Linguistically-Responsive Educational Framework for Multilingual Contexts

Abstract

It is estimated that 221 million primary-aged children from remote rural areas, linguistic minority, and ethnic communities who speak a different language at home and have no contact with the instructional language outside of the classroom do not have access to education and have the biggest problems in learning and understanding of the language taught at school. UNESCO notes that Africa is the only continent, where the majority of the children start schooling using a foreign language. For instance, in Zambia, where English was the educational language (among non-English speakers), it was found at the end of primary schooling that children were unable to read fluently or write clearly, and they failed examinations because they could not understand the instructions. The chapter focuses on the important issues of multilingual contexts in education and spread light to the factors that influence inclusion and academic achievement.