Section 7: Indentifying, embracing and encouraging multilingualism
Juliane Michelini (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), Prof. Dr. Janina Vernal Schmidt (Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau) & Dr. Kathrin Wild (Europa-Universität Flensburg)
The topic of multilingualism has long been of interest to researchers in the fields of language teaching and learning, foreign language didactics and educational science. The communicative repertoires of language learners at universities in the European educational area are of particular importance: on the one hand, multilingualism is seen as a resource in language teaching discourse; on the other hand, its inclusion can also lead to greater social and educational justice.
Over the years, many approaches have been developed for the (higher) education context that make it possible to break the previously powerful monolingual logic of language teaching and thus maintain, expand and promote the multilingualism of those involved. Nevertheless, it is evident that the teaching and teaching materials continue to focus on the target language and that little systematic attention is paid to the potential of other languages. However, de facto multilingualism (social, higher education) and the potential for language learning success should become the norm in our increasingly diversified societies.
In this conference strand we would like to explore the many facets of multilingualism in higher education from both a practical and a research perspective. For example, we aim to
- familiarise ourselves with new concepts of multilingual teaching,
- discuss tried and tested practical multilingual approaches within universities,
- look at research projects in language centres and/or action research projects dealing with multilingualism in higher education.
The following aspects may be considered in the talks, workshops and discussions:
- social and political context in which multilingualism needs to be considered and promoted,
- the importance of reference works (GeR, REPA) as starting points for formulating multilingual competences,
- the development of course designs and teaching/learning materials that consistently take into account the multilingualism of learners,
- multilingualism in teaching languages for general, academic and specific purposes,
- the development of examination formats that reflect multilingual skills and competences,
- individual biographies of teachers and learners and their influence on multilingualism in the classroom,
- teachers' and learners' perspectives and attitudes towards multilingualism,
- multilingualism in the training of pre-service teachers,
- the development of language (learning) awareness,
- sensitivity to diversity in dealing with (migration-related) multilingualism.
The following presentation formats are welcome:
- Talks (25-minute presentations followed by 10 minute-discussions)
- Workshops (40 or 80 minutes; please specify desired duration in your proposal)
- Moderated discussions (40 minutes)