Language teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms

For the children of migrants, learning the language of instruction and assessment so that they can enter school or carry on their education is paramount. Education authorities in many parts of the EU are faced with this challenge because of growing levels of mobility. Enabling such children to access teaching and learning quickly is critical to ensuring they can reach their potential and progress to higher education and employment to the same degree as non-migrant children. In the process the children themselves gain linguistic and meta-linguistic skills from learning the language of instruction and assessment in addition to their mother tongue. This research is designed to gather, analyse and synthesise existing data and research on: - What works to enable migrant children who use a language at home different to the language of school instruction to participate in learning, attain proficiency in the language of instruction, and achieve results (qualifications, progress to higher education, progress to employment) that match their potential; and - What works to maintain and develop the multilingual skills of migrant children which will enable them to use these competences for cultural and economic purposes.