Promoting multilingual practices in school and home environments : Perspectives from Germany, Greece, Ireland and Poland

European society in the 21st century is characterised by increasing linguistic and cultural diversity and this offers valuable resources both on the economic and ideational level. At the same time, this growing diversity raises challenges to societies in terms of ensuring greater equity and social cohesion. In this book, the authors discuss the role of languages and multilingualism in the education system and at the interface of formal education and the home environment in this time of transition. They offer perspectives of four European countries, namely Germany, Greece, Ireland and Poland. By this, the authors aim to provide teachers, educators and other stakeholders in the education system with essential contextual information and related pedagogical considerations in the areas of language acquisition, multilingualism, multilingual upbringing, whole-school development and language-sensitive teaching.

Prof. Dr. habil. Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak ist Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Angewandte Linguistik der Adam-Mickiewicz-Universität Posen, Polen. Ihre Forschungsinteressen sind interkulturelle Kommunikation, Fremdsprachendidaktik, Hate Speech, Medien- und Pragmalinguistik.

Dr Angela Farrell is Assistant Dean International of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and a Lecturer in TESOL/Linguistics, with research interests and publications in second and foreign language pedagogy, migrant education, reflective practice, language awareness and second and foreign language classroom discourse.

Dr Sandra Ballweg is Professor of German as a Second and Foreign Language at Paderborn University with research interests and publications in family language policy, second/multiple language acquisition, multiliteracies, teacher education, L2 writing and other related topics.

Dr Andrea Daase is Professor of German as a Second and Foreign language at the University of Bremen with research interest and publications in multilingualism and second language acquisition in the school environment, vocational training, and related pre-service teacher education for linguistically diverse classrooms.

Dr Emilia Wąsikiewicz-Firlej, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, works at the School of Languages and Literature. Her research interests include professional and intercultural communication, business and advertising discourse, specialized language teaching as well as multilingualism and language policy. She has been part in many international projects.