Claudine Kirsch

Ideologies, struggles and contradictions: an account of mothers raising their children bilingually in Luxembourgish and English in Great Britain

Researchers have studied family language planning within bilingual family contexts but there is a dearth of studies that examine language planning of multilingual parents who raise their children in one of the worlds lesser spoken languages. In this study I explore the ideologies and language planning of Luxembourgish mothers who are raising their children bilingually in Luxembourgish and English in Great Britain, where there is no Luxembourgish community to support them and where a monolingual discourse prevails. All mothers strongly identified with Luxembourgish, aimed at developing active bilingualism and recognised their role in ensuring exposure to Luxembourgish. However, five mothers choose a one-person-two-languages model which limits exposure to Luxembourgish. The article illustrates the extent to which the mothers’ management of their own and of the childrens language use is mediated by their ideologies, experiences of multilingualism and their interactions in a large monolingual setting.

Young Children Learning Languages in a Multilingual Context.

Luxembourg is a trilingual country where residents communicate in Luxembourgish, French and German concurrently. Children therefore study these languages at primary school. In this paper I explore how six eight-year-old Luxembourgish children use and learn German, French and English in formal and informal settings over a period of one year. Their eagerness to learn and use German and English contrasted with their cautious and formal approach to the learning of French. My findings demonstrate that second language learning in a multilingual country is not an ‘automatic’ or ‘natural’ process but, rather, childrens language behaviour depends on their personal goals, interests, competence, confidence and understanding of what counts as appropriate language use. These factors are influenced by the formal approach to language learning at school.

Developing children's language learner strategies at primary school

This article discusses the strategy repertoires and strategy development of six English children who learned foreign languages at primary school. My study differs from mainstream research, in that it focuses on young children and on the development of their strategies, draws on sociocultural theory and uses ethnographic methods. My findings show that the six children developed a range of strategies over the course of a calendar year in spite of receiving no direct strategy instruction. The primary classroom encouraged learner autonomy and stimulated children to reflect on their learning which, in turn, enabled them to refine their strategies.

Using storytelling to teach vocabulary in language lessons: does it work?

It has long been claimed that stories are a powerful tool for language learning. Storytelling is often used as a discrete pedagogical approach in primary modern foreign language (MFL) lessons in England. There has, however, been little investigation into how storytelling might impact on vocabulary learning in the primary classroom. This article focuses on how a London primary teacher used stories in German lessons in a Year 6 class (ages 10–11), and analyses the words and sentences the case-study children remembered over a brief period of time. Data were collected over two terms through observations, interviews and post-tests. The findings illustrate the wide range of teaching strategies that allowed for explicit and incidental learning and encouraged meaningful language use. They also show that children recalled a considerable number of words and sentences.

Young children capitalising on their entire language repertoire for language learning at school

ABSTRACT While translanguaging has been well researched in bilingual settings with older pupils and has been found to contribute to cognitive and personal development, there is little research on translanguaging of young multilinguals. In trilingual Luxembourg, at school, children learn Luxembourgish aged 4, German aged 6 and French aged 7, with the majority not speaking Luxembourgish on school entry. The number of languages to be learned may leave teachers little space to capitalise on home languages and encourage translanguaging. Drawing on qualitative methods, this paper contextualises and examines the practice and purposes of translanguaging of nursery and primary school children who speak a language other than Luxembourgish at home, while they collaboratively produce oral texts on the iPad app iTEO. The data stem from a longitudinal study using a multi-method approach. The findings indicate that the children made use of their multilingual repertoire in order to communicate, construct knowledge and mark their multilingual identity. Translanguaging was a frequent and legitimate practice in both classes although the older children drew less on home languages other than Luxembourgish. The children’s ability to translanguage and their opportunities for doing so were influenced by the multilingual learning environment, the curriculum and the language learning tasks.

