Even though the background of school pupils has become increasingly multilingual and classrooms have become ever more multilingual and diverse, migrant and minority languages are still rarely included in mainstream education and they are very often not recognised as an asset for learning. This is particularly true in bi-/multilingual areas in which several languages already compete for often scarce resources in education ( teaching hours, teacher training, materials) (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017). Speakers of minority and migrant languages must compete with national (and increasingly also foreign) languages for an equal position in the curriculum. Especially at the level of primary education, the willingness of schools and teachers to include other languages than the regions autochthonous language(s) is low. This is because of a lack of knowledge about multilingual education and its advantages and the lack of hands-on skills on how to implement a multilingual didactic in their classroom (Fürstenau 2016 and Helot 2015). This can be explained, because different needs exist in different types of school, resulting in different development and research questions. The consortium therefore conducted a preliminary needs analysis and literature review, in which the consortium distinguishes three types of schools, each with their own questions and needs: a) Schools with a large number of immigrant pupils who want to improve attitudes towards migrant languages and gain knowledge about how migrant languages can be utilised in education alongside regional and minority language and foreign languages; b) Schools who want to experiment with less language separation in their language didactics and receive tools with which they can also integrate other languages in their education; c) Schools with predominantly national language-speaking children who want to introduce their pupils to minority -and other languages and raise awareness about language differences. These needs in primary schools are therefore not uniform; the multilingual situation is complex. The broad spectrum that becomes visible here represents the situation in most schools in European bi-and multilingual regions (Duarte, 2017). The advantages for pupils and teachers for a multilingual didactic in the classroom which is tailored to different school types are: 1. Multilingual pupils feel more included in the classroom which has an important effect on their wellbeing and achievement at school. 2. A more positive teacher-pupil relationship due to a better understanding of the pupils needs and backgrounds. 3. Building confidence, a professional identity and motivation for teachers to encounter the challenges in diverse language classrooms and different pupil backgrounds. To address the above mentioned nee, the project will develop an innovative multididactic approach which teachers can use in the classroom in any (multilingual) situation: • a multi-player augmented and virtual reality app about multilingual education to change the attitudes towards migrant (and minority) languages in education. • a digital handbook and toolkit for teachers with video-based documentation of best-practices of schools using the heteroglossic approach in the classroom The proposed educational innovation of the project aims at contributing to motivation and self-regulated (collaborative) learning for students in the classroom and provides a toolkit for teachers on how to deal with the multilingual situation in the classroom.
The VirtuLApp (Virtual Language App) project group addresses the needs of primary school teachers concerning multilingual education, and supports them to gain more knowledge about and tools for multilingual education, integration of migrant languages and less language separation. VirtuLApp promotes educational innovation and aims at contributing to motivation and self-regulated (collaborative) learning for students in the classroom and provides a toolkit for teachers on how to deal with the multilingual situation in the classroom. Therefore, VirtuLApp has developed an innovative multididactic approach which teachers can use in the classroom in any situation, by providing knowledge on multilingual didactics, application of that knowledge and tools to use in the classroom. This is done by developing and offering: • A digital toolkit with: o Experts’ answers to Frequently Asked Questions, which are teachers’ real questions and concerns they face in practice, about using different languages in their instruction, school environment, students ‘wellbeing or tools. o Best practices of multilingual approaches across European schools in the Didactical Videos to inspire other teachers to create their own strategies and activities. o The input and expertise of Experts in the field of multilingualism and multilingual approaches. • An entertaining Quiz to raise language awareness, knowledge on multilingualism, and languages around the world • The multilingual, multi-player Augmented Reality game BabelAR for pupils aged 7-12 years, which teachers can use to welcome multilingualism in class, to show pupils the value of the language(s) they possess and to activate their language knowledge. All these results can be found on the project website (www.virtulapp.eu). Teachers and schools from around Europe, and even beyond, have found the project to learn more about multilingualism and multilingual didactics. Due to the covid-pandemic, three multiplier events were held online with a high attendance rate. VirtuLApp focusses on primary education and with various needs, such as schools with a (large) number of immigrant pupils who want to improve attitudes towards migrant languages and include these, schools with predominantly national language-speaking children which want to introduce their pupils to minority -and other languages, and schools which want to experiment with less language separation in their language didactics. The results have been shared and discussed in different ways, such as the project website with all the project outcomes and resources, five multiplier events, two extra webinars, VirtuLApp newsletters and newsflashes, as well as numerous dissemination activities undertaken by all project partners. The MEs were attended (online) by more than four hundred participants in total, which not only raised awareness of the project, its premises and outputs, but also generated valuable input from the target group. Research with pre-service teachers on the project shows that the VirtuLApp tools (digital toolkit, the quiz and BabelAR) influenced their language awareness, skills and knowledge on multilingual education. VirtuLApp contributed to increasing their knowledge about languages in education and languages in the world. Moreover, VirtuLApp provided them with various tools to implement multilingualism in their teaching practices that cover different aspects of multilingual education, such as the involvement of home languages and parents and support the pre-service teachers in facing challenges in multilingual education. According to pre-service teachers, the game BabelAR increased language awareness and linguistic skills of pupils and increased the teachers’ language awareness and awareness of the benefits of multilingualism. What is more, BabelAR gives multilingual pupils a sense of pride and stimulates collaboration, and the research participants generally agree that the BabelAR game is an effective tool to raise language awareness and openness towards different languages of both pupils and teacher. In the course of the project, VirtuLApp and BabelAR have been nominated for several awards, which we see as a great recognition of our work. For the Leeuwarder Courant Awards, a Frisian prize for study projects, the research on the application of BabelAR was nominated. Second, for the Belgian Game Awards ‘21, BabelAR was nominated in the category of “best non-entertainment.”Third, VirtuLApp won the second prize of the NUFFIC Europees Talenlabel 2021 (European Language Label) in the Netherlands. Last, in February 22, BabelAR won Gold in the category of Digital Product in the Belgian design awards.