Remedial or radical? Second language support for curriculum learning

The presence of second language learners is becoming the norm across school systems as a result of globalisation. The chapter considers whether in making provision for second language learners in mainstream schools the emphasis should be on setting up remedial programmes for them, or alternatively, a more radical programme which entails a reappraisal of mainstream concepts of 'good practice' and of the accepted role of the class or subject teacher. Drawing on a range of international examples, it considers the theory and practice of second language learning over the past two decades and makes recommendations for teacher training. It outlines the ways in which second language learners can be given access to the school curriculum and to the academic language through which it is constructed, and argues for the need to develop new forms of bilingual support for learning which are open to students' own everyday forms of bilingual language use