Dr Eva Tresserras, a professor in the Faculty of Education at UIC Barcelona, gave a research seminar entitled “Languages and cultures in contact: a multilingual approach" in the department of Modern Languages in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney.
During her talk, Dr Tresserras tackled the issue of multilingualism and teaching. She used Catalonia as her point of reference.
The education system in Catalonia uses an immersion programme (similar to Canada), so that pupils finish school speaking both Catalan and Spanish naturally.
However, as a consequence of the globalisation of migratory movements, professors face new challenges in the teaching and learning process and this immersion programme is necessary but not sufficient. As Dr Tresserras said, it is necessary to move towards multilingual programmes.
In the seminar, the professor described the teaching model that was developed and that will provide a basis for guidance to help teachers to move towards plurilingual education.
