A.2 Coping with linguistic and social diversity Whole School Language Profiles and Policies ENSEMBLE December 2005 European Centre for Modern Languages

Antoinette Camilleri Grima Andrea Young Elisabeth Fleischmann Madlena Norberg

Why “ensemble”? A school is a community of students, teachers, parents, administrators … others

A community… requires the development of respect towards common values, conceptions, ideas…

Context Council of Europe language education policies aim to promote:

Plurilingualism All are entitled to develop a degree of communicative ability in a number of languages over their lifetime in accordance with their needs

Linguistic diversity Europe is multilingual and all its languages are equally valuable modes of communication and expressions of identity

Mutual understanding The opportunity to learn other languages is an essential condition for intercultural communication and acceptance of cultural differences

Democratic citizenship Participation in democratic and social processes in multilingual societies is facilitated by the plurilingual competence of individuals

Social cohesion Equality of opportunity for personal development, education, employment, mobility, access to information and cultural enrichment depends on access to language learning throughout life

The Guide Looks at the larger context Addresses States and national policy making level

What is the message for the school?

Our Project Head teachers and Language policy co- ordinators at school to Establish goals and identify some technical means of implementing them

Points of departure

Plurilingualism Is a democratic value to be promoted Is a competence to be developed

Principle Native-like competence is NOT the only acceptable goal when learning a language

A plurilingual person has: A repertoire of languages and language varieties Competences of different kinds and levels within the repertoire

Plurilingual education promotes: An awareness of why and how one learns languages An ability to use transferable skills A respect for the plurilingualism of others

Respect for all language varieties A respect for all cultures A global, integrated approach to language education in the curriculum

Project Aims To understand existing school profiles fostering plurilingualism To formulate and implement policies that support plurilingualism

Pre-Workshop Identify a number of relevant issues to plurilingualism at school Illustrate them via a small number of ‘grounded’ case studies

Workshop Raise awareness about language issues in education Stimulate reflection about own attitudes and role Provoke discussion about the decision- making processes

Initiate the development of tools Focus on practical approaches Aim for tangible results

Post-Workshop Case studies provided by participants – school profiles Fine-tuning of tools intended for school development Examples of ‘research and development’

Case Studies Ascertaining continuity between home and school Valuing all languages Taking stock of all the assets

Establishing a climate of collaboration Implementing change in favour of linguistic diversity

Dissemination School profiles – to encourage others Tools – to support the implementation of policies favouring plurilingualism

To stimulate action by Head teachers – sensitize Head teachers toward their responsibility in this area

Quoting… Education Bradford There is a need for governors and senior managers in school to be committed to valuing the linguistic diversity of the school and its community

School leaders are in a strong position to take a lead on plurilingualism and linguistic diversity through relevant policies

They can also ensure that staff who wish to develop their skills in community languages have access to appropriate professional development

Schools should ensure they give appropriate value to the languages of the community…and that these are celebrated within school

The most important single factor in the success of the school is the quality of leadership of the head (Harris, Day, Hadfield, 2003)

One person with courage makes a majority Andrew Jackson