- all of which are so vital for our international multilingual, multicultural students to access the curriculum, succeed academically and socially and become the global citizens of tomorrow.

Over the course of this conference these experts, from all over the world, will be sharing their wisdom and expertise, both theoretical and practical, with us.
The title of our conference takes us a step further on our quest to effectively educate and leads us to consider the construction of plural language practices and identities in our schools.
We wish all of the speakers and participants at this conference an exciting learning experience here in Geneva.

Patricia Mertin

10:30am-11:00am Coffee

11:00am-12:15am Invited Speaker Sessions

Ofelia García y/and Ricardo Otheguy
Salle 2(550)

Hablamos los dos/ We speak both

In this bilingual presentation (English and Spanish), Ofelia García and Ricardo Otheguy will consider how students from two different language groups in a single bilingual classroom negotiate instruction in two languages. Focusing on Spanish speaking students acquiring English, and English speaking students acquiring Spanish in the same classroom, García and Otheguy will review different ways of presenting material bilingually in order to engage all students. The presentation will model ways of integrating two or more linguistic groups while developing their bilingualism and delivering appropriate content instruction.

Stephen Krashen
Salle 3 (250)

Case Histories and What They Tell Us about Language Acquisition

Case histories can be valid forms of scientific research. I will refer to several case histories in order to help us decide among several views of how language is acquired: the Comprehension Hypothesis, the Skill-Building Hypothesis, and the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis.

The case histories include Lomb Kato, who mastered 17 languages, the archeologist Heinrich Schliemann, Daniel Tammet, who gained notoriety by mastering Icelandic in ten days, “Armando,” a young man I interviewed who came to the US from Mexico expecting to learn English but who wound up learning Hebrew as well, and other cases.

I will argue that only the Comprehension Hypothesis is consistent with all case histories.

Viv Edwards
Salle 18 (120)

Language, literacy and culture

This presentation will look at the implications of the findings of recent research on literacy for our understanding of what happens in multilingual learning environments. It starts by questioning the assumption of many teachers is that there is only one route to literacy and that responsibility for children’s underachievement lies with their families’ failure to conform to school models of teaching and learning. It also looks at patterns of behaviour in classrooms which help explain the differing levels of literacy achievement observed for different groups of children. And, finally it considers alternative approaches which attempt to build on rather than ignore children’s knowledge and experiences in the home and community.

12:15pm-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-2:45 Plenary 2- Pauline Gibbons
Salle 2

“Maybe Science is better than PE now”: Setting ESL students
up for success in an intellectually challenging curriculum.

The development of curriculum distinguished by intellectual quality and the development of higher order thinking has rarely been a focus of program planning for learners of English as a second language (henceforth ESL students). Rather, many programs have traditionally been more defined by lower level drill-and-practice activities and a focus on basic grammatical forms often excised from authentic contexts of language use. Yet research has suggested that all students, regardless of social or ethnic background, achieve at higher levels when they participate in an intellectually challenging curriculum; and that in such a learning environment equity gaps between students diminish (Newmann 1996).

This paper discusses findings from a recently completed Australian research project that focused on how ‘intellectual quality’ is enacted in classroom contexts, and, in particular, on how ESL learners can be supported to successfully participate in such contexts. The data are drawn from five primary and secondary schools in Sydney, in classrooms where between 50%- 90% of the students spoke English as a second (or third) language. The paper illustrates how with appropriate teacher scaffolding, these ESL learners were able to successfully participate in intellectually challenging work along with their English-speaking peers.

The paper will first discuss the nature of the ‘intellectual practices’ in which students were engaged, and describe what the students were ‘doing’ and ‘being’ as they were engaged in intellectually challenging work. It will go on to describe the kinds of teacher-scaffolding that afforded all students opportunities to participate successfully in these high-challenge classrooms. These supportive teacher practices occurred within what can broadly be described as an ‘apprenticeship’ approach to teaching and learning. This apprenticeship model of teaching offered opportunities for the kinds of collaborative work that provided important interactional support for ESL learners. As the student’s comment in the title of this paper suggests, it also positioned minority students as successful learners and classroom participants, and as the people they can become.

