Koulun monet kielet: lähtökohtia, kehityskulkuja ja tulevaisuuden näkymiä

Plurilingualism in the school: starting points, developments, and prospects

Authors

• Irina Piippo Helsingin yliopisto
• Maria Ahlholm Helsingin yliopisto
• Päivi Portaankorva-Koivisto Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30660/afinla.109285

Keywords:

multilingualism, school, language awareness

Abstract

This article introduces the AFinLA-e thematic issue on plurilingualism in the school. Lately, multilingualism has been a buzzword in both sociolinguistic research and applied linguistics. Through the reform of national core curriculum for basic education, multilingualism, alongside language awareness, has also become an inextricable part of public educational discussions and the normative framework of basic education. There remain, however, questions about how all these changes translate into linguistically responsive classroom pedagogy and practices that support achieving learning goals, the process of language socialization, and pupils’ plurilingual identities. Our aim is to give a brief general introduction into the flourishing field of multilingualism research, its developments, approaches and trajectories, and describe the contributions that the articles in this issue make into the growing body of work in the Finnish context. We also identify three future trajectories for research on plurilingualism in the school.