The cultural and linguistic dimensions of metaphors in bilingual teacher education

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The cultural and linguistic dimensions of metaphors in bilingual teacher education

Eva Trentinne Benko

Budapesht, Hungary

In Europe, the number of early bilingual/multilingual or CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) programmes is increasing. They offer ideal circumstances for learners of various linguistic and cultural backgrounds, foreigners and native speakers alike. Awakening to languages, building positive attitudes toward other nations and developing openness, tolerance, and intercultural awareness can occur naturally in the early years when professional support and conditions are provided. Teachers working in bilingual or plurilingual educational contexts need a wide range of unique competencies. ELTE University, Faculty of Primary and Pre-school Education is one of the few institutions in Hungary providing early pre-service bilingual teacher training at a BA level since 2006. The article presents ELTE TOK's student teachers' beliefs by investigating their metaphors of the effective CLIL practitioner, emphasising those with a linguistic and cultural dimension. Their metaphors prove that future teachers have adequate personal and professional competencies to support young learners' plurilingual and multicultural development in the future.

Keywords: pluricultural; multilingual; CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning); teacher education; qualitative research; teachers' beliefs; metaphors.

Ева Трентінне Бенко

КУЛЬТУРНІ ТА ЛІНГВІСТИЧНІ ВИМІРИ МЕТАФОР У ДВОМОВНІЙ ОСВІТІ ВЧИТЕЛІВ

У статті розглядаються культурні та лінгвістичні виміри використання метафор у ході двомовної освіти. Автор наголошує, що пробудження інтересу до вивчення мов, формування позитивного ставлення до інших культур і розвиток толерантності, відкритості та міжкультурної свідомості може відбуватися природно в перші роки, якщо буде забезпечена необхідна підтримка та відповідні умови. Освітяни мають важливе значення для досягнення цих позитивних змін.

Педагоги в рамках двомовної освіти можуть відігравати значну роль у цій роботі. Вони мають з'єднати, збалансувати та згармонізувати два різних світи на основі відмінностей. Учителі CLIL (Інтегроване навчання) повинні охоплювати рідну мову та додаткову мову, мову навчання, яка може бути другою, третьою, мовою меншини, регіональною чи іноземною; вони також зобов'язані інтегрувати цільову мову зі змістом академічних предметів, використовуючи обидві для підтримки один одного.

Було наголошено, що сила слова та мистецтва може стати потужним інструментом у процесі підвищення міжкультурної свідомості та створення миру й гармонії. Результати навчання і формування культурно релевантного, чуйного й відповідального ставлення до всесвіту можна оцінити шляхом аналізу внутрішніх уявлень учнів. У статті представлено аналіз метафор, занотованих у ході активного використання методології CLIL; акцентовано саме на тих із них, що мають мовний і культурний виміри.

Ключові слова: література; культурний вимір; лінгвістичний вимір; метафора; білінгвальний; педагогічна освіта; дошкільна освіта; початкова освіта.

Introduction

The need for plurilingual and multicultural communication and understanding in Europe seems a more topical and vital topic nowadays than ever before. It is not only accurate to state in abstract figurative language but also literally: the lives of thousands of people depend on the linguistic and cultural endorsement and understanding, peaceful co-existence, respect and acceptance of each other.

In addition to society, teacher education is responsible for ensuring that future generations know and acknowledge diversity: cultural and linguistic differences. Awakening to languages, building positive attitudes towards other cultures and developing tolerance, openness, and intercultural awareness can occur naturally in the early years if the necessary support and conditions are provided. Teachers are vital in achieving this positive change.

Colleagues, especially in bilingual education, can play a significant role in this endeavour. In the course of their everyday work, at every moment, they must connect, balance and harmonise two different worlds based on differences. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teachers must embrace the mother tongue and an additional language, the language of instruction, which can be a second, a third, a minority or a regional, or a foreign language. They should also integrate the target language with the academic subject content while using both to support each other.

These educational programmes create a bridge between subject- and foreign language teachers, native lectors and non-native colleagues, and help all participants get acquainted with and respect the cultures involved, home, target and other cultures alike. CLIL practitioners should treat and support children, parents and colleagues arriving from different worlds, heterogeneous linguistic and cultural backgrounds in an inclusive manner.

Literature Review. The theoretical background of this paper includes the literature on the notions collected in Figure 1. However, due to the limitations of this present article, I will outline only some significant points.

