Pre-service teachers’ beliefs about language learning and communication strategies: does language proficiency make a difference?

This study examined pre-service teachers’ beliefs about language learning and communication strategies in the process of acquiring English as an additional language. Two groups of participants from a Spanish university’s School of Education (n = 50) completed the Horwitz (1985) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI). The bilingual group, which primarily received instruction through English, was compared with the non-bilingual group, which was predominantly trained in Spanish (their first language). After administering the t-test, differences were found between both groups in their beliefs on learning and communication strategies although they were not statistically significant. Since learning strategies play a key role in language learning, both in reception and production processes, these findings suggest that both groups (particularly the non-bilingual group, which had a significantly lower study load during their degree programme) may benefit from explicit instruction on communication strategies to promote awareness of the effectiveness of these strategies. In addition, such instruction might lead to improvements in their future experience as foreign language teachers.

Developing pre-service teachers’ digital communication and competences through service learning for bilingual literacy

Learning environments have become increasingly digital in recent decades, requiring teachers and students to develop general digital competences across all educational systems and stages. This also means that for future teachers, professional digital competencies are a valuable asset that enables them to work with the technologies already fully integrated in schools and embedded in most curricula. This paper describes the use of digital communication technology throughout the different stages of a Service Learning Project, involving 2nd and 3rd year students from the Degree in Primary Education at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid. Students and their teachers involved in the project use specific digital communication tools which favour the interaction and completion of the project goal: supporting literacy programmes in two languages for underprivileged students in two local schools. This paper analyses the tools used in the different stages of the project, the digital competencies they are related to and their suitability for similar Service Learning Projects.

On the Development of a CLIL Textbook Evaluation Checklist: A Focus Group Study.

Promoting Metacognitive and Linguistic Skills: Digital Learning Logs in Pre-Service Teacher Training

This paper reports on the implementation of digital learning logs in the context of pre-service teacher training in a distance university in Madrid. The learning log, which had been previously implemented in the subject as a learning tool, has proven to be especially useful in Covid-19 times since the students had to work more independently and could use it to reflect upon their learning without the conventional teaching they were used to. The paper has a two-fold aim: first, to analyze whether the learning logs helped in promoting students’ autonomy and self-reflection, and second, to observe whether they contribute to the development of their linguistic competence in English as a foreign language. Participants of the study (n= 47) are students of the Primary and Infant Education degrees, specializing in English teaching, whose L2 level ranges between B1 and C2. At the end of half term, they were given the possibility of completing a learning log to record their learning process, review concepts and be aware of potential learning gaps and needs, and act accordingly. For this purpose, and to encourage participation, L1 or L2 could be chosen as vehicular languages. Participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire on their experience using the logs, answering questions regarding the suitability of this tool to enhance their language skills and promote effective strategies to become independent learners. The data drawn from the questionnaires submitted (n=29) were later analyzed through SPSS. In addition, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect information on those participants who had not completed the learning log (n=11). The findings of the study show that the vast majority of participants agree on the potential of learning logs as a useful tool to keep track of their learning process and to develop metacognitive awareness and linguistic skills.

Inclusive Practices and Bilingual Education

Alongside the steady increase of bilingual schools, the last two decades have witnessed the need to incorporate inclusive practices within such settings. Notwithstanding, the diversity of needs and multiple learning environments embraced by the term inclusion and the recent generalization of bilingual programs in some contexts have led to limited and heterogeneous research on this matter. This chapter aims to outline the emergent themes in recent literature regarding inclusion and bilingual/plurilingual education. To this end, through the analysis of abstracts in recent research regarding both issues, thematic categories were separated and discussed using MAXQDA 10.0 software. Results show a clear salience of context-bound pedagogical practices, followed by bilingual education of the deaf as a key theme. The emergent themes raised in the current literature can help education stakeholders identify the research trends in this area and reflect upon their potential pedagogical implications.