2:45 pm-3:15 pm Coffee

3:15 pm Poster Sessions

3:15 pm-4:15 pm Workshops

Else Hamayan
Salle 3

Special Education, ESL, or Both? Considerations for ESL Students
with Special Difficulties in School

ESL students with significant academic difficulties present special challenges. On the surface, the needs of ESL students having normal academic difficulties of learning abstract concepts through a language that they may not be proficient in and the needs of ESL students with special needs can easily be confused with one another. For that reason, it is essential that we consider a variety of factors and collect extensive data on these students. This session focuses on specific and systemic interventions most effective for these students. A list of possible difficulties forms the basis for specific interventions, and information gathered about seven integral elements forms the basis for more general systemic interventions in students’ home and school lives. The key to giving these students the best learning environment is to provide them with instructional support that is seamless, continuous and interdependent.

Eithne Gallagher
Salle 2

Promoting other languages with Interlingual Classrooms

This lecture will address issues that include but also look beyond English Medium instruction. It is possible to move well beyond the monolingual classrooms of the past into an era of ‘Interlingual Classrooms’. Today’s students need to function in a globalised multicultural social and work environment. To remain competitive schools must adapt to this shift in market requirements. In this session we will consider what changes we need to make in our schools so we can meet this challenge.

Pascale Hertay
Salle 18

Mother Tongue Programmes: The Hub of International Schools!*

Beyond language acquisition; how setting up a Mother Tongue programme assists in developing the international dimension of a school. As a community we need to develop a deeper respect for individual culture and value the student’s past knowledge. This creates a deep foundation to prepare students for their future and helps them to retain their individual cultural identity.

Further, we identify different school models and discuss the added values and the challenges of a Mother Tongue programme. Additionally we will explore how these practical ideas integrate into our own school cultures. These two discussion points will make it possible for you to implement a Mother Tongue programme or extend it to a deeper level at your school.

* Gallagher, E. (2007) A curriculum for the whole child. ECIS: International Schools Magazine Volume 9 Issue 3. 2007 Saxmundham: Peridot Press, a division of John Catt Educational.Ltd.

4:30pm -5:30pm

Viv Edwards
Salle 2

Reading and Writing in a Second Language

This workshop will look at the experience of learning to read and write in an additional language from the perspective of the learner. Using a range of activities, participants will be encouraged to reflect upon both how it feels to operate in an unfamiliar language and what methods and approaches are most effective.

Rebecca Freeman-Field
Salle 3

Negotiating Multilingual Identities at School

This workshop provides teachers with tools and strategies they need to explore how multilingual students’ identities are negotiated and constructed through schooling, with attention to the critical roles that educators play in this process. After a brief theoretical orientation, participants are given a series of guiding questions they can use to reflect on the implications of their policies, curriculum content, materials, organization of classroom interaction, assessment practices, and/or extracurricular activities for multilingual students’ social identity construction in their schools. Examples are provided to illustrate how the choices that educators make often contribute to the subordination of particular identities at school. More importantly, examples are provided to demonstrate how the choices educators make can challenge and potentially transform possibilities for multilingual students’ identity construction in their schools.

Carol Dixon, IB Second Language Learning Advisor
Salle 18

Learning in a language other than a mother tongue in IB programmes

1. A soon to be published paper on the position of the IB with regard to
learning in a language other than a mother tongue

2. Guidelines for developing a school language policy

3. The future professional development for schools with regard to those
learning in a language other than a mother tongue.

5:30 pm-7:00 pm-Apero

7:00 pm-leave for Optional Traditional Dinner

Friday

8:45 am Announcements

9:00 am-10:30 am Plenary 1 – Stephen Krashen
Salle 2 (550)

The Comprehension Hypothesis Extended

In this presentation I review the evidence for the Comprehension Hypothesis in oral language and literacy, and discuss the possibility that the Comprehension Hypothesis provides a plausible explanation for non-human language acquisition. The clearest data comes from several areas of research in animal language but we will also briefly consider what some of the possibilities are for other non-human species.

10:30 am-11:00 am Coffee

11:00-12:15 Invited Speaker Sessions

Chris Davison
Salle 3

Collaboration between ESL and content teachers: Bridging the gap

Partnership and the integration of language and content teaching in English-medium international schools have long been active areas of research and inquiry in applied linguistics and TESOL. However, most researchers have tended to focus on methods and techniques to use in the classroom or on the analysis of the linguistic demands of the content areas. Much less attention has been paid to researching the process of co-planning and co-teaching and to supporting the evolution of the partnership between ESL and content teachers. This workshop explores various practical concrete initiatives to enhance collaboration between ESL and content/mainstream teachers collected as part of K-12 school-based professional development initiatives in three different culturally and linguistically diverse English-medium international schools in Asia. The paper begins with an analysis of some of the underlying assumptions in current conceptualizations of effective collaboration between ESL and mainstream/content-area teachers, then presents some of the approaches to language and content integration developed in the three schools, and asks participants to evaluate them using a multidimensional developmental framework to describe and evaluate the stages of collaboration and the different levels of its effectiveness. The implications of this research for evaluating approaches to collaboration and for setting realistic goals for professional development and institutional change in international English-medium schools will also be explored.

