School language policies: a case for research-informed, cohesive policies

K. Forbes
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Abstract

Language plays a crucial role in education; yet, on a daily basis teachers and school leaders must navigate a complex web of competing and often conflicting priorities in relation to various dimensions of language education. This includes supporting students’ first language and literacy development, sustaining the teaching of foreign languages in the curriculum and considering the role of other community or home languages spoken by students. However, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school-level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence. For example, teachers are often left to their own devices to decide whether and how to allow space for other languages in the classroom; questions arise such as whether to use the first language in the foreign language classroom, or whether to ‘allow’ migrant students to use their home language as a resource for learning. This paper, therefore, aims to provide an overview of some of the key theoretical perspectives on multilingualism in the classroom and to consider some practical implications for schools when developing research-informed language policies. It will draw briefly on some preliminary findings from a project which analysed school policies relating to language across a representative sample of 998 secondary schools in England. A case will be made for teachers and researchers to collaborate to develop research-informed, cohesive school-level language policies which incorporate all dimensions of languages in schools.
学校语言政策:以研究为依据的凝聚力政策案例
语言在教育中起着至关重要的作用;然而,在日常生活中,教师和学校领导必须在与语言教育的各个方面相关的竞争和经常冲突的优先事项的复杂网络中导航。这包括支持学生的第一语言和读写能力的发展,在课程中维持外语教学,并考虑学生使用的其他社区或家庭语言的作用。然而,虽然语言问题无疑与所有教师有关,但学校层面的语言政策却常常因缺乏这些政策而引人注目,这些政策旨在以一套明确的原则为基础,提供明确的指导。例如,教师往往只能自己决定是否以及如何在课堂上为其他语言提供空间;问题出现了,比如是否在外语课堂上使用母语,或者是否“允许”移民学生使用母语作为学习资源。因此,本文旨在概述课堂上使用多种语言的一些关键理论观点,并考虑学校在制定基于研究的语言政策时的一些实际意义。它将简要介绍一个项目的一些初步发现,该项目分析了英格兰998所中学的代表性样本中与语言相关的学校政策。教师和研究人员将合作制定以研究为依据、具有凝聚力的学校一级语言政策,将学校语言的所有方面都纳入其中。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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