The Language of Schooling: A Challenge to Subject Learning

Abstract

This article focuses on the importance of language as a means to acquire knowledge in traditional content subjects at school. The article's aim is threefold: to introduce the term language of schooling; to point to some recent research findings in the field; to discuss what a focus on language in subject classes could mean in a school context. This article builds on findings from the project Language descriptors for migrant and minority students’ success in compulsory education hosted by the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz in 2012 and 2013 ( Moe et al. 2015) and materials collected in connection with an ECML think tank on the language of schooling in September 2016 (ECML 2016).