Rebecca Freeman-Field
Salle 18

Negotiating Multilingual Identities at School

This workshop provides teachers with tools and strategies they need to explore how multilingual students’ identities are negotiated and constructed through schooling, with attention to the critical roles that educators play in this process. After a brief theoretical orientation, participants are given a series of guiding questions they can use to reflect on the implications of their policies, curriculum content, materials, organization of classroom interaction, assessment practices, and/or extracurricular activities for multilingual students’ social identity construction in their schools. Examples are provided to illustrate how the choices that educators make often contribute to the subordination of particular identities at school. More importantly, examples are provided to demonstrate how the choices educators make can challenge and potentially transform possibilities for multilingual students’ identity construction in their schools.

Pauline Gibbons
Salle 2

Learning through talk: teacher-student interactions in
content-based language classrooms.

ESL learners are simultaneously learning English and learning through English, that is, they are both learning new curriculum content and developing the relevant academic language that constructs subject knowledge. Drawing on second language acquisition research, sociocultural theory and systemic linguistics, and on authentic examples of teacher-student talk, this workshop will focus on the kinds of teacher-student interactions that support second language development, in the context of subject-based teaching and learning. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the practical implications for teachers and will suggest some of the key characteristics of talk that is enabling of both second language learning and content learning. Examples will be drawn from primary (elementary) and secondary classrooms.

12:15 pm-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30 pm-2:45 pm Plenary 2: Ofelia Garcia
Salle 2

Translanguaging: Constructing understandings in bilingual classrooms

Language educators (second language, foreign language and bilingual educators) often work against their own interests by reining in the human capacity for acquisition of plural ways of constructing language practices and identities. This presentation argues that in adopting a monoglossic language ideology which values monolingualism in one language or the other and insisting on separate cultural identities, naming one "first" and the other "second," language educators often fail at their task. The presentation argues that this traditional view of bilingualism as additive has to be abandoned in favor of a "dynamic bilingualism" that incorporates the plural language practices that characterize the globalized and technologically enriched world of today.
To contextualize the argument, we provide evidence of language practices both by the teacher and the students in a two-way Spanish/English bilingual education (also known as two-way dual language) classroom in the United States. These classrooms distinguish themselves by the strict separation of the two languages. However, because of the literacy workshop model most often used in these programs, children “translanguage”, using their two languages freely and in hybrid ways and thus constructing pluriliteracy practices which go beyond the literacy practices officially taught and encouraged in the school. The value of such practices for the children's intellectual and academic growth is attested.

2:45 pm-3:15 pm Coffee

3:15 pm Poster Sessions

3:15 pm-4:15 pm Workshops

Alison Ball, Julie Elphee, Nikki Bradley-Handcock
Salle 2

Possible models for EAL/ESL support in schools. A look at three Models: Primary, Secondary and Upper Secondary, which work for us here at the International School of Geneva.
After the presentation there will be an opportunity to discuss other models colleagues may have in their school and their strengths and weaknesses

Brian Dare, Lexis Education
Salle 3

Supporting ESL students to move from BICS to CALP:
a grammatical perspective

The notions of BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) have long been used in the ESL field to describe the kinds of language proficiencies needed by ESL students to operate in certain contexts. While many ESL students are able to use the kind of language required in everyday, spoken interactions (i.e. BICS), many of them face particular challenges when confronted with the academic registers (i.e. CALP) of the content areas.

In this presentation, I will begin by drawing parallels between these two kinds of proficiency and spoken and written language. From there, I will explore how these two modes of meaning differ grammatically, reflecting the simplicity and complexities of each mode. I will argue that by making these grammatical differences explicit to our students we can support them in moving from more spoken modes to the more written modes required by the academic registers of the content areas. An essential part of the process of building these capacities in our students is to develop a shared meta-language, a language for talking about language.

