Council of Europe

This text provides an explanation of the term ‘language(s) of schooling’ and a description of two of its key components ‘language as subject’ and ‘language in other subjects’. It stresses the importance of recognising the wide range of language uses a pupil will encounter in school and the need to build on the pupils’ individual language repertoire. This text provides an introduction to the ‘language as subject’ and languages in other subjects’ sections of the platform.

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. 

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

La valutazione diagnostica delle competenze linguistiche in un contesto multilingue: un processo continuo che favorisce l'insegnamento e l'apprendimento individualizzato

The Languages in and for Education project has at its centre a commitment to an integrated approach to language teaching and learning. This means that in a school context all teachers, whether of the language of schooling taught as subject, second/foreign languages or other curriculum subjects, have a vested interest in and a responsibility for the pupils’ development of language competence. This paper discusses the aims of language as subject and foreign language teaching, and considers aims as they relate to the teaching in/of minority languages and language in other subjects, stressing the need to identify common goals.

In order to achieve educational success pupils from migrant backgrounds must be more than conversationally fluent in the language of schooling: they must also master the varieties of academic language that constitute the fabric of the different curriculum subjects. Because knowledge is virtually inseparable from the language that embodies it, the project “Languages in Education – Languages for Education” takes the view that all teachers must be language teachers in the sense that they are aware of the specific language demands of their subject(s). This study suggests some of the ways in which this challenge can be met.

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) was introduced as a concept in 1997 and formally launched in 2001. It has been taken up in almost thirty Council of Europe member states and 107 models had been accredited by the spring of 2010. The ELP is concerned with the learning and use of second and foreign languages (L2s), which is just one focus of the Languages in Education/Languages for Education (LE) project. But can the LE project benefit from the pedagogical experience that has accumulated over ten years of ELP implementation?

Despite growing numbers of students with diverse language histories attending school across Europe, systematic and structured professional education to prepare teachers and educational managers for work in multilingual schools is still relatively rare. Both initial teacher education and professional development for mainstream teachers tend not to problematise the language of schooling, assuming that all students are fully fluent, competent users of the language, in and out of the classroom. Professional development needs to address this and other issues.

In contemporary schools, linguistic diversity is a common feature and should be the starting point for the educational activities of educators and teachers. Immigrant minority children usually live bi- or multilingual lives in the host country and bring a multitude of languages and language competences to their educational institutions. This study focuses on ways in which the linguistic integration of bi- and multilingual children and young people can be designed successfully through collaboration among pupils, parents, teachers and other educational experts as well as between schools and other institutions.