Multilingual classrooms include a wealth of linguistic knowledge. Find out how to harness your learners’ existing language resources to help them to better understand and develop their English language skills. This webinar draws on pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures which advocate the celebration and inclusion of all languages, including minority languages, and see them as a valuable resource to aid language learning.
In this webinar, the speakers, Claire and Isabelle, will look in particular at Awakening to Languages approaches (Candelier 2012) and activities and strategies you can use in your classroom.
About the speakers
Claire Ross has been supporting new and experienced teachers and teacher trainers in the field of English language teaching since 2005. She has worked on projects with institutions and ministries of education in many different countries, creating and delivering webinars, workshops and courses, observing lessons and mentoring. Claire helps teachers to teach effective and engaging lessons in schools and universities, and develops teacher educators’ skills through coaching and training programmes such as the British Council Assured Certificate for Teacher Educators. Claire is also an experienced materials designer who creates online teacher education courses for the British Council and writes primary and secondary classroom material.
Isabelle Grappe has worked in France, Lebanon and Niger with displaced, immigrants and political refugees. Her PhD in Sociolinguistics and Multilingual approaches is the result of 30 years of experience and action research for training design. She has trained teachers and trainers on the sociolinguistic approach to motivate vulnerable students from rural/border areas and nomads to learn and to integrate into schools, society and the workplace. She led on the integration of teaching strategies that give legitimacy to home languages and cultures in the state school curriculum in Lebanon. Isabelle develops programmes with an integrated approach that takes into consideration the livelihood, and creates mediation tools between teachers and parents. Currently, Isabelle is leading a project which takes a multilingual approach to teach speaking and listening for primary on the state radio in Chad.
Isabelle and Claire worked together in Lebanon during the Syria crisis to integrate refugee and migrant children, including those at risk of school dropout. They also, involved in this project parents of preschool children. They co-authored a book chapter about their work in the British Council publication Creating an Inclusive School Environment https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/creating-inclusive-school-environment