Ricardo Otheguy
Salle 18

Consideraciones sociopedagógicas en la enseñanza del
español en entornos multilingües

El entorno monolingüe de muchas escuelas en algunos países hispanohablantes puede crear la impresión de que la enseñanza del español, como lengua materna o segunda, no tiene que ocuparse de problemas de bilingüismo en el estudiantado. En los ámbitos monolingües, la escuela aspira a que el estudiante añada a sus repertorios del español popular los de un español académico, apoyada en el supuesto que las características del español popular del estudiante son conocidas y bien entendidas. En los entornos multilingües, el español popular que aporta el estudiante de lengua materna (y el que conoce también el que la estudia como segunda lengua), y al que se aspira adicionar el registro académico, reviste características especiales. Entre ellas, encontramos variabilidad en el grado de conocimiento y dominio del español popular, y variación también en el grado en que el hablante de lengua materna recurre a otras lenguas en su uso lingüístico cotidiano. Repasaremos las hablas populares del estudiante de español en Latinoamérica y en la Península, comparándolas con las de los entornos multilingües, con referencia a la relevancia de estas lenguas para el desempeño de los docentes, abarcando en la comparación los rasgos lingüísticos y las funciones identitarias de esas lenguas, sobre todo en lo tocante a las identidades transnacionales de los estudiantes en entornos multilingües.

4:30 pm-5:30 pm

Round Table
Eithne Gallagher
Salle 2

A roundtable on International School reform

Eithne Gallagher will lead a roundtable discussion on how the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) can play a leading role in school reform and so improve the learning conditions for second language learners in International Schools.

Saturday

8:45 am Announcements

9:00 am-10:30 am Plenary 1 –Chris Davison
Salle 2 (550)

Aligning assessment with identity(ies): Using linguistic and cultural diversity as a resource in assessing English language development in international schools.

The focus of most assessment standards, instruments and processes in English–medium international schools is commonality, rather than diversity. It is assumed that, by definition, there can be only one set of norms and one set of targets, with assessment rarely subjected to the same demands to integrate and promote multilingual identities as other aspects of teaching and learning. However, recent work on teacher-based assessment and English language development from a more critical sociocultural perspective demonstrates that quality assessments which incorporate active student negotiation and construction of different identities leads to not only more trustworthy and valid assessment judgments, but also more independent, confident and articulate students. This paper draws on video, questionnaire and interview data collected as part of a larger study of comparative teacher assessment practices in English-medium schools in Asia and Australia to explore the impact of more interactive, multilingual and student-oriented assessment practices on the students from language backgrounds other than English.

10:30 am-11:00 am Coffee

11:00 am-12:15 am Invited Speaker Sessions

Else Hamayan
Salle 3

The Joy of Cultural Diversity in the School and Classroom

We begin by trying to understand what cultural diversity means and how it shapes who we are and how we do things. Cultural diversity is an important component in learning, as it shapes the way we interpret and interact with our environment. We will begin by examining our own cultural identities, and examine the ways in which our norms and values affect us as students and teachers. We will then discuss approaches to working with cultural diversity in the school and in the classroom in an attempt to make the school and the classroom culturally enriching environments for all students.

Jim Cummins
Salle 2

Diverse Futures: Rethinking the Image of the
Child in Multilingual Classrooms

Globalization on the world stage expresses itself locally in international schools in the form of rapidly increasing linguistic and cultural diversity. Unfortunately, in many schools there is a policy vacuum with respect to how best to promote literacy engagement and attainment among students who are learners of English. Implicit school policies and practices in relation to students' first languages and their role in learning typically range from ambivalence to complacency. In some cases, students’ emerging English is seen as a deficit that has to be remediated.

The presentation will analyze these policies (or lack thereof) in relation to the implied image of the child in international schools. To what extent do the interactions that educators orchestrate in their classrooms construct an image of the English learner as intelligent, imaginative, and linguistically talented? How can we create a classroom environment that enables all learners to contribute to the building of knowledge regardless of current level of proficiency in English?

The presentation will challenge the research basis for our current reliance on monolingual instructional strategies and suggest concrete ways of implementing bilingual instructional strategies that acknowledge and build on students’ linguistic talents and cultural knowledge.

Eithne Gallagher
Salle 18

Promoting other languages with Interlingual Classrooms

This lecture will address issues that include but also look beyond English Medium instruction. It is possible to move well beyond the monolingual classrooms of the past into an era of ‘Interlingual Classrooms’. Today’s students need to function in a globalised multicultural social and work environment. To remain competitive schools must adapt to this shift in market requirements. In this session we will consider what changes we need to make in our schools so we can meet this challenge.

12:15 pm-1:30 pm Panel Discussion
Salle 2

1:30 pm-1:45pm Closing Ceremony