December 2nd, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Lowenstein Building, 12th Floor Lounge
As a result of successive globalization waves, Flanders/Belgium has in recent decades, like many other Western European countries, witnessed a substantial growth in the diversity of school populations. This has mostly occurred in urban areas, where schools report the presence of 20 or more different first languages. In response to this unprecedented increase in school and neighborhood multilingualism, social integration has tended to prioritize the use of the local dominant language (Dutch) as a primary educational goal and as a condition for social participation.
This Fulbright Speaker Seminar will cover a number of sociolinguistic and language educational research and intervention projects conducted in this area over the past 10 years, including:
- The dynamics of teacher and learner beliefs, language use and (non) cognitive educational outcomes for school children and adult learners with an immigrant background.
- The potential of both informal on-the-ground and teacher-organized multilingual practices for learning and for bridging noted gaps in achievement.
- How the field of educational policy and practice connects to language use “outside schools”
Speakers
- Stef Slembrouck
Professor of Linguistics and Language Centre Director at Ghent University; Current Fulbright exchange scholar at Fordham University. - Piet Van Avermaet
Professor of Language and Diversity and director of the Centre for Diversity and Learning at Ghent University - Kirsten Rosiers
PhD recently completed on multilingual classroom practices in primary schools in Ghent and Brussels - Mieke Vandenbroucke
PhD recently completed on the multilingual landscapes of Brussels; Current Fulbright exchange scholar at the University of California Berkeley
