valencian educational system, existing research has examined both students’ language attitudes (Nightingale 2012, 2016; Portolés 2015) and pre-service teachers’ language attitudes (Lasagabaster & Safont 2008; Portolés 2014; Safont 2007) towards the three teaching languages (i.e., Catalan, Spanish and English). Yet, as far as we know, experienced teachers’ attitudes have not been investigated. Thus, the present preliminary study explores 21 in-service teachers’ language attitudes by means of a written questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. In so doing, data were collected in multilingual schools adopting three different school language programmes, namely those of a Catalan-based, a Spanish-based and an English-based language programme. The latter has been a context that has been omitted in previous research. The findings have confirmed the influence of the language programme on in-service teachers’ language attitudes as well as the paramount role of the L1 in the formation of language attitudes. Finally, our findings have pointed out that language attitudes and teaching practices do not always match since some monolingual views are found inside the classroom. Our study concludes that more teacher training is needed on the «Focus on Multilingualism» approach proposed by Cenoz and Gorter (2013).