Multilingual Computer-Based Learning Environments For Stem Education And Language Awareness

Due to increasing linguistic diversity in today’s classrooms, there is a call for multilingual teaching approaches that foster learning for all students in linguistically inclusive classrooms (OECD, 2016). Multilingual computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) have been proposed to implement such approaches, though research on their effects is still scarce (Van Laere, 2016). The present study contributes to filling this gap by evaluating a five-week intervention using a multilingual CBLE (based on Language Awareness, CLIL and Translanguaging) in two primary schools in the Netherlands (n = 34). The study's emphasis was on measuring changes in STEM content knowledge and language attitudes, as well as on assessing the influence of linguistic background. Employing a pre-and post-test design, it was found that the use of the multilingual CBLE led to significant gains in content knowledge, especially in multilingual students. Furthermore, positive effects on attitudes towards migrant and regional minority languages were found. However, not all changes in attitudes were significant, possibly due to the short intervention time or treatment fidelity issues. Nonetheless, the results provide empirical evidence for the fact that CBLEs based on multilingual pedagogies can be successfully employed as a combined approach to tackle current issues in the field of multilingual education related to both cognitive and affective gains of mono- and multilingual pupils.