Using multilingual approaches is one of the 12 professional practices in the British Council's CPD framework for teachers. It involves recognising and valuing the multilingual nature of societies, schools and classrooms, using pedagogical strategies that encourage inclusive education within a supportive multilingual learning environment, being aware of beliefs about speakers of other languages and how they can impact on establishing and maintaining an inclusive learning environment, assessing individual learners in a manner that takes their linguistic background into account, giving my learners appropriate opportunities to use their home languages to support and demonstrate their understanding of learning content, making pedagogical choices that respect and capitalise on my learners’ linguistic diversity and reflecting on how effective implementation of multilingual approaches is in promoting learning.
- Using multilingual approaches involves:
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- Recognising and valuing the multilingual nature of societies, schools and classrooms.
- Using pedagogical strategies that encourage inclusive education within a supportive multilingual learning environment.
- Being aware of beliefs about speakers of other languages and how they can impact on establishing and maintaining an inclusive learning environment.
- Assessing individual learners in a manner that takes their linguistic background into account.
- Giving my learners appropriate opportunities to use their home languages to support and demonstrate their understanding of learning content.
- Making pedagogical choices that respect and capitalise on my learners’ linguistic diversity.
- Reflecting on how effective my implementation of multilingual approaches is in promoting learning.
