The knowledge base of teaching in linguistically diverse contexts: 10 grounded principles of multilingual classroom pedagogy for EAL

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to define the knowledge base of teaching in linguistically diverse secondary schools in England. Based on extensive interviews with the teachers across two schools, the paper identifies a range of good practices centred on flexibility and differentiation. These include diversifying teaching resources by using bilingual materials and dialogic tasks, as well as making adjustments to teaching by simplifying input and including cultural references. These practices are characterised by ‘a situated child-centred approach’ which is underpinned by 10 core principles of multilingual classroom pedagogy for English as an additional language. Implications for education policy and practice are also discussed.

本文旨在对英国中学教师在复杂语言环境下教学所需的基础知识进行界定。文章基于对两所中学专业课教师所进行的深度访谈，发掘出一系列灵活多变且因人而异的教学方法。这些方法包括例如：通过使用双语材料及加强语言互动使教学资源多样化，以及通过简化授课信息和提供文化典故来优化教学等方法。这些方法遵循十大多语课堂教学原则，以学生为中心，并结合情境进行教学。文章还就本研究对教育政策和实践的影响进行了讨论。

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge base of teaching
• teacher knowledge of linguistic diversity
• multilingual classroom pedagogy
• English as an additional language
• situated child-centred approach

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Bell Foundation for supporting the research on which this article was based and to the research team which included Madeleine Arnot, Michael Evans, Linda Fisher, Karen Forbes, Mei Hu, Yongcan Liu, Claudia Schneider and Oakleigh Welply. The authors are grateful to the participants in the schools and communities who gave their time to help this project. The views expressed here are those solely of the named authors of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yongcan Liu is Senior Lecturer in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and convener of Cambridge Research in Community Language Education Network. He also coordinates the MPhil/MEd Research in Second Language Education programme. His research interests lie in community/heritage language education, multilingualism in education, and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind. He has recently completed a series of linked projects on the schooling experience and assessment of migrant children with EAL. He is currently co-investigator of a large AHRC project on multilingualism.

Linda Fisher is Senior Lecturer in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her current research interests are in the field of modern languages education, in particular, using metaphor to investigate students’ beliefs about language learning, motivation, teacher learning, and the academic and social integration of EAL learners. Her main teaching responsibilities lie in co-ordinating the PGCE in MFL and she is involved in extensive work with secondary teachers of MFL. She is co-investigator of a large AHRC project on multilingualism and currently leads the education strand of this project.

Karen Forbes recently completed her PhD and is currently Lecturer in Second Language Education in the Faculty of Education. Her PhD research focused on the cross-linguistic transfer of metacognitive writing strategies between modern foreign language and English classrooms in a secondary school in England. She has also worked as a research assistant on a longitudinal project investigating the education and social integration of students who speak EAL in UK schools. She is currently part of the education strand of a large AHRC project on multilingualism. She previously worked as a secondary school teacher of French and Spanish.

Michael Evans is Reader in Second Language Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. He specialises in teacher education and research in foreign language learning (French and Spanish) in the secondary sector. Related fields of interest include EAL learners and language development, the use of ICT in language learning, the effect of study abroad on L2 proficiency and the politics of second language education. He is currently co-investigator of a large AHRC project on multilingualism and was the principal investigator of a project looking at the schooling experience of Eastern European migrant children with EAL.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a three-year grant from the Bell Foundation [grant number RG73839].