Developing Cross-linguistic and Cross-cultural Awareness in the Multilingual EFL Classroom
Projektdauer:
01.10.13 bis 31.12.17
Kurzinhalt:
Migration processes during the last decades have contributed to increasing multilingualism and to the development of multicultural identities in many countries all over the world, including Germany. This context creates new challenges as well as new pedagogical opportunities for foreign language teachers. Although research has shown that in most cases bilingualism/multilingualism favours the acquisition of additional languages (e.g. Cenoz & Valencia, 1994; Klein, 1995), the literature has also pointed towards the key role played by teachers’ and learners’ perceptions in allowing this potential to be realized (Hu, 2003). Therefore, there is a strong need for research that investigates underlying beliefs towards multilingualism that shape teachers’ behaviour and pedagogical gaps that need to be addressed in language teacher education. Another important aim should be the development of pedagogical materials that can assist teachers in exploiting the cognitive and meta-cognitive skills that multilinguals bring into the task of learning an additional language. In order to contribute to this area of enquiry, this project examines primary school teachers’ perceptions towards multilingualism in the EFL classroom and conducts a classroom-based investigation of EFL language learning materials focusing on the development of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural awareness.
Forschungsdatenbank
Prof. Dr. Cutrim Schmid, Euline (Leitung)Profil