ECIS MLIE Conference

Languages are at the heart of international education, by default if not by design. The myriad intricacies of educating multilingual students in international and national contexts means that each school is unique in profile and complexity in terms of language. We name languages in schools in different ways, but the general categories are: language of instruction (LoI), language acquisition (EAL/ELL or equivalent in other languages), host country languages, modern, foreign or world languages, and home, identity, mother tongue languages. This categorisation leads to a mindset that each of these is individual, and this is commonly reflected in administration, curricular and teaching structures. What this approach neglects is the common underlying factors in language teaching and learning, and how our students use their languages.

A modern approach to languages in international schools recognises and embraces the similarities rather than focusing on the differences. This is achieved by bringing all language teaching into harmony in terms of administration, curricula and pedagogy. A strong languages team with a designated leader will be able to deepen the knowledge base about languages and combine forces to bring about whole-school improvement for all language learning.

This full day event kicks off with an audit of your school, to build a foundation for exploring change. This audit looks at all provisions and identifies key areas that need improvement, and is structured around the tripartite model of: administration, curriculum, pedagogy.

Following the audit, we dive into knowledge building on key topics such as management of languages, leadership structures, curriculum development and pedagogy. We will finish the day by creating action plans that focus in on short, medium, and long-term plans for whole-school improvement for languages.

This session is ideal for school leaders, cycle or programme leaders, or interested language teachers. A two-person team from a school would be ideal, to work on their own context. The day will be a dynamic mix of knowledge-building and hands-on development. Each participant will leave with a clear understanding of whole-school approaches to languages, and a workable action plan for their school.