Emerging Multilingual Awareness in Educational Contexts: From Theory to Practice

The aim of this article is to stress the importance of a dynamic systems or complexity theory approach as a necessary prerequisite to understanding the development of multi-competence in multilingual learners. Selected results from a study on emergent multilingual awareness in children, carried out...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCanadian modern language review Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 157 - 182
Main Authors Jessner, Ulrike, Allgäuer-Hackl, Elisabeth, Hofer, Barbara
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Toronto Press 01.08.2015
Subjects
Children
Class Activities
Contrastive Linguistics
Foreign Countries
Geographic Regions
Metalinguistics
Multilingualism
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Teaching Methods
Theory Practice Relationship
Switzerland
Austria
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:The aim of this article is to stress the importance of a dynamic systems or complexity theory approach as a necessary prerequisite to understanding the development of multi-competence in multilingual learners. Selected results from a study on emergent multilingual awareness in children, carried out in South Tyrol, are outlined and discussed. The classroom activities described in the second part, which were developed mainly in an Austrian school context, focus on multilingual, i.e., metalinguistic and cross-linguistic, awareness and show that multilingual approaches to teaching and learning are linked to significant benefits at the linguistic and metalinguistic levels.
ISSN:0008-4506
DOI:10.3138/cmlr.2746