Developing Multilingual Education Policies: Theory, Research, Practice

by Michal Tannenbaum, Elana Shohamy

Overview

Multilingual policies are increasingly important and required in educational settings worldwide, yet a solid experimental body of theory, research, and practice providing guidance for the development of policies is lacking. The Israeli context presented in this book serves as a case study or a model that could be used by bodies or entities seeking to devise a multilingual policy.

The authors begin by addressing the general notion of a multilingual education policy with specific reference to the Israeli context. The book then focuses on specific challenges confronting the new policy that have been explored in empirical studies, and concludes with a proposed framework for a new multilingual education policy related to the core theoretical topics and empirical findings discussed in the previous chapters. This framework includes principles and strategies for implementing the process described in the book in other contexts, ensuring wide applicability and relevance.

Developing Multilingual Education Policies: Theory, Research, Practice is an essential read for all involved in language policy and planning within applied linguistics and education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367619893
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/23/2023
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michal Tannenbaum is currently the chair of the Program for Multilingual Education at Tel Aviv University. She researches and writes about multiple perspectives of language policy, including family and education systems, emotional aspects of immigration and language sustainability, multilingualism, and art. She edited the book Challenges for Language Education and Policy: Making Space for People (with B. Spolsky & O. Inbar-Lourie; 2014, Routledge).

Elana Shohamy is a professor of multilingual education at Tel Aviv University where she researches and writes about multiple dimensions of language policy, language rights, immigration, language testing, and linguistic landscape. Her books include Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches (2006, Routledge), and Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery (edited with D. Gorter; 2009, Routledge).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

A journey towards a new multilingual policy

PART One - Language policy, multilingualism, and education

Chapter 1 A new approach to language education policy

Chapter 2 Languages and policy in Israel: History and the present

Chapter 3 Advocating for a new multilingual education policy in Israel

PART Two - From policy challenges to research: Major issues

Chapter 4 Stakeholder’s attitudes and perceptions regarding multilingual education policies

Chapter 5 Testing and assessment of minority students: Language and content

Chapter 6 Incorporating L1 in the context of teaching English as an additional language

Chapter 7 Connecting Jewish and Arab students via Shared Education

Chapter 8 The role of heritage languages in multilingual education policies

Chapter 9 The linguistic landscape as multilingual awareness

PART Three - Conclusions, implementations, and challenges

Chapter 10 Principles of the new multilingual education policy

Chapter 11 Conclusions, challenges, and future directions

References

Appendices

Editorial Reviews

This is clear thinking and solid experience toward education for a truly democratic and just multilingual world. Beloved scholar-advocates Tannenbaum and Shohamy share wisdom, expertise and a way forward for multilingual education policy, drawing on their decades of lived experience and dedicated language policy research and practice in conflict-ridden Israel.

Nancy H. Hornberger, University of Pennsylvania, USA

In this empirically rich and conceptually cogent book, Michal Tannenbaum and Elana Shohamy present a new multilingual education policy in Israel through Shared Education and an array of innovative pedagogical and assessment approaches. The implications of this work go well beyond language and education. It is in fact a new vision for the nation, with diversity and peace at the heart of it.

Li Wei, University College London, UK

From the Publisher