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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

LANGUAGES: Comparing language use and instruction across contexts

Alternative title: LANGUAGES: Comparing language use and instruction across contexts

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

In LANGUAGES, we seek to identify similarities and differences in how two of the world's most widely spoken and taught languages – English and French – are taught in classrooms across Europe. LANGUAGES takes an innovative look at language teaching across multiple boundaries – national boundaries; language boundaries; first and second language boundaries; and age and proficiency boundaries – and will provide a state-of-the-art understanding of how languages are taught and learned. LANGUAGES adopts a longitudinal design and will follow the same students over two school years (grades 9–10 in the Norwegian school system and in corresponding grades in the UK and France, ages 13–15). It investigates teachers’ instruction and students’ use of languages in classrooms strategically sampled to include language variation, in three countries with different official languages and language policies. Studying two language subjects across contexts where they have different statuses offers unique opportunities to gain new knowledge about effective and inclusive language instruction. LANGUAGES’ bold ambition is to advance our understanding of how language teachers can support all students’ language development, from different proficiency levels, language backgrounds and across national as well as intranational contexts. This ambition will be achieved through systematic video observations of English and French lessons across European contexts, language tests in both languages, surveys and interviews with students and teachers. The ambition of identifying links between language instruction and students’ language achievement on the one hand, and inclusive teaching and students’ linguistic repertoires and multilingual identities on the other, is imperative to increase quality language education for all students, and central to the education of future democratic global citizens.

LANGUAGES sets out to address the societal challenges of supporting the multilingual capacities needed for democratic global citizenship by researching language use and instruction. LANGUAGES is a longitudinal video-based research project in which we will follow language instruction across three European countries (Norway, France, UK) systematically over two school years. Longitudinal video studies are scarce, and in LANGUAGES we combine video data with language proficiency tests, student and teacher surveys, and video-stimulated recall interviews, to capture various voices and perspectives on language education. Through this innovative research design, LANGUAGES’ bold ambition is to advance our understanding of how language teachers can support all students’ language development, from different proficiency levels, language backgrounds and across national as well as intranational contexts. LANGUAGES aims to gain new knowledge about challenging and promising initiatives to develop students' language proficiency, linguistic repertoires and multilingual identities. This issue is not a trivial concern linked to language education, but at the heart of educating global citizens for the future. The international project collaboration is carefully chosen to examine the use of two of the world's most widely taught languages (English and French), within and across contexts with different language policies, where these languages have very different statuses, and where adolescents’ proficiency in the languages varies extensively. The research design is developed, piloted and validated at the University of Oslo since 2015. LANGUAGES’ mixed methods design is ambitious; replicating and spreading the longitudinal research design across European countries; combining comparable data sources for contextualisation and gaining new knowledge about language instruction and inclusive education.

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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren