Abstract Summary
Implementing successful alternative approaches for multilingual education requires positive attitudes towards multilingualism and towards home languages. The current research will measure how multilingual pedagogical approaches in primary schools have a positive and durable effect on implicit and explicit language attitudes of teachers and pupils.
Abstract :
This research is carried out as part of the 3M project: Meer kansen met Meertaligheid (More opportunities with Multilingualism), which aims to devise school pedagogies that include the students’ home languages as a resource in order to support pupils with migrant and minority languages. This process requires positive attitudes towards the home languages of students and multilingualism in general (Cummins, 2000). Furthermore, monolingual pupils attain better school results when they develop more positive attitudes towards other languages (Hélot 2012); and the presence of strong monolingual beliefs can have detrimental effects on linguistically diverse students’ academic achievement (Wheeler 2008).
Prior research has shown that educators generally hold positive attitudes towards multilingualism, but in practice show concern due to perceived practical implications (Angelis, 2011). Importantly, even minimal instruction on multilingual education during teacher training can change attitudes towards multilingualism (Lee & Oxelson, 2006), and attention to migrant languages leads to more positive teacher attitudes towards those languages and towards multilingualism (Ruijven & Ytsma, 2008). The objective is therefore to challenge monolingual beliefs and habits in order to implement effective translanguaging strategies for multilingual education (Garcia & Wei, 2014).
In this paper we will measure teacher and student attitudes to map how various didactic approaches in primary schools have a positive and durable effect on the development over implicit and explicit language attitudes over time (cf. Pulinx, Agirdag & Van Avermaet, 2015; Pantos & Perkins 2012). Explicit attitudes will be measured via interviews for teachers and questionnaires for students. Implicit attitudes will be measured via Implicit Association Test (IAT), a reaction-time experiment designed to show relative strengths of association that are either positive or negative (Greenwald et al., 1998; Pantos & Perkins, 2012). In this paper, we will present the data collected from the first round of interviews, surveys and IATs.
