32.2737, Review: Applied Linguistics: Wernicke, Hammer, Hansen, Schroedler (2021)

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Subject: 32.2737, Review: Applied Linguistics: Wernicke, Hammer, Hansen, Schroedler (2021)

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Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:06:25
From: Sviatlana Karpava [karpava.sviatlana at ucy.ac.cy]
Subject: Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-1355.html

EDITOR: Meike  Wernicke
EDITOR: Svenja  Hammer
EDITOR: Antje  Hansen
EDITOR: Tobias  Schroedler
TITLE: Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners
SERIES TITLE: Bilingual Education & Bilingualism
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Sviatlana Karpava

SUMMARY 

Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners, edited by Meike
Wernicke, Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen, and Tobias Schroedler, provides an
overview of the current international research in the area of multilingualism
and teacher education. The book is a collection of 11 chapters that present
the outcomes of the international project entitled Multilingualism and Teacher
Education (MultiTEd). 

In the introductory chapter, ‘Multilingualism and Teacher Education:
Introducing the MultiTEd Project’, the authors, Meike Wernicke, Antje Hansen,
Svenja Hammer, and Tobias Schroedler provide the background to the book and
provide an overview of the chapters; the book was based on the international
MultiTEd project, and the authors attempt to answer the question of why
multilingualism and cultural diversity are important for teacher education and
educational policies by taking socio-economic, historical, institutional,
ideological, political, and geographical factors into consideration, as well
as the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of immigrant and minority
language students. The authors suggest that multilingualism should be valued
and considered to be an asset in teaching and learning, even though there are
various existing theoretical frameworks and practical approaches (Otheguy et
al., 2019), and educational programmes and interpretations of individual and
societal multilingualism with regard to (pre-service) teachers’ and students’
perspectives, identities, skills, knowledge and resources, contextualisation,
empowerment, and mobility. 

In Chapter 2, ‘What is Multilingualism? Towards an Inclusive Understanding’ by
Tobias Schroedler, the issues of multilingualism, plurilingualism, linguistic
diversity, and their complex conceptualisations and definitions on societal
and individual levels, are investigated with regard to their origins,
evolution, status, political issues, diverse disciplinary approaches, teacher
education, and other academic teaching in different sociopolitical and
geographical contexts, including language policy and planning. Multilingualism
and its various dimensions are investigated in disciplines such as
(socio)linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and applied
linguistics with a focus on communication, mutual intelligibility, complexity,
varieties and dialects, as well as autochthonous, minority and immigrant
languages, sociolects and accents, translanguaging and code-mixing (Paulsrud
et al., 2017), language revitalisation, power and social justice, awareness,
language ideologies, pragmatic values, cognitive processes, and the
challenges, needs, and opportunities associated with the development,
maintenance, and use of multilingualism.

Chapter 3, ‘One School for All? Multilingualism in Teacher Education in
Sweden’ by BethAnne Paulsrud and Adrian Lundberg, examines the issue of
inclusive education in Sweden, which caters to the needs of recent migrants,
second-generation immigrants, and speakers of official minority languages
(Lundberg, 2019). The authors discuss the need for teacher training and
education in order to prepare teachers to work with multilingual students, and
provide an overview of the sociolinguistic and sociopolitical situation in
Sweden and its linguistic diversity with regard to regional, minority, and
immigrant languages. They describe multilingualism and mother-tongue
instruction in Swedish schools, as well as the systems used in preschools,
primary schools, secondary schools, and vocational teacher training
institutions, in addition to education, curricula, and teacher placement. The
authors found that there was flexibility in terms of the presentation of
multilingualism in course programmes, syllabi, seminars, and the delivery of
lectures at universities across the country. 

In Chapter 4, ‘Multilingualism in Finnish Teacher Education’ by Tamás Péter
Szabó, Elisa Repo, Niina Kekki, and Kristiina Skinnari the focus is on pre-
and in-service teacher education and multilingualism, language awareness, and
multilingual pedagogy at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of
education in Finland. The authors pay attention to multilingualism resulting
from the societal changes in the country, linguistic diversity, and primary
and early childhood teacher education, and refer to the teacher education
programmes that are called ‘Language Aware Multilingual Pedagogy’ (LAMP) at
the University of Jyväskylä, as well as the ‘Multilingual pedagogy and second
language learning’ course at the University of Turku. They describe
educational policies and ideologies in the country, and provide examples and a
critical analysis of different educational contexts, courses, and modules with
regard to multilingual education, plurilingualism, discourses and challenges,
linguistic awareness, metalinguistic skills, literacy, and the development of
multilingual competence (Jaspers, 2019). 

