This article discusses the implementation of translanguaging in two superdiverse school classes and their teachers' understanding of translanguaging. Translanguaging as a theory and a transformative pedagogy has recently captured scholars' interest from all over the globe, but also earned critique for its transformative claims and ongoing…

In this article, we study how Sound Picturebooks constitute a multimodal narrative that enables students to develop their literacy, not only in terms of basic reading and writing skills, but also as a multidimensional interaction with other forms of representation such as images, sounds and actions. In line with the aims of the Pedagogy of…

This paper explores headteachers' and teachers' perceptions of foreign languages(FL) and cultural learning in three primary schools in areas of disadvantage in England. Drawing upon a new theoretical frame for primary languages, Critical Cosmopolitanism (Delanty, 2006; Beck and Sznaider, 2006) and The Grammar of Culture (Holliday, 2018), we argue…

In this article we explore how primary school learners of English in Germany engage with examples of English that they were asked to locate in their local environments (their linguistic landscapes, LLs). In association with each located image, the learners completed a standardised worksheet in German that asked for brief written comments about its…

There has been a long history of early Irish language learning in Ireland as a result of Government policy to promote greater use of Irish. All children learn Irish in school from age 4-18 years. The majority learn Irish as a subject, typically for 30-40 minutes per day, and the levels of competence achieved are mostly disappointing. Approximately…

This contribution presents the preliminary findings from the TEPS study ("Teaching English in Primary Schools"). The study is situated in Germany where primary foreign language (FL) education has been compulsory since 2004, with pupils beginning FL education -- mostly English as a FL (EFL) -- in either year 1 or 3. Generally, this…

This paper focuses on the lack of impact on language education of recent paradigm shifts in the study of language and society such as the recognition of the ideology of language[s] as stable, discrete or bounded entities and the reality of heteroglossic languaging and semiotic practices in everyday life. Using South Africa as a case, the paper…