Students' use of their plurilingual resources in Australian schools
- 25 November 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Language and Education
- Vol. 30 (4), 361-377
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2015.1114631
Abstract
Research involving the plurilingualism of young people has begun to focus upon how we must re-conceptualise language learning to acknowledge the language resources of children with plurilingual experiences. This is particularly important in countries like Australia with a traditionally monolingual mindset embedded in policy, education, and the views of much of the community. Growing arguments posit that it is more important to focus on the resourceful use of language than attempts to measure skill, competence, or fluency in one language. In this paper, the movement between languages of children with a range of linguistic repertoires is explored in the Australian context. Data are taken from student and teacher interviews and focus groups with parents across five different primary schools, each with a bilingual education programme. The paper argues that bilingual programmes aimed at monolingual background students can have benefits for more than one kind of plurilingual student. It was found that plurilingual children drew on their home language(s) as a resource in school contexts where other languages were used, showed an increased enjoyment of learning, and developed learning strategies which built on their plurilingual experiences. Additionally, the data showed how teachers in these contexts worked towards expanding their own linguistic repertoires.Keywords
This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- The ESL Teacher as Plurilingual: An Australian PerspectiveTESOL Quarterly, 2013
- Foundation for Learning: Engaging Plurilingual Students' Linguistic Repertoires in the Elementary ClassroomTESOL Quarterly, 2013
- Plurilingualism and Curriculum Design: Toward a Synergic VisionTESOL Quarterly, 2013
- Pedagogies and Practices in Multilingual Classrooms: Singularities in PluralitiesThe Modern Language Journal, 2011
- A Holistic Approach to Multilingual Education: IntroductionThe Modern Language Journal, 2011
- The Commodification of LanguageAnnual Review of Anthropology, 2010
- Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?The Modern Language Journal, 2010
- The additive effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition: A reviewInternational Journal of Bilingualism, 2003
- Bilingual education enhances third language acquisition: Evidence from CataloniaApplied Psycholinguistics, 2000
- Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual ChildrenReview of Educational Research, 1979