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Aims and objectives:
Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of two studies which addressed the question of why families with Russian as a home language choose (pre)schools with languages other than Russian as medium of instruction (MOI). The first study analyses family narratives which provide insight into attitudes and practices which lead to the decision to send children to Latvian-MOI institutions. The second study investigates language attitudes and practices by families in the international community of Riga German School.
Methodology:
The paper discusses data gathered during two studies: for the first, semi-structed interviews were conducted with Russian-speaking families who choose Latvian-medium schools for their children. For the second study, a survey was carried out in the community of an international school in Riga, sided by ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and the school leadership.
Data and analysis:
Interviews and ethnographic observations were subjected to a discourse analysis with a focus on critical events and structures of life trajectory narratives. Survey data were processed following simple statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis.
Findings/conclusions:
Our data reveal that families highly embrace multilingualism and see the development of individual plurilingualism as important for integration into Latvian society as well as for educational and professional opportunities in the multilingual societies of Latvia and Europe. At the same time, multilingualism and multiculturalism, including Russian, are seen as a value in itself. In addition, our studies reflect the bidirectionality of family language policies in interplay with practices in educational institutions: family decisions influence children’s language acquisition at school, but the school also has an impact on the families’ language practices at home. In sum, we argue that educational policies should therefore pay justice to the wishes of families in Latvia to incorporate different language aspects into individual educational trajectories.
Originality:
Language policy is a frequent topic of investigation in the Baltic states. However, there has been a lack in research on family language policy and school choices. In this vein, our paper adds to the understanding of educational choices and language policy processes among Russian-speaking families and the international community in Latvia.
Strategien zur Förderung von Mehrsprachigkeit in Deutschlehrwerken für die italienische Scuola Media
(2018)
Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik hat sowohl in der Fachdiskussion als auch in den Dokumenten des italienischen Bildungsministeriums eine neue Gewichtung bekommen. Deswegen sollte der Aufbau einer mehrsprachigen Kompetenz ein wichtiger Baustein des Fremdsprachenunterrichts werden. Da Lehrer Lehrwerke als Leitfaden, quasi als „Lehrplan“ benutzen, spielen diese eine wichtige Rolle in der Entwicklung von mehrsprachigem Unterricht. Ziel der vorliegenden Untersuchung ist es, die Lehrwerke für Deutsch als Fremdsprache der 1. Klasse der italienischen Scuola Media zu analysieren, um zu untersuchen, inwieweit Mehrsprachigkeit gefördert wird, da die italienischen Schüler in dieser Klasse zum ersten Mal eine weitere Fremdsprache nach Englisch lernen. Nach einem theoretischen Überblick über wichtige Fragen und Diskussionsfelder zur Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik sowie zu Lehrwerken und Lehrwerkanalysen werden die für diese Arbeit formulierten Forschungsfragen thematisiert. Die Ergebnisse werden abschließend präsentiert und diskutiert.
Plurilingualism is an important and widespread term. There are many definitions of the concept and its related words, and these definitions sometimes overlap and cause confusion. The European Union has evidenced plurilingualism since the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam, and its influence on the teaching of foreign languages – especially German – remains considerable. This article aims to provide an explicit, concrete definition of the term, analysing it in lexicographic products, official EU documents and specific literature. The article will conclude with a review of didactic strategies for increasing this complex competence.