The project "Multi-language education" aims at the development and testing of Language Awareness concepts in all subject teaching. In this case, the project will focus professionalizing of teachers and the school profile development. The focus is on raising awareness of multilingualism at individual, institutional and societal levels and the further development of the European Union thought. Central is the interaction between research, practice and educational administration. As output will be developed and tested in cross-border cooperation approaches to literacy, vocabulary and continuous multilingual education; results (including free teaching-learning materials) are incorporated into a publicly accessible web-portal. In the countries Luxembourg, Austria and Germany country-specific concepts will be developed on the basis of Language Awareness (LA), tested and discussed in a mutual exchange. Language Awareness Approaches don't aim at the development of a school language multilingualism, but to the acceptance of migration languages in regular education and the establishment of a "culture of multilingualism" (Oomen-Welke 1997) or a "teaching linguistic diversity" (Oomen-Welke 2008). Ingelore Oomen-Welke postulates (1) to encourage parents, teachers, children, the school and the school administration to bilingualism, (2) to allow other languages for example in auxiliary communication or in conversations with parents or in school information,etc., (3) to bring them in by multilateral or other language songs, books and other media, and (4) to make systematic compare with languages. Recently the scientific interest shifts of the question of who is who or how many languages speaks someone to questions how speakers could draw on their language resources, and which subjective positions they find . (Vetter 2013: 243). But independent from the group of learners the school is to become a multilingual, trans- or interlingual room. The defined goal of this project is not only to qualify and encourage teachers, but also to participate them in the development of teaching concepts of Language Awareness. In the cooperation of the three countries not only will covered different dimensions of language and language skills in the context of schools. Different theoretical approaches will be collected and manage, consolidated and available or approachable to wide audience . The discussion regarding the necessary universal language education of all pupils receives a solid basis for teacher´s professionalizing. Different priorities are set in the three countries: Focus on literacy in Austria, Focus on Vocabulary in Germany an Focus on continuous multi-lingual education in Luxemburg. After a period of concept development (1 year) and a test phase in schools (1 year) with trained tandem partner, the individual blocks are to be combined in a common continuous curriculum for more Language-Awareness in subject teaching , which is distributed through an Website, the school authorities and ministries in the countries. In addition a professionalizing module for teachers will be developed on the basis of the results of the project.
The MeLA project fleshes out the language awareness approach at the level of teacher training and classroom practice. The Luxembourg-based KonA sub-project investigates the language awareness of multilingual teachers, concentrating on their individual language biographies and language concepts with reference to their behaviour in the classroom, while the linguistic research carried out under the Karlsruhe-based LexA sub-project focuses on vocabulary and the role of individual and societal multilingualism in shaping lexical awareness. The Graz-based LitA sub-project fleshes out the language awareness approach in the form of a teaching model for promoting literacy across the curriculum by focusing on argumentation as a speech act. The outcomes of the Luxembourg sub-project create a framework within which the language awareness of multilingual teachers in a highly multilingual context can be investigated and placed in relation to classroom practice, and within which light can be shed on the continuity of language education in schools. The outcomes of the Karlsruhe sub-project serve as a model for CPD measures targeted at teachers (focusing on multilingual education but paying particular attention to a lexically aware approach to multilingualism), and the Graz sub-project has resulted in a teaching model for literacy-aware multilingual subject teaching and a CPD course for subject teachers. The target audience for the research findings which emerged from the KonA sub-project includes individuals working in the field of teacher CPD, students (educational sciences, applied linguistics, etc.) and teachers and educators working in all areas of education and teaching all ages (primary and secondary school) and all subjects (languages and subjects). The data collected and the materials developed on the basis of this data serve as a basis for developing different target skills during (in-service) teacher training courses. The LexA sub-project involved the development of a model three-day CPD course aimed at alerting teachers to the importance of making conscious use of languages in teaching and learning contexts and in daily life. During the CPD course, teachers are introduced to LexA as a model which centres on teaching lexical knowledge in subject lessons, reflecting on the relationship between learning processes in subject lessons and language lessons and examining them on a metalinguistic level. A notable feature of the CPD course (which is targeted at teachers of all disciplines) is that it makes explicit reference to immigrant-receiving societies, i.e. it promotes the perception of multilingualism as a fact of these societies and encourages teachers to incorporate it into their classroom practice. The linguisticality of the subject being taught should form a starting point for the planning of specific lessons. The LexA sub-project was targeted not only at creating CPD materials but also at developing a teaching model. A planning template was used to develop sample materials for use with three different teaching units. The LitA sub-project involved the development of a teaching model (the ProFo model) aimed at combining subject-related and language-related learning in subject lessons taught to linguistically heterogeneous classes. Learners with different language repertoires are provided with the help they need to learn subject-relevant linguistic devices and utilise them for (subject-related) knowledge acquisition. This approach promotes the language awareness of both teachers and pupils in relation to argumentation. A CPD course was developed in order to ensure that teachers can use the teaching materials developed under the project or create their own teaching resources on the basis of the ProFo model. The course provides teachers with the necessary background knowledge, promotes their awareness of language(s) and language learning through reflection-based exercises and helps participants to implement what they have learned when they return to the classroom. The CPD course is primarily targeted at subject teachers whose classroom practice to date has lacked language awareness either in whole or in part, and who are looking for opportunities to provide their pupils with targeted support in the acquisition of academic language skills. Language teachers too can use the (second-)language teaching principles integrated into the ProFo model to dovetail content-related and language-related learning objectives. he purpose of the LitA project was to develop and test a teaching model as a practical manifestation of the language awareness approach for use across the curriculum in linguistically heterogeneous classes. Teaching materials were ultimately developed for a total of 11 topics.