Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

6.5 Challenges for the future
At micro level, most important of all in the processes of raising our children through
languages is the constant (and continuously to be encouraged) awareness of parents and
their peers that they have a choice. They should be aware that multilingual upbringing can
foster a child’s cognitive development and further language learning, provided that
appropriate conditions are met. Parents are responsible for raising their children in both
languages or either language, to guide the children through immersion education, bilingual
or monolingual courses, to apply the one person – one language approach or any other wellthought-out
approach, and to read aloud with their children as much as reasonably possible.
The practitioners involved in these provisions and approaches are expected to guide the
parents and peers towards that choice. They are considered to be experts and, indeed,
parents will expect clear answers on a great variety of questions, although in most cases
their training is insufficient. Therefore, within the European and national policies regarding
the improvement of quality of practitioners, a bachelor degree, specially developed modules
and tailor-made internship must be developed. Within vocational training courses those
modules and internship courses must be certified, both for the school and for the individual
student.
At meso level, regional and local educational authorities should take it as their responsibility
to insist on the integrative or holistic approach of the health and wealth organisations in
cooperation with vocational training. This vision of the development of the child as a totality
must include not only aspects of physical growth and health, but also a balanced approach
towards language acquisition appropriate for the child in its linguistic environment. The
relationship between formal education and language learning activities in non-formal
contexts should be strengthened.
At macro level, national governments should include in their educational policy not only an
increase of participation of pre-school education, which is proclaimed by the EU in the
Agenda 2020, but must also give priority to the improvement of the continuity of language
learning through primary school and secondary education. National legislation must be
based on equality of the target languages and aimed at full language development.
With respect to the training of practitioners and day care servants, sufficient provisions for
teacher training must be guaranteed, including in-service training programmes. Training
programmes must include promotion awareness programmes focussing on balanced
plurilingualism, as well as methodologies of immersion and language acquisition approaches
in various linguistic settings. Such programmes can be developed and targeted at speakers of
regional minority languages as well as immigrant languages.
At macro level, European organisations should encourage all policy makers and stake holders
to express the same positive attitudes towards multilingualism and language maintenance.
The importance of communication in different languages and language learning from a
lifelong learning perspective should include continuous attention for first language/mother
tongue acquisition. Furthermore, the concepts of “Equity, Quality, Consistency and
Continuity” (Language Learning at Pre-primary school level 2011 p. 9) should be applied to
smaller state languages and regional & minority languages as well as immigrant languages.
The European organisations also should encourage national governments to develop
common standards of quality of practitioners in terms of language skills and didactic skills for
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