Engaging with Linguistic Diversity

Little and Kirwan make alive the processes through which children construct knowledge and develop literacy and learner autonomy in a school which includes the languages of school, as well as the many home languages of the increasing number of immigrant students. Besides the rich descriptions of classroom practices, the book is significant because it demonstrates the importance of school leadership and teacher collaboration to transform instruction, as well as the ways in which different language practices can be leveraged to learn to transform language education policy. * Ofelia Garcia, Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA * The book I have been waiting for for a long time! It is a compelling must read for teacher educators and educational researchers engaged in rethinking language education in multilingual classrooms. Highly readable, it describes how a dynamic and integrated language policy implemented in an Irish primary school where 50 different languages were spoken by children from immigrant background, led them to academic success and to their integration into Irish society. All teachers and future teachers should read it: they will understand that it is possible to work with languages they do not know, and therefore to transform the learning journey of their multilingual students. * Christine Helot, Professor, University of Strasbourg, France * Provides wonderful concrete activities to bring plurilingual and pluricultural inclusion into schools of the 21st century. Besides engaging teachers with linguistic diversity, the book will help them become more inclusive with all the pupils in their classrooms. * Nathalie Auger, Professor, Paul Valery University of Montpellier, France *