An interesting (small scale) study on home language use in the EAL classroom from Neokleous and Natlandsmyr (2025) – Link here.
- A series of observations in EAL classrooms in Norway, along with interviews (32 learners, 6 teachers); two major themes identified
- Theme 1: ‘tensions between language ideologies and instructional realities’
- Theme 2: ‘constraints and uncertainties in implementing multilingual approaches’
Plenty of interesting findings within those themes:
Theme 1
- both teachers and learners showed commitment to target-language-only instruction, however:
- Examples of principled/pragmatic use of home languages in the classroom also, such as for scaffolding, instructions, etc.
- as such, teacher practice conflicted at times with ideological stance
- student reflections on home languages as a safety net, also conflicting with ideological stance on TL-only instruction.
Theme 2
- Teacher ambivalence towards towards multilingual approaches
- Limited training, and teachers reported being discouraged to adopt multilingual approaches during training
- Need for clarity on concepts and models of implementation as well as support and training.
Relating this to my context
The findings seemed pretty much as expected. The need for teacher training, the tension between what teacher’s ideological stance and their practice. That said, I feel many EAL teachers I know would view their ideological stance as opposite to the monolingual ideology: pushing against TL-only instruction yet feeling constrained to make that work within more mono-geared contexts, to the detriment of multilingual approaches. Mind you, I’m only assuming that is the case based on informal conversations – would be good to study this in an international school context.
Some voices seemed missing in this study:
- Teachers perceive there to be certain institutional constraints and limitations when it comes to home-language use. What do school leaders think about that?
- Some teachers and learners report commitment to target-language only instruction, yet home-language use in class is clearly a thing. Are parents aware of these instructional realities? What is their take on it?
That’s not a criticism, I’m more looking at it through an international school lens. If I were to study the same thing in an int school context, I’d want to add those two voices (parents and leaders) into the mix.
Anyway, it’s a very readable article. Feel free to share views!
Reference:
Neokleous, G., & Vangen Natlandsmyr, K. (2025, September). Language Ideologies and Pedagogical Tensions: Norwegian Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes toward Home Language Use in the EAL Classroom. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 10, p. 1632543). Frontiers.
Categories: General, reflections, teacher development
ELT Planning 
Hi, thanks for sharing this useful summary and comments.
Perhaps there is also one more dimension to consider when thinking about multilingualism in education: the perceived status of the home language. In a project that a colleague and I did, we noted that parents were often encouraged by teachers to foster bilingual practices when one of the home languages was a high prestige Western European language; yet the same teachers tended to discourage low prestige home languages because they would allegedly “confuse children” and “slow down learning”.
To me this suggests that language ideologies are highly nuanced, with conflicting espoused believes and practices — and it also highlights the need for greater awareness raising and focused reflection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes absolutely! Thanks for mentioning. That’s an interesting one in my context, where learners are often secure in speaking their home language (Thai) but may not be able to write it, and this may not be seen as a priority compared to, say, learning to write in English.
LikeLiked by 1 person