Webinar: the role of bilingual education models and language sensitive curricula in multilingual contexts

Bi- or trilingual education models have been integrated in many countries for several decades due to large-scale immigration, or in contexts in which non-dominant groups have historically been concentrated geographically (for instance, in Luxembourg, the Basque country and in Northern Italy). As a consequence, these education systems have had a chance to experiment with different strategies and select those that were most effective when it comes to adapting to multilingual classrooms. In such places, reforms of curricula have been carried out since the 1980s, implementing bi- or multilingual education to include the use of community languages.

However, even in this context, the growing presence of languages other than the ones spoken by long-standing minorities challenges established systems of bilingual and trilingual education. During this webinar, we will reflect on how traditional bi/multilingual models can evolve to address the needs of plurilingual students, by looking at the cases of the Basque country and Aosta Valley in the Northern Italy.

In this webinar we will also learn about the alternative approach of Finland and its language sensitive curricula, to recognise and support multilingualism in every learner.

NESET has recently published an extensive analytical report entitled The future of language education in Europe: case studies of innovative practices, building on its previous work in this area – Multilingual Education in the Light of Diversity: Lessons Learned. NESET is an international advisory network of experts working on the social dimension of education and training. It was set up at the initiative of the European Commission, and has been coordinated by PPMI since 2015. This report aims to support the implementation of the Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages, adopted by the Council of the European Union in 2019. It emphasises the importance of innovative language education in an increasingly interconnected and intercultural world.

The report incorporates six case studies on inspiring language teaching approaches, policies and tools implemented in various contexts across Europe and beyond. Join our series of 4 NESET webinars on Language education and multilingualism in which we will present and discuss in more details the most relevant findings of this report!