In Chapter 5, ‘Multilingualism in Teacher Education in Germany: Differences in
Approaching Linguistic Diversity in Three Federal States’ by Lisa Berkel-Otto,
Antje Hansen, Svenja Hammer, Svenja Lemmrich, Tobias Schroedler, and Ángela
Uribe, the authors describe a diverse situation with regard to increased
migration, refugee movement, multilingualism, linguistic and cultural
diversity, education policies, and pre-service teacher education in Germany.
They compare teacher education programmes in terms of the organisational
parameters and lesson content in three different federal states, namely North
Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, and Lower-Saxony. They present an overview of the
sociolinguistic situation in the country, as well as of discourses and
policies pertaining to linguistic diversity, migration-induced
multilingualism, challenges in language education for students with a migrant
background, the need to validate students’ heritage languages in the education
system, via linguistically responsive teaching (Woerfel & Giesau, 2018). 

Chapter 6, ‘Multilingualism in Teacher Education in Croatia’ by Lucia Miškulin
Saletović, Klara Bilić Meštrić, and Emina Berbić Kolar, is devoted to the
investigation of multilingualism and teacher education in Croatia. The authors
define the concept of multilingualism and present a historical background to
the sociolinguistic situation in Croatia, as well as its cultural and
linguistic heterogeneity regarding minority, migrant, and majority languages,
dialects and standard varieties, language policy and ideology, and discourses
on multilingualism in education and foreign language teaching (Šimičić & Bilić
Meštrić, 2018). The authors describe the teacher education system in the
country as having different programme levels and study programmes and their
relevance to multilingualism, pedagogy and teaching, as well as the presence
and type of multilingual orientation. They compare teacher education in the
social sciences and humanities, as well as in the areas of natural, technical,
and medical sciences, and provide relevant examples. The authors reveal
significant differences in the study programmes in terms of the type and
presence of multilingual content.

Chapter 7, ‘Approaches to Diversity: Tracing Multilingualism in Teacher
Education in South Tyrol, Italy’ by Barbara Gross and Lynn Mastellotto,
addresses the issues of teacher education, multilingualism, and linguistic and
cultural diversity in Italy. The authors provide an overview of the
sociolinguistic situation in the country, and its linguistic diversity in
terms of the presence of the majority language, standard Italian, and
regional, minority, heritage, migrant and foreign languages in everyday use,
school curricula, and the language policy. The focus of the chapter is on
multilingualism in education and in (pre-service) teacher training in Italy,
particularly in the South Tyrol, the northern Italian border territory, where
the four languages that are taught are German, Italian, Ladin, and English.
The authors reveal the tension between the local and global dimensions of
multilingualism at the levels of schooling, language policy, norms, values,
and educational programmes. The language education system includes majority
and minority language and additional foreign language teaching. Teacher
education in Italy is based on the principles of sustainability and
inclusivity, and on the promotion of multilingualism, language diversity,
interculturalism, and translanguaging (Ibrahim, 2019).

In Chapter 8, ‘Multilingualism and Primary Initial Teacher Education in the
Republic of Ireland: Policies and Practice’, Chiara Liberio and Carlos Rafael
Oliveras focus on multilingualism and initial teacher training in Ireland with
regard to language and educational policies, the preservation of Irish, and
the linguistic and cultural diversity resulting from increased migration into
the country. The authors provide a historical overview of multilingualism in
Ireland, and of the role of Irish in society and in the schooling system
(Walsh, 2016). They comment on the diversity in the new primary school
curriculum based on the principles of language integration, the development of
literacy and language awareness, the communicative approach, and integrated
content and language learning. In addition, they describe educational
programmes on English as an additional language that require more guidance in
terms of instruction, the curriculum, and teacher training. Foreign language
education is encouraged, which is in line with the EU policy on
multilingualism and plurilingualism, although more support for the teaching of
mother-tongue and immigrant languages is required. In addition, the authors
describe the Initial Teacher Education Programme’s guidelines and their major
features of inclusive and intercultural education, as well as the
implementation of the guidelines. 

Chapter 9, ‘Preparing Teachers for Multilingual Classrooms in English Canada’
by Meike Wernicke, discusses multilingualism, linguistic and cultural
diversity, and teacher training in Canada. The sociolinguistic situation in
Canada is characterised by official French-English bilingualism. In addition,
many indigenous, heritage, minority, and immigrant languages are spoken in the
country. With regard to education, monolingual approaches (English or French)
to language teaching are quite popular depending on the geographical area, as
is English as a second language, in which the emphasis is on integrated
language and content instructional approaches, as well as multilingual
approaches to literacy and second language education. The chapter focuses on
multilingualism as a resource for learning and teaching, teacher education,
contextualisation, critical language awareness, translanguaging, classroom
discourses, and multilingual identities. Besides, the authors describe the
plurilingual, linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogies of the
educational programmes in Canada, with English as an additional language, and
the relevant challenges, opportunities, and needs (Goodman & Tastanbek, 2020).

