New publication on language aware multilingual pedagogies

In the turn of November and December I presented a paper and a poster with my colleague Josephine Moate with whom we co-ordinate the development of a new study programme LAMP – Language Aware Multilingual Pedagogy (in Finnish: KiMo – Kielitietoisuutta ja monikielisyyttä tukeva pedagogiikka), a project shared between the Department of Teacher Education, the Department of Education and the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

In our paper with Josephine, we discuss different entry points to the study of language awareness and multilingualism

Our contributions were part of the 2017 FERA conference at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi. We took part in inspiring discussions in a symposium on Language education and language awareness in education (in Finnish: Kielikasvatus ja kielitietoisuus kasvatuksessa). The conveners of the symposium, Raisa Harju-Autti and Sirkku Latomaa from the University of Tampere, decided to publish the edited versions of the presentations in a special issue of Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta (Language, Education and Society) which is the journal of the Finnish Network for Language Education Policies (Kieliverkosto). The special issue has been published on 9 May 2018 with thought provoking papers. Most of the papers are in Finnish so I added the translations of titles to make the content visible also for those not reading in Finnish:

Editorial

• Raisa Harju-Autti & Sirkku Latomaa: Kielet, kielikasvatus ja kielitietoisuus – politiikkaa, käytänteitä ja kehittämistarpeita (Languages, language education and language awareness -- policies, practicies and needs for development)

Papers

• Pauliina Sopanen: Kielitietoisuus uudessa varhaiskasvatussuunnitelmassa (Language awareness in the new core curriculum of early childhood education)
• Mirja Hämäläinen: Suspending judgement – ethical English dialogue skills for working life
• Josephine Moate & Tamás Péter Szabó: Mapping a language aware educational landscape
• Tuuli From: Kielitietoisuutta koulutilassa: kielipolitiikka osana koulun käytänteitä Suomessa ja Ruotsissa (Language awareness in school spaces: language policy as part of school practices in Finland and Sweden)
• Heini Lehtonen & Reetta Räty: Kielitietoisia käytänteitä monikielisessä koulussa: kokemuksia toimintatutkimuksesta (Language aware practices in the multilingual school: experiences from action research)
• Irja Alho & Riitta Korhonen: Jälkiä häivytetystä kieliopista – opettajien näkemyksiä kieliopin opettamisesta (Traces of fading grammar – teachers' views on teaching grammar)
• Jaana Pesonen: Kohti kriittistä lukutaitoa Tatun ja Patun kanssa (Towards critical literacy with Tatu and Patu)
• Maria Ahlholm: Saako monikielisessä koulussa puhua ruotsia? Får man prata finska i den flerspråkiga skolan? (Shall we speak Swedish in the multilingual school?)

Recently there has been several projects in Finland that target the development of educational practices with regards to multilingualism and language awareness. Several of such projects are presented in the article, and our above mentioned new study program to be launched in September 2018 LAMP also aims at experimenting with practices of multilingual education. In our paper with Josephine, as we formulated, we intend

to provide different ‘entry points’ into language awareness and highlight different considerations. This contribution begins by outlining why language awareness is needed before introducing the six entry points we use to map a language aware educational landscape. Hopefully the discussion will continue in different forums and the model will also be developed further.

Moate, Josephine  & Tamás Péter Szabó: Mapping a language aware educational landscape. Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta 9(3). URL: https://www.kieliverkosto.fi/fi/journals/kieli-koulutus-ja-yhteiskunta-toukokuu-2018/mapping-a-language-aware-educational-landscape

All contributions of the special issue Kielet, kielikasvatus ja kielitietoisuus – politiikkaa, käytänteitä ja kehittämistarpeita (Languages, language education and language awareness -- policies, practicies and needs for development) are available here: https://www.kieliverkosto.fi/fi/journals/kieli-koulutus-ja-yhteiskunta-toukokuu-2018