Views from Portuguese teachers on multilingualism and educational practices in multilingual classrooms

Abstract

Europe is a diverse and heterogeneous linguistic community that faces the challenge of educating an increasingly multicultural and multilingual population. Language teachers are key players on this regard as they may foster multilingualism and contribute to students’ inclusion in their classrooms. Portugal is no exception and Portuguese schools and teachers are adapting to an increasingly multilingual society, a situation that is not entirely new but nevertheless presents new challenges. In the present article, we analyse teachers’ conceptions regarding multilingualism in Portugal and the educational practices developed in multilingual classrooms. Participants were 505 teachers from all levels of education teaching in multilingual classrooms. A questionnaire created by the multilingual group of the European Literacy Network translated and adapted for Portugal was answered online. The results show a low concentration of immigrant children per class, the prominent role of English as a second language, teachers with an open attitude towards linguistic diversity, who are multilingual and aware of ultilingualism, and value the language and culture of their students. They believe that being able to master different languages is an asset to the students' academic and cognitive development.