Abstract

With contributions from leading scholars all around the world, this volume underlines the ever-pressing need for new language in education policies to include all learners’ voices in the multilingual classroom and to empower teachers to develop responsive and transformative pedagogies. Using testimonies, narratives and examples from different international contexts, this book points clearly to what can be achieved practically in the multilingual classroom so that multilingual learners’ voices are legitimated, while also addressing the complex inter-relating sociolinguistic issues around the promotion of bilingualism and multilingualism in education.

In this book, Hélot and O’Laoire fill the gaps that Hélot has so well identified in the past with possibilities - possibilities to educate for social equity and plurilingualism. But instead of arguing for top-down language education policies, Hélot and O’Laoire open possibilities in the ecology of classrooms through the agency of teachers and students. Focusing on pedagogies of the possible, this book is ground-breaking in its ecological approach that will appeal to scholars, policy makers and educators alike.

Language Policy for the Multilingual Classroom clearly shows how classroom pedagogies in different parts of the world can build on the resources of multilingual learners. This volume is an excellent contribution to the field of multilingualism in general and to multilingual education in particular.

Christine Hélot is a professor of English and teacher educator at the University of Strasbourg in France. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College (Dublin). She has published several books and numerous articles both in French and English on bilingualism and bilingual education, language education policies, language awareness and intercultural education.

Muiris Ó Laoire is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Technology, Tralee, Ireland. A graduate of the National University of Ireland, he is author of books, textbooks and several articles and chapters on multilingualism, bilingualism language policy and pedagogy.