Seminar on multilingualism

Is translanguaging relevant for upper secondary education? / Anne Holmen

In two recent books Helene Thise and I have introduced a translanguaging approach to education in the Danish primary school (2021) and upper secondary school (2024). This reflects a recent international trend of crosslinguistic or plurilingual pedagogy as a general approach to education (Daryai-Hansen 2026, May 2014, Cummins 2017, García et al. 2017, Juvonen & Källkvist 2021). But do we really need a new word (translanguaging) in Danish school terminology, and is translanguaging not just old wine in a new bottle? Is it at all a relevant concept for upper secondary education? In this presentation, I shall give a positive response to all three questions and try to argue why.

The LATECO project: Exploring language teachers’ mindsets about cross-linguistic collaboration / Camilla Spaliviero.

Developing students’ multilingual competences through the learning of several languages in school has become a key priority of European Union initiatives and policies (Council of Europe, 2022). However, collaboration among language teachers, which is essential for promoting these competences, is often limited or absent (e.g., Forbes, 2019; Gunning et al., 2016; Haukås, 2025). Investigating how language teachers perceive and implement cross-linguistic collaboration is therefore both relevant and urgent. To date, research on language teachers’ mindsets regarding such collaboration remains scarce (Haukås & Drange, 2024).

The LATECO project (Fostering Multilingualism through LAnguage TEacher COllaboration), funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, explores language teachers’ mindsets and the effects of teacher collaboration across three language subjects in schools, with the aim of enhancing students’ multilingualism and teachers’ professional development. Mindsets, defined as beliefs about the malleability of one’s abilities, perceived control over improving them, and approaches to managing failure (Dweck, 2006), are crucial to investigate because they influence language teachers’ behaviour, motivation, and engagement in professional development (Leis et al., 2025), including cross-linguistic collaboration.

This seminar focuses on the first phase of LATECO, which explores teachers’ mindsets in the Norwegian upper secondary school context. Inspired by Q methodology (Haukås & Mercer, 2022), data were collected through background questionnaires, a sorting activity, and follow-up interviews with teachers of Norwegian, English, and other second foreign languages (e.g., German, Spanish, French) from two schools. The results provide an innovative overview of teachers’ mindsets regarding collaboration for multilingual teaching.

Plurilingualism in ecological perspective / Jonas Munck Olesen 

This presentation outlines – within the framework of my PhD-thesis (Munch Olesen, 2024, forthcoming a/b; Munch Olesen & Meidell Sigsgaard, 2025) – an ecological perspective on plurilingualism, where language is understood as dynamic, contextual, and tied to participation in social practices. Drawing on Leo van Lier’s model of “Levels of meaning and layers of context” (van Lier, 1995, 2004), it highlights how learning emerges through affordances in classroom interaction. The talk further introduces a distinction between DH- and HUD-plurilingual students as an analytical lens for examining differentiated participation conditions and language development in linguistically diverse classrooms.