Early Bilingual Education: A General Bibliometric Approach and Content Analysis Using SciMAT

Bilingual and multilingual education have certainly gained popularity in the past decades since societies are increasingly becoming more aware of the need to welcome additional languages into the school curricula in order to equip citizens with a functional use of several languages. However, research about the extent to which bilingual practices are present at preschool education has not been fully exploited, mainly because this is a non-obligatory educational stage in most countries, and the wide variety of educational contexts in which practices can take place. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of early bilingual education, using as a reference the publications in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1988 to 2022. For this purpose, 1011 publications were analysed by applying advanced bibliometric techniques in SciMAT bibliometric analysis software. This research is hoped to serve as a framework to identify existing research lines and outline new ones, establishing synergetic relationships that were not visible without the maps generated herein.

Unlocking Multilingual Classrooms: Preprimary Teachers’ Perspectives on Inclusive Pedagogy in Spain

Abstract This study addresses the challenges faced by pre-primary teachers (specialists and non-specialists in additional languages) in multilingual settings, with a specific focus on attention to diversity. Nowadays, schools are becoming more diverse both linguistically (Robinson-Jones, Duarte & Günther-van der Meij, 2022) and through the inclusion of special educational needs (SEN) students (Ramberg & Watkins, 2020). This study aims to identify the teachers’ needs in these contexts and to bring to light emergent topics on multilingualism and diversity. Ten focus groups were conducted for this purpose, and participants (pre-primary teachers) were asked to reflect on their competencies to address groups of young learners in multilingual settings. The participants originate from five different locations in Spain, characterized by different linguistic and social realities. The discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the software MAXQDA was used to facilitate the content analysis of the obtained data. Information was gathered from two perspectives: specialists and non-specialist teachers of additional languages. The findings reveal the complexity of adopting and incorporating the tailored approaches required by the increasingly linguistically diverse students and by those with special educational needs. Several key findings emerged, including the difficulties of the teachers when adapting to changing educational contexts, the lack of guidelines to facilitate teaching in multilingual contexts, and the teachers’ concern about diverse students. The results of this research underscore the importance of providing pre-primary teachers in multilingual contexts with multifaceted support (specific legal framework, training sessions, and classroom assistants, among others) to facilitate the inclusiveness of diverse young learners. The research, embedded in a national research project on pre-primary teachers’ competencies in multilingual contexts, contributes insights into teaching strategies in diverse multilingual settings.

Making Meaning

This chapter explores the possibilities of exploiting multilingual picturebooks for foreign and additional language learning both at pre-school and the junior cycle level of primary education. The study aims to adapt the pedagogic strategy designed by Louie and Sierschynski to enhance language development through wordless picturebooks by implementing multilingual picturebooks instead. Following a brief contextualisation to evaluate the potential of multilingual picturebooks to facilitate additional language learning, the four-stepped strategy is succinctly outlined; subsequently, a modified version of said strategy is proposed, integrating the linguistic support in two or more languages that may be absent in wordless picturebooks. While underscoring translanguaging practices and spaces as pivotal tools for facilitating meaning negotiation and co-construction, the chapter introduces supplementary practices and techniques to align with the guidelines presented by Louie and Sierschynski in the context of multilingual picturebooks. The chapter concludes by contemplating the possibilities beyond translanguaging practices, such as interacting with visual or tactile pedagogical resources when utilising multilingual picturebooks and recommending their integration into a revised version of the pedagogical strategy.

The Game As An Educational Resource; Timeliner: A Videogame For The Teaching And Learning Of Spanish As A Foreign Language

Gamification understood as the application of mechanics to non-ludic context has experienced a significant increasing in different areas, among others in education. In the area of teaching Spanish as a foreign language, we can observe that there is a difference if we compare it, for example to the use of gamification in English as a foreign language. Our proposal to implement a videogame has a twofold purpose: to improve the level of Spanish and to get to know the Spanish cultural context. These objectives can fill up, to a certain extent, the empty space we have found in this area