Chapter 10, ‘Multilingualism and Teacher Education in the United States’ by
Jessie Hutchison Curtis, addresses the issue of teacher training and
multilingualism in the USA by considering such factors as migration,
education, curricula and the language policy, the cultural and linguistic
heterogeneity in the country, and the needs of the minority and low-income
communities. The author describes the theoretical frameworks of
multilingualism and bilingualism that have affected teacher education and have
made it meaningful, with a focus on a diversified society, socialisation, and
empowerment (Villegas et al., 2018). The chapter is focused on education
policy that is based on equity, bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural
education. The authors provide an overview of dual languages, immersion,
English as a second language programmes and multilingual schooling in
linguistically diverse communities. They are concerned about the development
of multilingual and multicultural language awareness, assessments, the
involvement of families and communities in the educational process. They write
about teacher education that should aim to promote the success of each student
in the USA. In particular, they provide an example of the community-based
teacher education, which is related to experiential learning, critical
reflection, and intercultural citizenship education, at a public university in
New Jersey, which is situated in the mid-Atlantic coastal region and has many
immigrant students. 

In Chapter 11, ‘Diversity in Teacher Preparation for Multilingual Contexts’,
Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen, and Meike Wernicke discuss the MultiTEd project
and its outcomes, provide a critical analysis and overview of the book and of
each contribution, which describe different approaches to multilingualism in
teacher education in different social and geographical regions across the
world. One of the common issues in all the countries that participated in the
project was the key role of the majority language in mainstream education and
literacy development, with minority, regional, heritage, and/or immigrant
languages being on the periphery due to historical, socio-economic, political,
and ideological factors, as well as deficiency-based discourses and elitist
ideologies. Teachers need to take an active stance with regard to multilingual
and multicultural education, inclusion, and linguistic diversity in class
(Early & Kendrick, 2020). The MultiTEd project allowed researchers,
practitioners, teachers, and educators to share their views, experiences, and
best practices regarding multilingualism, multicultural awareness, and social
justice orientation. Working together they were able to compare educational
contexts, language policies, teaching methods, and approaches in their
countries and to identify the direction for future research on multilingualism
in teacher education. 

EVALUATION

This volume is an important contribution to the research on multilingualism
and teacher education. It presents the results of the international project
Multilingualism and Teacher Education (MultiTEd), with contributors from
different countries in Europe and North America. Each chapter provides a
theoretical framework and the practical implementation of multilingual
education in a different context by taking historical, geographical,
socio-economic, political, and ideological factors into consideration. The
emphasis is on inclusive teaching, linguistic and cultural diversity,
contextualisation, language awareness, and literacy development. This book is
essential reading for students of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics,
sociology, psychology, language acquisition and education, researchers,
practitioners, teachers, educators, and members of the general public who
would like to know more about the recent developments in the areas of
multilingualism and teacher education. 

REFERENCES

Early, M. and Kendrick, M. (2020) Inquiry-based pedagogies, multimodalities,
and multilingualism: Opportunities and challenges in supporting English
learner success. Canadian Modern Language Review 76 (2), 139–154.

Goodman, B. and Tastanbek, S. (2020) Making the shift from a codeswitching to
a translanguaging lens in English language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly.
doi:10.1002/tesq.571

Ibrahim, N. (2019). Children’s multimodal visual narratives as possible sites
of identity performance. In P. Kalaja and S. Melo-Pfeifer (Eds.), Visualising
Multilingual Lives: More than Words. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Jaspers, J. (2019). Authority and morality in advocating heteroglossia.
Language, Culture and Society 1 (1), 83–105.

Lundberg, A. (2019). Teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism: Findings from Q
method research. Current Issues in Language Planning 20 (3), 266–283.

Otheguy, R., García, O. and Reid, W. (2019). A translanguaging view of the
linguistic system of bilinguals. Applied Linguistics Review 10 (4), 625–651.

Paulsrud, B., Rosén, J., Straszer, B. and Wedin, Å. (Eds.) (2017). New
Perspectives on Translanguaging and Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Šimičić, L. and Bilić Meštrić, K. (2018). Arbanaški na raskižju: vitalitet i
održivost jednog manjinskog jezika. Zagreb: Srednja Europa.

Villegas, A., Saiz de la Mora, K., Martin, A. and Mills, T. (2018). Preparing
future mainstream teachers to teach English language learners: A review of the
empirical literature. The Educational Forum 82, 138–155.

Walsh, T. (2016). The national system of education, 1831–2000. In B. Walsh
(Ed.), Essays in the History of Irish Education (pp. 7–43). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.

Woerfel, T. and Giesau, M. (2018) Sprachsensibler Unterricht. Köln:
Mercator-Institut für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache
(Basiswissen sprachliche Bildung).


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Sviatlana Karpava is a lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the Department of
English Studies at the University of Cyprus. Her main research interests are
applied linguistics, first and second language acquisition, bilingualism,
multilingualism, sociolinguistics, teaching, and education.





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