Education and Languages, Language Policy

Contents of this section:
Language as subject
Overview

This text provides an overview of language as subject. It emphasises the importance of viewing language as subject not in isolation but in relation to the wider language(s) of schooling and language(s) of education perspectives. It also recognises that many aspects of language as subject including its aims, content and teaching approaches are contested. This text does not seek to recommend one simple way of resolving the questions raised but aims to increase awareness of those issues and provide readers with a means of reflecting critically on their own practice and curricula. In order to achieve that end, each of the related modules of the platform concludes with a series of ‘questions for consideration’ to promote self-reflection.

Word version
Contents
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Shifting aims for language as subject over time and borders
  • 3. Challenges of developing aims for language as subject
  • 4. Language and literature
  • 5. Teaching approaches in language as subject: genres and tasks
  • 6. Learner diversity in language as subject
  • 7. The domains of language as subject
  • 8. The changing role of the language as subject teacher
Reading
Overview

This section of the platform provides an overview of reading as a key dimension of language as subject. It considers issues related to what ‘reading’ means, particularly in the school context and addresses some of key tensions that have to be faced when constructing and teaching the curriculum. The section ends with a series of ‘questions for consideration’ in order to help readers reflect critically on their own policy and practice.

Word version
Contents
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Connections between reading and writing
  • 3. Learning to read
  • 4. Learning to read in plurilingual contexts
  • 5. Reading development
  • 6. Reading literacy and reading strategies
  • 7. Reading for different purposes
  • 8. Variety of texts and genres – choice of text
  • 9. Literature
  • 10. Reading as text-reception
  • 11. Questions for consideration
Writing
Overview

This section of the platform provides an overview of writing as a key dimension of language as subject. It considers various aspects of the writing process and addresses some key questions facing policy developers and teachers. It stresses the need for a broad approach to writing in language as subject. The section ends with a series of 'questions for consideration' to help readers reflect critically on their own policy and practice.

Word version
Contents
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Learning how to write
  • 3. Writing development
  • 4. Writing for different purposes
  • 5. Genres in writing
  • 6. The writing process
  • 7. Writing in language as subject in multicultural and plurilingual classrooms
  • 8. Writing in modernity- multimodal texts
  • 9. Writing as text production
  • 10. Questions for consideration
Language and school subjects - Linguistic dimensions of knowledge building in school curricula Related studies available in "Language(s) in other subjects’ on this Platform"
Overview

Whatever the subject, all knowledge building in the school context involves working with language. The purpose of this text is to suggest a general approach enabling different levels of specification of these language dimensions to be classed in transversal descriptive categories. The aim is to describe the process leading from units for analysis of actual uses to the identification of linguistic forms and mechanisms appropriate to those uses. It is aimed not only at the authors of curricula and textbooks and the designers of tests, but also at teachers, and especially teachers of subjects sometimes quite wrongly described as “non-linguistic”, to draw their attention to the language components of work in their subject. It is also relevant to teacher trainers, particularly those responsible for the teaching of disciplines other than languages taught as a subject.

Word version Pdf version
Italian Version

Lingua e discipline scolastiche – Dimensioni linguistiche nella costruzione delle conoscenze nei curricoli

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Further Language Policy Division Ressources
Descriptors (contributions from member states)

The descriptors below were provided by Norway, the Czech Republic, Val d'Aosta (Italy), Portugal, Spain, Slovenia and Luxembourg.

ISCED - International Standard Classification of Education, developed by UNESCO
0 = pre-primary education, 1 = primary education or first stage of basic education, 2 = lower secondary education or second stage of basic education (the subsidiary criteria for this level include entry after some 6 years of primary education; end of the cycle after 9 years from the beginning of primary education; end of compulsory education)

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