TY - JOUR
T1 - Language education policies for young learners in Europe
AU - Bonacina-Pugh, Florence
AU - Helot, Christine
N1 - Dr. Florence Bonacina-Pugh is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Language Education at The University of Edinburgh, UK. Her main research interests lie in the fields of language policy, multilingualism and education. She is the co-founder and co-chair of the Language Policy Special Interest Group of the British Association of Applied Linguistics. Recent publications can be found in The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language Policy, Language and Education, Language Teaching, and The Applied Linguistics Review. F.bonacina- [email protected]
PY - 2023/4/5
Y1 - 2023/4/5
N2 - Language education policies are policies that inform the ways in which languages should be taught, learned, used and assessed in educational institutions. They are usually created with a view to support the development or the maintenance of particular languages, as it is often believed that schools play an important role in shaping language practices in society at large. This paper aims to give an overview of the major types of language education policies for young learners currently available in Europe, including ‘foreign’ language education, bilingual, and multilingual education. It also aims to highlight how these language education policies are underpinned by various ideologies and understandings of ‘language’ and ‘bilingualism’. We argue that Language Education Policies need to be conceptualised as being multi-layered and dynamic processes, which need to involve all educational actors for them to lead to students’ success and sustained bi/multilingual development. Finally, this paper discusses two examples of multilingual language education policies for young learners in Europe, one in Luxembourg for pre-primary education and one in Ireland for primary education, with a view to highlight possible trajectories towards the creation and implementation of multilingual language education policies. It is hoped that this paper will inform language education policy makers, researchers, and actors on current developments and challenges related to language education policy in Europe.
AB - Language education policies are policies that inform the ways in which languages should be taught, learned, used and assessed in educational institutions. They are usually created with a view to support the development or the maintenance of particular languages, as it is often believed that schools play an important role in shaping language practices in society at large. This paper aims to give an overview of the major types of language education policies for young learners currently available in Europe, including ‘foreign’ language education, bilingual, and multilingual education. It also aims to highlight how these language education policies are underpinned by various ideologies and understandings of ‘language’ and ‘bilingualism’. We argue that Language Education Policies need to be conceptualised as being multi-layered and dynamic processes, which need to involve all educational actors for them to lead to students’ success and sustained bi/multilingual development. Finally, this paper discusses two examples of multilingual language education policies for young learners in Europe, one in Luxembourg for pre-primary education and one in Ireland for primary education, with a view to highlight possible trajectories towards the creation and implementation of multilingual language education policies. It is hoped that this paper will inform language education policy makers, researchers, and actors on current developments and challenges related to language education policy in Europe.
KW - language education policy
KW - Europe
KW - young learners
KW - foreign language education
KW - bilingual education
KW - multilingualism
KW - ideology
U2 - 10.3828/ejlp.2023.2
DO - 10.3828/ejlp.2023.2
M3 - Article
SN - 1757-6822
VL - 15
SP - 5
EP - 24
JO - European Journal of Language Policy
JF - European Journal of Language Policy
IS - 1
ER -