Languages and multilingualism on the European agenda: European Schools as a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the language policy of the European Union (hereafter, EU), which is applied in the case of European Schools (hereafter, ES). It is based on a case study conducted at postgraduate level. Our purposes were: a) to examine and analyse the official EU policy on language and multilingualism, b) to find similarities and differences between the official EU texts and the praxis followed in ES regarding language learning, and c) to explore the perceptions of ES teachers, emphasizing on the effectiveness of this model as far as language learning and multilingualism are concerned. The results of this study have shown that European Schools are considered effective in terms of teaching students their mother tongue while promoting foreign language acquisition. Moreover, certain measures and necessary changes are being discussed in order to have similar multilingual and multicultural school systems developed in modern societies.

KEYWORDS:

• EU language diversity
• multilingualism
• multiculturalism
• European Schools

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. In this paper the acronym EU refers to European Union.

2. In this paper the acronym ES refers to European School(s).

3. The research took place as part of the dissertation which was submitted at the School of Education at the University of Western Macedonia (UoWM) in the frame of the master programme entitled ‘Educational Studies: Teaching Modern Greek Language’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Areti Tsakaloudi

Areti Tsakaloudi is a high school teacher for the Greek language and has worked in Greek schools both in Greece and in Germany, where she was seconded by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. She also worked as a staff member at the Greek General Consulate in Munich, where she was seconded by the Greek Ministry of External Affairs. Since September 2021, Areti has been working at the Greek Language Certification Department of the Centre for the Greek Language (KEG), a research institute situated in Thessaloniki, Greece. During her postgraduate studies at the University of Western Macedonia (UoWM), Areti conducted a research about the European Union policy for mother tongue teaching and multilingualism focusing especially on the case of European Schools. Due to her successful participation in a special training course at the Centre for the Greek Language in Thessaloniki (KEG), Areti is also specialized in teaching Greek as a foreign language to foreign pupils who live in Greece or abroad.

Nektaria Palaiologou

Nektaria Palaiologou is Assoc. Professor at the ‘Language Refugees and Migrants’ (LRM) Master Programme at Hellenic Open University (HOU), former Assoc.Prof. at the School of Education of University of Western Macedonia (UoWM). Since 2019 Nektaria has been the Vice President of the International Association for Intercultural Education (IAIE). Nektaria has published at international journals in the field of Intercultural Education, Migration and Refugee Education for culturally and linguistically diverse students. She has published three edited volumes in English (Routledge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing), three books in Greek language (Pedio Publishing Company) and has been the Scientific Co-ordinator at European International projects.