Multilingualism - chance and challenge

 

Fifth international conference on challenges and opportunities of multilingualism in the fields of school, higher education, and other educational establishments

 

 June 28-29, 2013

University of Education, Heidelberg (Germany)

 

The global network of markets as well as the increased communication and information opportunities of a globalized society present people with new challenges. The principle of multilingualism for all citizens is a necessary response to the demands of this development. A modern and open-minded education system distinguishes itself through its orientation toward multilingualism. In this process, multilingualism should be seen, not only as a response to the expansion of modern human competence, but also as a response to educational reality, in which the linguistic heterogeneity of study groups has long been commonplace. This desired multilingualism can be considered both an opportunity and a challenge for learners as well as for teachers. This trend is not confined to school education, but increasingly includes all stations of a person’s educational career (pre-school, vocational training, higher education, adult education). Numerous concepts and models of multilingual didactics are being trialed, reflected on, and scientifically analyzed in various European countries. To enable indispensable synergies between nations and educational levels and fields, it is necessary to exchange ideas, introduce concepts, and discuss models.

The fifth international conference on challenges and opportunities of multilingualism in education considers itself to be a continuation and expansion of the conference series. Following the University of Kassel (Germany), the University of Nysa (Poland), the Autonomous University of Eupen (Belgium), and the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), this year’s conference, in June 2013, will take place at the University of Education in Heidelberg.

The conference offers students, researchers, and practitioners at schools, universities, and other educational institutions a transnational platform for dialogue about educational approaches, research activities, and projects related to multilingualism.

We welcome experience with linguistically heterogeneous learning groups, didactical approaches to multilingualism, early multilingualism, for example, in pre- or primary schools, and various didactic concepts of CLIL that attempt to record multilingualism in teaching and learning processes.

Colleagues from universities, schools and other educational institutions from different countries will give lectures on the different approaches to cope with individual and societal multilingualism which have been developed in their countries and regions.