Multilingual Europe: Diversity and Learning

What can educators in different countries learn from each other about successful multilingual initiatives? By comparing experiences from diverse settings―France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK―the writers highlight ways of creating multilingual learning communities that promote language expertise, intercultural understanding and educational achievement.

Multilingual Europe casts fresh light on: how children and young people can develop their existing languages and learn new ones; how identities are constructed in multicultural contexts; how schools can link with families and communities; how educators can devise innovative pedagogies for multilingual classrooms.

Collaboratively written by participants from the Multilingual Europe seminar series at Goldsmiths, University of London, the book shows how research, policy and practice can work together for success.

This collection of international case studies will stimulate reflection for undergraduate and postgraduate students on education-related courses, students of language learning and teaching, teacher educators, researchers and policy-makers. The insights provided will interest language communities worldwide.

Contributors include Jean Conteh, Christine Helot, Aura Mor-Sommerfeld and Dominique Portante.

Charmian Kenner is Lecturer in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London, specializing in research on bilingualism and family learning.

Tina Hickey is Lecturer in Psychology at University College Dublin, well-known for her work on the learning and teaching of minority languages.