Advancing students professional language skills | HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht

In this project, two groups of subject and language teachers from the Health Care College of ROC Midden Nederland will work on designing, implementing, and evaluating (multi)lingual didactic interventions in their own teaching practice.

With this project, we aim to provide subject and language teachers with tools to incorporate more focus on language and multilingualism in their lessons. In doing so, they can contribute to the professional language skills of their students, as well as to their subject-specific development and the well-being of (multilingual) students.

We expect the project to expand teachers' repertoire of (multi)lingual instructional strategies, result in a set of well-developed (multi)lingual interventions, and lead to an perceived improvement in students' professional language skills.

"I have now learned how to support students in acquiring new knowledge through language-supportive strategies, and how to use multilingual approaches better 'see' students"
Teacher from preliminary pilot project

01 November 2024 - 01 November 2025

In this project, we are adopting a design-based approach. In two teacher groups (n=18 in total), language-supportive and multilingual didactic interventions will be designed, implemented in their own teaching practices over two cycles, and evaluated.

The project provides insights into the effectiveness of language-supportive and multilingual instructional strategies and interventions in both subject and language education within the vocational (mbo) context. Additionally, around 20 teachers are gaining professional skills in designing and delivering language-supportive subject instruction that makes functional use of multilingualism. The education provided at ROC Midden Nederland, the project’s partner institution, benefits directly, while other vocational and educational institutions benefit indirectly through knowledge sharing.