Figure 1: Terms relevant to the research (the word cloud made by the author of the paper)

According to Figel (2006, p. 3) “multilingualism is at the very heart of European identity since languages are a fundamental aspect of the cultural identity of every European”. In today's Europe, due to globalisation, knowing languages and having multilingual and multicultural competencies - knowledge, skills, attitudes, responsibility and autonomy - are of significant importance. That is why EU recommendations emphasise plurilingualism and multiculturalism (ECML URL1, URL2). Therefore, the European Union encourages learning at least two foreign languages and meeting other cultures (cf. Kramsch, 1994; Laidlaw, 2001) at an early age. Inclusion of migrant and local minority children is also supported. The European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) has the mission to assist Europeans learn languages more efficiently, with a vision of a linguistically and culturally diverse Europe (ECML URL1). They aim to develop individuals' language repertoire and cultural identity whilst emphasising the value of linguistic and cultural diversity.

“Inspired by the fundamental values of the Council of Europe, the ECML promotes linguistic and cultural diversity and fosters plurilingualism and pluriculturalism among the citizens living in Europe” (Newby et al. 2007, p. 2).

The notion of plurilingualism means embracing all languages, and plurilingual education promotes learning home language/s, language/s of schooling, foreign languages, and regional and minority languages. The ECML claims that intercultural learning supports learners' personal growth and enhances social cohesion (ECML URL1).

EU recommendations and policy resolutions on languages and cultures are clear: Europe is committed to linguistic and cultural diversity. According to the European strategy for multilingualism (COUNCIL, 2008), member state governments should provide a wide range of high-quality language learning opportunities from an early age. The Commission of the European Community's new framework strategy for promoting multilingualism (COM, 2005) states that early language learning can only be effective if teachers are specially qualified to teach children. They should apply age-appropriate language teaching methods considering individual differences. Hence, member states need to review their foreign language teacher education system and create specific age-appropriate training programmes. On the ECML's website, three fundamental complementary tools can assist the implementation of plurilingual education (ECML URL2; Beacco & Byram, 2007; Beacco et al., 2016a; Beacco et al., 2016b).

In EU policies and recommendations, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) “plays an increasingly important role in language education, both as a feature of foreign language teaching and learning, and as an element of bilingual and plurilingual education” (ECML, URL3).

The acronym CLIL is used as a generic term to describe all types of provision in which a second language (a foreign, regional or minority language and/or another official state language) is used to teach certain subjects in the curriculum other than languages lessons themselves. (Eurydice 2006:8)

CLIL programmes (see also Marsh & Langй, 2000; Eurydice; Mehisto et al., 2008) offer ideal circumstances for learners of various linguistic and cultural backgrounds, foreigners and native speakers, and minority or migrant children. The tasks and challenges that CLIL teachers face are more multifaceted than those of practitioners working in monolingual settings. A wide range of competencies is required (Newby et al., 2007). The European Portfolio (EPOSTL) offers indicators in the form of `I can statements' for student teachers of foreign languages to reflect on (see Table 1).

Table 1 Examples of the indicators in the EPOSTL (Newby et al. 2007)

Apart from professional skills and personal qualities, teachers' beliefs, values, and preconceptions also determine their pedagogical decisions and actions, thus influencing their work's success (Pajares, 1992; Calderhead, 1996). These beliefs can be explored by using qualitative research methodology (Wubbels, 1992), for example, via their metaphors.

Aim of the study

The present study aims to provide an insight into student teachers' beliefs in the early CLIL teacher education programme at ELTE in connection with languages and cultures. ELTE University, Faculty of Primary and Pre-school Education is one of the few institutions in Hungary providing early pre-service bilingual teacher training at a BA level since 2006. ELTE TOK aims to educate future kindergarten and primary teachers in a way that challenges and forms their personal beliefs, raises their awareness and supports their positive attitudes and autonomy following the European values and recommendations. The specialised CLIL teacher education programme integrates theory and practice, and it uses pluralistic approaches to achieve the desired learning outcome.

In my research, I intend to investigate whether student teachers demonstrate any beliefs in being open and culturally responsive (cf. Gay, 2010) to plurilingual and pluricultural teaching. I will present examples of their metaphors that carry linguistically relevant and multicultural messages implying their understanding, respect and tolerance of diversity.

