Unit 5. The Challenge of Plurilingualism for Educators

Step 2 Approaches to teaching in plurilingual classrooms

We have already seen (UNIT 2 ) how in Europe the idea of a single nation and single language was developed. This ‘monolingual’ model has also had an impact on teaching and learning. Until recently a common assumption has been that the national education would be through the national language since all learners shared that common language.

Increasingly, however, this is not always the case.  In cities such as London, but also Hamburg, Melbourne, Ottawa and New York, learners may speak a range of languages, and often more than one single language. The same is true for Asian and African cities and communities where a number of languages are spoken.
This creates a challenge for teachers. What is the best way of teaching such plurilingual groups?