Minati Panda – författare

The principles for enabling children to become fully proficient multilinguals through schooling are well known. Even so, most indigenous/tribal, minority and marginalised children are not provided with appropriate mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) that would enable them to succeed in school and society. In this book experts from around the world ask why this is, and show how it can be done. The book discusses general principles and challenges in depth and presents case studies from Canada and the USA, northern Europe, Peru, Africa, India, Nepal and elsewhere in Asia. Analysis by leading scholars in the field shows the importance of building on local experience. Sharing local solutions globally can lead to better theory, and to action for more social justice and equality through education.

The book explores the theoretical and philosophical groundings of various frameworks of language acquisition, pedagogy and practices. Central to its inquiry are foundational questions such as: How do different theories look at the nature of language and its acquisition, and how do they generate a two-way process of influencing pedagogical practices in different socio-cultural contexts and receive information back from the practices for its theoretical reflections? Structured in five parts—(i) Linguistic structure, language use, and cognitive processes; (ii) Cultural embeddedness of linguistic structures; (iii) The acquisition-learning debate and contemporary language pedagogy; (iv) Multilingual contexts of language use and instruction; and (v) The socio-political epistemology of language use—the book engages in a socio-political and critical-historical analysis. It traces the evolution of linguistic concepts and their influence on educational practices, explores their transdisciplinary migration across linguistics, psychology, and education, and interrogates the conceptual tensions that continue to challenge and reshape the field of language learning and pedagogy.

The book explores the theoretical and philosophical groundings of various frameworks of language acquisition, pedagogy and practices. Central to its inquiry are foundational questions such as: How do different theories look at the nature of language and its acquisition, and how do they generate a two-way process of influencing pedagogical practices in different socio-cultural contexts and receive information back from the practices for its theoretical reflections? Structured in five parts—(i) Linguistic structure, language use, and cognitive processes; (ii) Cultural embeddedness of linguistic structures; (iii) The acquisition-learning debate and contemporary language pedagogy; (iv) Multilingual contexts of language use and instruction; and (v) The socio-political epistemology of language use—the book engages in a socio-political and critical-historical analysis. It traces the evolution of linguistic concepts and their influence on educational practices, explores their transdisciplinary migration across linguistics, psychology, and education, and interrogates the conceptual tensions that continue to challenge and reshape the field of language learning and pedagogy.