Research methods. This paper is a part of an ongoing research project (starting in 2008) exploring CLIL teachers' and trainees' beliefs, competencies and learning outcomes based on their creative and reflective work. Apart from metaphor analysis, the research comprises pedagogical story-creation and the study of visual representations (see some examples in Appendix B), besides more traditional methods and techniques.

Appendix А Examples of visual representations

CLIL teachers should possess a variety of competencies: knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions, and personal and professional qualities to cope with the multifaceted challenges of the CLIL context. We can learn about teachers' and trainees' internal representations, personal theories, and beliefs through metaphors hidden even from their own conscious perceptions (Vamos, 2003). The metaphors presented were collected with the help of a research tool, the metaphor grid designed by the paper's author in 2008 (see Appendix В). The question is what characteristic features and competencies are displayed in their metaphors.

Appendix В MetaphorGrid (designed by Trentinnй, 2008)

Results and discussion

Due to the article's length limits, the multidimensionality aspect of the research, that is, exposing and comparing the linguistic and cultural dimensions of stories, games and visual representations, cannot be the aim. During the past 13 years, many CLIL teacher metaphors have been collected; however, only some of them are shared in the article, and their choice is merely arbitrary. Beliefs can be traced in both the metaphors and their explanations.

On the one hand, most of the trainees' metaphors emphasise the general teachers' presumed main tasks and competencies, claiming that an effective and successful CLIL teacher is, for example, a bridge that links children and knowledge. The following examples may also reveal relevant features of the CLIL teacher: multilingual education student teacher

* ivy that covers children's minds by spreading knowledge

• the owl because it is supposed to be wise and moderate

• a camel since you can put a lot of burden on its back

• a lizard because if its tail breaks off, it grows again

• a chameleon because it can adapt to the conditions

• a lion that fights for CLIL.

On the other hand, some metaphors highlight the cultural and linguistic components or dimensions like the ones listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Examples of CLIL teacher trainees' linguistic and cultural metaphors

Hungarian CLIL specialist students have also demonstrated their familiarity with the target culture (c.f. Kramsh, 1994; Laidlaw, 2001). Many Anglo-Saxon metaphors and references can be found in various categories (see Appendix A); to mention a few: Peter Pan, the Big

Ben, Frodo from the Lord of the Rings, the Whitehall, Powerpuff girl, the classic Mini Morris, the Earl Grey tea, Mary Poppins, Dickens, Princess Diana, Sherlock Holmes, The London Eye, Mrs Potts from the Beauty and Beast, Dora the explorer, double-deckers, Chuck Norris, Walt Disney, Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie among many others.

Since I adopted the `bridge' metaphor earlier in the article, I intend to present some future teachers' explanations for it. While some participants stated that the bridge symbolises the teacher's connection with the children, others reflected on the link between the mother tongue and the foreign language, or between the home culture and the target culture. Thus, these students underlined and acclaimed the CLIL teacher's linguistic and intercultural challenges, tasks and competencies.

Conclusions and perspectives

The ECML's mission is to enable Europeans to cope with one of the most significant challenges societies face in the 21st century. It emphasises “the role of language education in improving mutual understanding and respect among the citizens of Europe” (Newby et al. 2007, p.2). Bilingualism is the norm in today's diverse world, and it should be expected. Therefore, teachers must possess the competencies of understanding, cooperation, and tolerance. The idea of diversity, acceptance, and respect for other nations, languages, and cultures is demonstrated throughout this article.

The power of the word and the arts can be an impressive tool in raising intercultural awareness and creating peace and harmony. Their beliefs, learning outcomes, and attitudes toward culturally relevant, responsive and responsible teaching may be assessed by analysing their inner representations. The article has presented student teachers' beliefs by investigating their metaphors of the effective CLIL practitioner; those with a linguistic and cultural dimension have been emphasised.

Thinking free from prejudices and stereotypes and having a loving attitude towards all fellow human beings appear in the students' metaphors and their justifications. The metaphors show that trainees own adequate personal and professional competencies, including values and beliefs, and are ready to support young learners' plurilingual and multicultural development in the future following the EU recommendations.

Possible research perspectives include investigating further multidimensionality to find standard common features in the metaphors, stories and visual images (see Appendix B). Another definite intention is to extend the research and cooperate with teacher educators of different nationalities to explore and compare our students' metaphors related to languages and cultures.

References

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