Dear multilingual education friends,
Are you interested in how to integrate different languages in a curriculum? Towards an Integrated Language Curriculum in Early Childhood and Primary Education (3-12 years) is a research report by Jim Cummins et al. in the context of Ireland. Four questions were researched:
- How can the idea of an integrated language curriculum be defined?
- What are the key principles of language learning and development which should underpin a language curriculum for children aged 3 to 12 years?
- Where is the evidence for it in policy and practice? What are the expected outcomes by 8 years of age for children’s learning and development in the different language learning contexts described in the background to this research?
- What kinds of structures are implied in an integrated curriculum for children’s language learning from 3 to 12 years, and how would these structures accommodate the different language learning contexts described in the background to the research?
Some practical examples of language curriculum integration are also attached in Appendix, which are from Alberta, Canada, Scotland, and Wales etc.