Prof. Dr. habil. Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak ist Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Angewandte Linguistik der Adam-Mickiewicz-Universität Posen, Polen. Ihre Forschungsinteressen sind interkulturelle Kommunikation, Fremdsprachendidaktik, Hate Speech, Medien- und Pragmalinguistik.Dr Angela Farrell is Assistant Dean International of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and a Lecturer in TESOL/Linguistics, with research interests and publications in second and foreign language pedagogy, migrant education, reflective practice, language awareness and second and foreign language classroom discourse.Dr Sandra Ballweg is Professor of German as a Second and Foreign Language at Paderborn University with research interests and publications in family language policy, second/multiple language acquisition, multiliteracies, teacher education, L2 writing and other related topics.Dr Andrea Daase is Professor of German as a Second and Foreign language at the University of Bremen with research interest and publications in multilingualism and second language acquisition in the school environment, vocational training, and related pre-service teacher education for linguistically diverse classrooms.Dr Emilia Wasikiewicz-Firlej is Associate Professor at the School of Languages and Literatures at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, with research interests spanning the fields of applied linguistics and communication studies, with a particular focus on teaching English as a foreign language, intercultural communication, professional communication and recently on multilingualism and Family Language Policy.Dr Mary Masterson is a lecturer in Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She is also the national ambassador for the eTwinning European School Partnerships programme in Ireland, and a former secondary school teacher of German, History, Information & Communication Technology. Her research interests focus on contemporary issues in education, education policy, teacher education, digital literacy, language and culture sensitive teaching, and wellbeing.

Holistic approaches to multilingualism and equity from the perspectives of four European countries

The main aim of the book is to raise awareness of multilingualism in home and school environments and to offer a holistic view of the topic.

European society in the 21st century is characterised by increasing linguistic and cultural diversity and this offers valuable resources both on the economic and ideational level. At the same time, this growing diversity raises challenges to societies in terms of ensuring greater equity and social cohesion. In this book, the authors discuss the role of languages and multilingualism in the education system and at the interface of formal education and the home environment in this time of transition. They offer perspectives of four European countries, namely Germany, Greece, Ireland and Poland. By this, the authors aim to provide teacher educators, interested teachers and also other stakeholders in the education system with essential contextual information and related pedagogical considerations in the areas of language acquisition, multilingualism, multilingual upbringing, whole-school development and language-sensitive teaching.