Multilingual Education

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4020086ENR for all students in the 1st semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Esli Struys (course titular)
Ily Hollebeke

Activities and contact hours

13 contact hours Lecture
13 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
75 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

This course focuses on the linguistic and cognitive development of the multilingual child, in interaction with multilingual policies in various domains, such as the family, daycare centre, school, and wider society. The first part zooms in on the linguistic and cognitive development in the preschool period and the role that family and institutional language policies play at this early age. The second part concerns formal education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels with special attention for various types of (second and foreign) language education, multilingual education, and their effectiveness in terms of language and cognitive outcomes. In the third and last part, which is a case study of multilingual education in Belgium, this course will discuss multilingual policies in the Regions and Communities of Belgium (with a special focus on Brussels), and their relationship to the development of the multilingual child.

This course makes use of the principles of blended learning which means that students prepare the classes on their own or in group based on provided content, and then elaborate on this content during the lectures by means of interactive class discussions.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Reader

Additional info

Esli.Struys@vub.be

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

Students know the main conceptual and theoretical frameworks on the linguistic and cognitive development of the multilingual child in interaction with societal multilingualism in various domains.

Students have insight into various multilingual education practices around the globe, and they can relate their own language educational background to multilingual policies in Belgium or other cases discussed in class.

Students can critically reflect on the scientific literature on multilingual education and they can communicate their reflections in a written report.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Paper with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

All information regarding evaluation will be announced timely on the online learning platform. The student is responsible for ensuring that he/she is registered on the online learning platform. If the student encounters problems with registration on the online learning platform, he/she is expected to notify the teacher as soon as possible by email.

If the student has not submitted a paper, he/she will be given an ‘absent’ score. The paper will be evaluated with the assistance of software for detecting plagiarism. The usage of generative AI is allowed to support the writing process in any possible way. Every usage of generative AI must be reported using the imposed reference style.

Students will have to assess other group members and themselves on a number of criteria. This will result in an individual score that will be used to modify the group score (= the intrinsic value of the group paper) for each individual group member. This individual modification will be executed by multiplication of the group score by the individual score. This modified score will have a weight of 100% in the final score for the whole course. If a student does not fill out the peer assessment within the set deadline, the teacher may decide to grant a null score to the student for that specific evaluation component. The teacher has the final say in this whole process and thus may decide to strengthen, weaken, or even not to take into account the obtained scores if they turn out to be unreliable. This decision will only be taken in exceptional circumstances, and must always be based on clear arguments, analyses, and/or additional observations/conversations.

The evaluation components are the same for the first and the second session. The results of individual components may, upon written request of the student via email, be transferred to the next exam session.

Within this course, students may receive the possibility to acquire a credit by participation to one or multiple experiments that are organized within the research group. Students who do not wish or who cannot participate to the (whole) experiment will receive another assignment that corresponds to the scope of the experiment.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context