In a world increasingly marked by multilingualism, classrooms have become a reflection of this diverse reality. The dynamic practices of teachers and the multilingual origin of the students have given way to what is known as 'translanguage'. In this context, attention has shifted to the need to explore the benefits of multilingual interactions from a broader perspective.
The Linguistics Applied to English Language Teaching Research Group (LAELA) at the Universitat Jaume I has completed a pioneering study on the benefits of plurilingual educational programmes (PEPLI and PEPM) in the Valencian Community by analysing the linguistic competence of students who are taught content subjects such as science in English and others such as mathematics in Valencian.
Theisresearch evaluates the effectiveness of content and language integrated learning programmes (CLIL) for language and content learning. It analyses the relationship between the number of hours devoted to Spanish, Catalan and English in the curriculum and their use in and out of the classrooms, with 392 participants from primary school students, their teachers and families. In total, 1,176 essays written in the three languages were reviewed.
The results reveal that language exposure time does not always correlate with better learning, but the combination of classroom and non-classroom exposure, especially through the media, facilitates language learning. In addition, bilingual (Spanish-Catalan) programmes were found to benefit English language learning.
This work is linked to the doctoral thesis carried out by Irene Guzmán-Alcón under the supervision of professors Pilar Safont and Laura Portolés, with the collaboration of professors Christiane Dalton-Puffer (University of Vienna), Cristina Sanz (Georgetown University, Washington), and Otilia Martí and Richard Nightingale from the UJI.
The study analyses CLIL programmes in the multilingual context of the Valencian Community for the first time, considering the multilingual competence of learners in this language community. It also makes key recommendations for education policy makers in the region.
Among these recommendations, the study highlights the importance of promoting the mastery of English without neglecting the other languages of the curriculum, since multilingual competence is an advantage for learning this foreign language. For this reason, it is suggested to promote a balanced integration of languages in the curriculum and to disseminate the benefits of plurilingual education among teachers and families.
