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The promise of language in multilingual education

26 April 2022, 6:00 pm–7:00 pm

Languages education concepts. Image by jirsak / Adobe Stock.

In this webinar, Victoria Murphy will raise some of key issues concerning multilingual pupils in linguistically diverse classrooms.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Roberto Filippi

The presenter will discuss concerns over the terminology used to denote multilingual pupils in the UK (and beyond) and then discuss whether and to what extent a multilingual pedagogy does/could have benefits to pupils. 

In particular, she will argue that while there has been some compelling descriptive and qualitative research that argues for an approach which directly capitalises on the home language knowledge of multilingual pupils, we need more controlled, experimental work to establish any causal links between drawing on the home language on the one hand, and enhanced second language (L2) and academic outcomes on the other.

Professor Murphy will discuss the theoretical background which justifies the need for this research and present relevant past research that has attempted to examine the impact of multilingual approaches.


This event will be particularly useful for those interested in English as a second language and multilingual education.


Bridging Educational Sciences with Practice in Education seminar series

The event is part of this knowledge exchange seminar series which aims to bridge educational sciences with practice in education. IOE, in collaboration with Cambridge Primary Education Trust (CPET) and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Teaching School Hub, brings you ten leading experts in the field of Education and Psychological Sciences who will engage with you, presenting their work, and outlining policies and new strategies in education.

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About the Speaker

Professor Victoria Murphy

Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Department of Education at University of Oxford

Victoria’s research focuses on understanding the inter-relationships between child L2/FL learning, vocabulary and literacy development. Her work focuses on examining cross-linguistic relationships across linguistic systems in the emergent bilingual child and how foreign language learning in primary school can influence developing first language literacy. Victoria was Chair of NALDIC (National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum) between 2018-2021 and has worked closely with teachers across the UK and Internationally and with children from multilingual backgrounds. She has published in a wide range of applied linguistics journals in the area of young language learners.