A holistic model for multilingualism in education

Abstract

This paper presents a holistic model for multilingualism in education (Duarte, 2017), which combines different approaches to teaching and knowledge and places them in a continuum—from the acknowledgement of different languages to their actual use as a language of instruction. The model addresses attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to the multilingualism of both teachers and students (Herzog-Punzenberger, Le Pichon-Vorstman, & Siarova, 2017) and is suitable for different school types and students (i.e., for both minority and migrant students). The model is tested in the northern Netherlands in a multilingual education project that combines different approaches to multilingual education for both migrant and minority learners. Through design-based interventions, teachers and researchers collaboratively develop multilingual activities in a bottom-up approach (i.e., based on questions from the schools involved). Some preliminary results from the project are presented, and the model’s contribution to research on multilingual education is discussed.