iTEO as a Tool-and-Result in dialogical multilingual language learning

In this paper I will document and analyse the use of the iTEO app (henceforth iTEO) for the iPad in the learning of French in a second grade class in Luxembourg. The analysis of the data will result in the characterising of iTEO as a tool-and-result promoting and propelling dialogue and meta-linguistic awareness in multilingual language learning through the recording of utterances for creating stories, a process I refer to as ‘storying’. In contrast to still prevailing monological and teacher centred visions of language learning in many classrooms in Luxembourg, the app we developed privileges interactions and dialogue among peers as propellers of the learning of French. This dialogic interaction based on Bakhtin’s view that language lives only in dialogic interactions (Bakhtin 1984, 139) draws on manifold resources from the context of the pupils’ private and official language use. I will describe the tool and suggest how it could be used in the national and local Luxembourgish educational and institutional settings where language learning is of foremost importance and relevance. These suggestions rest on a thorough analysis of dialogues and interactions between two pupils in a process of joint story building.

‘In this country my children are learning two of the most important languages in Europe’: ideologies of language as a commodity among Greek migrant families in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT This paper explores the language ideologies of three middle-class migrant Greek families in Luxembourg, one ‘established’ family and two ‘new’ crisis-led migrant families, all of whose children attend Luxembourgish state schools. While the families differ in terms of migration trajectory, their language ideologies converge. The findings of this ethnographic study show that all parents view multilingualism as an asset and relate it to culture, identity and job opportunities. The parents’ ideologies are shaped both by their desire to improve their social standing and by societal discourses on the values of languages in the job market and in the Higher Education. Luxembourg’s official trilingualism is seen as a symbol of national cohesion and it is viewed as a commodity on the job market. Thus, the development of children’s multilingualism in French, German and English is seen as a ‘commodity’ which, they hope, will enable children to compete in the new globalised, transnational and post-industrial/services market.

Emergent multilinguals learning languages with the iPad app iTEO: a study in primary schools in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT The present small-scale study investigates language learning in primary schools in Luxembourg and the ways in which this process is mediated by peers and the iPad app iTEO. This study draws its data from the larger longitudinal qualitative research project iTEO (2013–2017) and is based on 13 hours of audio and video-recordings. The participants are 6–7-year-olds learning German and French. Grounded in sociocultural theory, this paper examines, first, the ways in which the emergent multilingual primary school children scaffold each other’s learning of German and French while collaboratively producing oral texts on iTEO and, second, investigates the affordances of this app for learning. The findings show that the children’s language learning was mediated by peers, the task and the app. The children used a range of learning and teaching strategies while completing tasks framed by their teacher. iTEO and the task together mobilised the children’s resources, encouraged autonomy and promoted discussion about language.

Transnational Experiences, Language Competences and Worldviews: Contrasting Language Policies in Two Recently Migrated Greek Families in Luxembourg.

Abstract Against the backdrop of the ongoing crisis-led migration from Southern to Northwestern Europe, the present paper reports on a case study of two families who have recently migrated from Greece to Luxembourg. Luxembourg has a trilingual education system and many pupils of migrant background face difficulties on this account. Drawing on the framework of Family Language Policy, this paper explores the language ideologies and management strategies of two families as well as factors influencing their policies. This qualitative study was based on interviews, observations, and videos recorded by one of the families. The findings show that the families have contrasting language ideologies and management strategies that are informed by their differing transnational experiences, competences and worldviews. This study can contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which migrant families use their language resources in their new country.

Dynamic interplay of language policies, beliefs and pedagogy in a preschool in Luxembourg

Abstract There is a recognised need for multilingual pedagogies as these capitalise on children’s resources. Language policies calling for monolingual or multilingual policies are, however, not easily translated into pedagogical practices. Teachers play a crucial role in the process of policy implementation because they negotiate policies and adapt them in the light of their beliefs, experiences, existing pedagogical practices and the context in which these are embedded. This case study is located in a preschool in multilingual Luxembourg and examines the ways in which a teacher engages with policy and implements a multilingual-oriented programme to draw on children’s diverse language needs. The data stem from a qualitative, longitudinal study using a multi-method approach. The findings highlight the interplay between the educational policy focussing on Luxembourgish, the teacher’s beliefs and ideologies rooted in her multilingual identity and the country’s societal multilingualism, and a boy’s experiences of separating languages at home. The findings are of particular interest to teachers as they show that the dialogue between the teacher, the child and his mother influences their beliefs and contributes to opening up multilingual spaces.