Getting on the Same Page: Tools for teachers to cope with linguistically diverse classrooms

Students’ lack of school success often lies in the differences between thelanguage used at home and the ‘school language’ they are required touseatschool.Literacy in terms of reading and understanding texts is essential for school success. Stylistic choices are evaluated for their effects on the persuasiveness of atext. These effects are studied in relation with characteristics of receiver (involvement), content (relevance), source (reputation), situation (depth of processing) and context (medium).In this project aframework is drawn up in which five domains are distinguishedwhere specific problems might be located: language-internal aspects (mastery ofvocabulary, grammar, etc.), literacy (reading and writing skills), interaction(interpersonal communication skills), learning (content-related organizational andstudying skills), and presentation (explanatory skills). To test the (practical) viabilityof this framework several studies arecarried out (European policy expertsand secondary-school teachers). New opportunities for teacher training areaddressed.