MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS

An online VirtuLApp Multiplier Event organised jointly with UCLL, Belgium.

Thursday 7 January 2021

On the 7th of January, we welcomed 132 people to our online event Multilingual Classrooms. The full day event explored mulitlingual classrooms with the Virtulapp Project, the toolkit and game BabelAR. Below you can (re-)watch the plenary sessions, as well as find the programme and presentations.

10:00: Addressing the Challenge

This session sets the scene for this event, highlighting the status of multilingual teaching in different parts of Europe and outlining the challenge faced by teachers as they face an increasingly multilingual school population. This session is in English.

• Welcome and introductions by Liesbeth Spanjers & Liesbeth Martens on behalf of UCLL, Belgium and Cor van der Meer, Mercator/Fryske Akademy, The Netherlands on behalf of the European VirtuLApp project consortium
• Prof. Dr. Jill Surmont, Vrije Universiteit Brussel / UCLL, Belgium The Flemish paradox of multilingualism and the challenges it poses
• Prof. Dr. Joana Duarte, University of Groningen / Fryske Akademy / Mercator Research Centre, The Netherlands Addressing Multilingual Teaching from a European Perspective

Moderator: Sally Reynolds, ATiT, Belgium

These short talks will be followed by a discussion round when questions from the audience can be put to our speakers.

10:40 Screen Break

11:00 Shifting the Mindset

Clearly the key to ensuring pupil well-being in terms of language lies with their teacher. However for many teachers meeting the needs of multilingual pupils requires a considerable shift in their mindset. During this part of the programme, participants can chose from three different break-out sessions.

Break-out 1: Changing teachers mindsets – an interactive discussion session led by Dr. Déirdre Kirwan, former principle of Scoil Bhríde, a multilingual primary school in Dublin. Ireland. This session is in English.

Break-out 2: Language of/for/through learning of CLIL. How to take into account language in the CLIL-class led by Prof. Dr. Jill Surmont, Vrije Universiteit Brussel / UCLL. This session is in English.

Break-out 3: Lesson Study for functional multilingualism in the classroom: when teachers team up to design their most perfect lesson plan / Lesson study voor functionele meertaligheid in de klas: wanneer leerkrachten samenwerken om hun meest perfecte lesplan te ontwerpen led by Liesbeth Martens, Liesbeth Spanjers & Kim Willems, UCLL. This session is in Dutch.

12:30 Screen Break

13:30 Building and supporting effective learning in multilingual classrooms

This session provides an opportunity to share experience and know-how about environments and tools that really help multilingual schools fulfil their potential. This session is in English.

• Liesbeth Martens & Liesbeth Spanjers, UCLL, Belgium The vision behind UCLL’s programme on multilingual education and what makes it unique

• Dr. Déirdre Kirwan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Cultivating plurilingual repertoires: a whole-school approach

• Prof. Dr. Jill Surmont & Liesbeth Martens, UCLL, Belgium CLIL in Flanders: a study on the effectiveness of CLIL in Flemish secondary schools

• Mathy Vanbuel, ATiT, Belgium Introduction to VirtuLApp’s video based resources & Wim Forceville, LUCA School of Arts, Campus Sint-Lucas Gent, Gent, Belgium Introduction to VirtuLApp’s AR game for pupils in primary schools

Moderator: Sally Reynolds, ATiT, Belgium

These short talks will be followed by a discussion round when questions from the audience can be put to our speakers.

14:30 Screen Break

14:45 Exploring different environments and tools

These sessions are focused on professionalising and equipping the teacher for multilingual settings. During this part of the programme, participants can chose from four different break-out sessions, each of which will feature a specific set of tools and/or environments. The emphasis in these sessions is on practice.

Break-out 4: Getting to know the VirtuaLApp AR-Game to stimulate the use of pupils’ (home) languages led by Wim Forceville, LUCA School of Arts, Campus Sint-Lucas Gent, will provide an introduction to the VirtuLApp AR game which is now available for testing out in primary school classrooms all over Europe. This session will be in English.

Break-out 5: Lezergame – a method for (multilingual) children with reading difficulties led by Katrien Roelandts & Martine Ceyssens, UCLL. How do you get children with persistent reading problems to read? In this session you will learn about the conditions for reading and how to deal with this concretely in the classroom. It will provide an insight into the Lezergame (Zorg) programme and app.
Hoe krijg je kinderen met zeer hardnekkige leesproblemen toch aan het lezen? In deze sessie leer je wat de voorwaarden zijn om tot lezen te komen en hoe je dit concreet aanpakt in de klas. Je krijgt een inkijk in het Lezergame(Zorg)-programma en zijn app.
This session will be in Dutch.

Break-out 6: Examples from practice-based research on aspects of multilingual education / Voorbeelden van praktijkgericht onderzoek over aspecten van meertalig onderwijs led by Ann Van Hooste & Kim Willems, UCLL along with students Krista Philippaerts, Hannelore Peeters and Zowie Geypens from the advanced bachelor course on multilingual education. Materialds shared are: mes stratégies, mes mots difficiles, les mots grammaticaux, and fiche d’exercice vocabulaire. This session is in Dutch.

Break-out 7: Framework of the language mindset as an engine for evidence-informed and effective (foreign) language teaching led by Katrien Dewaele, UCLL. This session will focus on a conceptual evidence-informed framework that was developed in order to stimulate a growth language mindset with students and their teachers and which secondary school teachers have been working on in Teacher Design Teams as part of an ongoing practice-based research project.
Deze sessie focust op een conceptueel evidence-informed framework dat werd ontwikkeld om een op groei gefocuste taalmentaliteit bij leerlingen en hun leraren te stimuleren, waaraan docenten van middelbare scholen hebben gewerkt in Teacher Design Teams als onderdeel van een lopend praktijkgericht onderzoeksproject. 
This session is in Dutch.

16:00 Screen break

16:15 The road ahead

During this closing webinar we plan to invite several of our speakers and session leaders to join this open discussion on the challenges and opportunities that multilingual teaching can bring, to share any final thoughts and resources and to identify ways in which we can continue to share our knowledge and experience.
This session is in English.

Moderator: Sally Reynolds, ATiT, Belgium

16:45 Close