Multilingual Education for Minority Language Contexts

Multilingual Education for Minority Language Contexts is taught in partnership with Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International.

The course comprises a four-week intensive seminar intended for those wishing to

• increase their understanding of multilingualism in minority language contexts
• develop basic skills in planning, implementing, and supporting multilingual education programmes in these contexts
• develop an understanding of language and education policies and attitudes currently held worldwide

• children and adults learn best in the language which is most familiar to them
• those who live in multilingual contexts value being able to participate fully in the life of their community by making use of various languages spoken in their environment.

The seminar offers participants a superb opportunity to interact with colleagues from around the world who are working in this field. Participants will have the opportunity to work together and share experiences. It will be especially advantageous for participants to come with colleagues with whom they expect to collaborate in the future.

Multilingual Education for Minority Language Contexts may be taken as training towards a role within SIL, but is also open to those working outside of an SIL context. It forms part of the course content for the MA Literacy Programme Development. 

The usual entry requirements for a Redcliffe College postgraduate level course apply.

Course content

The focus will be on programmes that respond to the needs of ethnolinguistic communities and help them to achieve their own development goals in both formal and non-formal contexts.  

We aim to cover the following topics during the seminar:

• Political, socio-cultural and economic influences on education in minority language communities, including language and education policies and their consequences for minority language groups
• Types of multilingual education programmes in different multilingual and social contexts
• Review of current research and critiques of the research
• Theories of second language acquisition (including the process of transition or bridging between L1 and L2 and additional languages)
• Planning the infrastructures — curriculum development, literature production, etc — which are necessary for the sustainability of community-based multilingual education programmes
• Documentation and evaluation: why, how, for whom?

Throughout the seminar, the importance of facilitating the transfer of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained through training trainers will be emphasised.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify and critique different types of language and education policies currently in existence, the attitudes towards minority languages which underlie them, and their consequences for minority language groups;
• Identify and critique different types of multilingual education programmes and the strengths and weaknesses of each type;
• Explain and critique current research on multilingual education;
• Understand the principles and processes of planning sustainable multilingual education programmes in the formal and/or non-formal sectors;
• Apply to their local contexts the insights and knowledge gained during the course.

Course dates

Multilingual Education forms part of the PGDip stage of MA Literacy Programme Development, which runs from January to June.  It can also be studied as a standalone module. 

Multilingual Education runs from 29 April - 7 June 2019, with an extra week at the end for students on a validated MA programme.

Application Deadline as a standalone module: 15 April 2019

Download the full course dates for 2019, here.

Course fees

2019 tuition fees for Multilingual Education are £850.

Download the course fees for 2019, here.

For more information about course fees and accommodation options, see our fees page.