Abstract
Globalisation processes have resulted in a complex diversification in the group of young language learners in classrooms throughout the world. From Denmark to Australia, learners from multilingual and multiliterate backgrounds are part of everyday life in the classroom, and these global childhoods pose challenges to the educational systems.
The papers in the symposium are based on research studies conducted in classrooms in Australia and Denmark, combining insights from two different national contexts and bringing together qualitative and quantitative data. All papers report on the global childhoods of young multilingual and multiliterate learners, but explore globalised classrooms from various perspectives: the perspectives of learners, teachers and policymakers. In combination, the papers in the symposium offer a nuanced description of the tensions and dilemmas in contemporary multilingual classrooms across the globe and a multifaceted analysis of the multilingual nature of global childhoods.
The first paper reports on research study conducted in primary schools in Sydney, Australia which investigated how multilingual children understand their own linguistic practices and how they report this practice. The children were asked to consider the role of their mulitingualism in their daily classroom experiences.
The second paper, based on a linguistic ethnographic case study in Denmark, explores language ideological aspects of global childhoods as they are negotiated in and around ’mother tongue teaching’ in Dari and Pashto for Afghan children in a Danish primary school.
The third paper is based on a Danish intervention study aiming at raising the learning outcomes of multilingual children through mother-tongue-based literacy activities.
As part of the intervention, systematic quantitative data on language proficiency were collected, and the paper focuses on how these quantitative data contribute to the understanding of global childhoods.
The papers in the symposium are based on research studies conducted in classrooms in Australia and Denmark, combining insights from two different national contexts and bringing together qualitative and quantitative data. All papers report on the global childhoods of young multilingual and multiliterate learners, but explore globalised classrooms from various perspectives: the perspectives of learners, teachers and policymakers. In combination, the papers in the symposium offer a nuanced description of the tensions and dilemmas in contemporary multilingual classrooms across the globe and a multifaceted analysis of the multilingual nature of global childhoods.
The first paper reports on research study conducted in primary schools in Sydney, Australia which investigated how multilingual children understand their own linguistic practices and how they report this practice. The children were asked to consider the role of their mulitingualism in their daily classroom experiences.
The second paper, based on a linguistic ethnographic case study in Denmark, explores language ideological aspects of global childhoods as they are negotiated in and around ’mother tongue teaching’ in Dari and Pashto for Afghan children in a Danish primary school.
The third paper is based on a Danish intervention study aiming at raising the learning outcomes of multilingual children through mother-tongue-based literacy activities.
As part of the intervention, systematic quantitative data on language proficiency were collected, and the paper focuses on how these quantitative data contribute to the understanding of global childhoods.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | 26 nov. 2015 |
| Status | Udgivet - 26 nov. 2015 |