Search

Despite the global trend of growing diversity in student enrolment, most teacher education programmes remain inward-looking, oriented to national core standards and resist academic calls for internationalisation. While we agree that internationalisation at home is possible under certain circumstances, we put forward the argument that dialogic contact between student teachers in different national contexts has the potential to foster teacher education students' intercultural competence and offer opportunities for professional development that go beyond those offered by traditional programmes. This paper reports on the creation of a virtual transnational 'third place' for teacher education students based in Hamburg and Sydney, built around the mutual analysis of their respective visual linguistic biographies. We will show that such a transnational space and reflexive activity enhances student teachers' awareness of what it means to be and become a multilingual subject in other parts of the world, thus promoting self-awareness and the ability to decentre. Additionally, we claim that these activities have the potential to enhance teacher education students' attitudes towards the implementation of multilingual pedagogies.

Ethnolinguistic vitality theory asserts that Status, Demographic, Institutional Support and Control factors make up the vitality of ethnolinguistic groups. An assessment of a group's strengths and weaknesses in each of these dimensions provides a rough classification of ethnolinguistic groups into those having low, medium, or high vitality. Low vitality groups are most likely to go through linguistic assimilation and may not be considered a distinctive collective group. On the other hand, high vitality groups are likely to maintain their language and distinctive cultural traits in multilingual settings. Compared to other models, Ethnoliguistic Vitality Theory (EVT) and its accompanying instruments provide a broader and more inclusive framework for the investigation of language maintenance and shift. However, the empirical evidence obtained in a number of contexts point to an underestimation of the actual vitality of some minority groups. In this paper, based on the findings on ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions of Turkish immigrants in Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands, a critical evaluation of EVT will be presented. (Contains 5 tables.)

This article represents the collaborative efforts of two college faculty, one in the USA and one in Australia, exploring notions of internationalization of colleges of education and research on multilingualism and teacher education. First, the paper presents experiences of interactions with international researchers in Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Italy, Finland and Australia. Second, it presents research of three overseas immersion language teaching and learning experiences pursued with teacher candidates from Australia in Indonesia, Korea and China. The article focuses on two questions: in what ways can teacher educators enhance their expertise to prepare teachers for multicultural teaching in a global context? How can teacher educators and institutions create contexts and experiences where teachers and prospective teachers develop their knowledge, skills and dispositions to teach from an international and multicultural perspective? In essence, how can faculty prepare teachers to internationalize curricula and effectively teach students, not only from different ethnic groups and cultures but also different nations and languages?

Narrative studies with migrant teachers offer new perspectives on local educational practices and policies. As part of a study investigating German migrant teachers' experiences in Australian language classes, this paper uses narratives to evaluate present language education strategies in Germany and Australia. It examines the provision and uptake of foreign languages as a subject area in the two countries and compares existing educational goals and arrangements regarding language education in Germany and Australia. The German migrant teachers' accounts illustrate how current school policies and the value placed on language proficiency and multilingualism in the two countries' education are impacting on learning and teaching in the language classroom. The findings have significant potential to inform and stimulate the evaluation of recent national initiatives in language education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany and Australia are examples of countries characterised by a tension between their plurilingual populations and their monolingual mindsets. This paper sets out to make a comparison between policy and practice in language and education in Germany and Australia, first outlining the link between the nineteenth-century development of the ideology of the nation-state and beliefs in the importance of a single language as a key feature of a strong nation. We use Gogolin's notion of a language hierarchy to illustrate the status and position of different categories of language in each country. Hence, we begin by interrogating the concept of a national language in each site, and then secondly we look at policy, practices and attitudes to foreign languages, characterised as those taught as subjects in schools. The third and most problematic position on the hierarchy is that of languages of the community. In Germany, these are autochthonous minority languages, immigrant languages and immigrant ethnolects. In Australia, they are Indigenous languages and Kriols, Aboriginal English, immigrant languages and immigrant ethnolects. This paper then discusses the positive and negative aspects of each country's language policy. We argue that by analysing how unexamined monolingual perspectives are played out in very different contexts, we can contribute to more enlightened thinking about the plurilingual potential of nations with multilingual populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]