LANGUAGE POLICIES IN

EXTRACURRICULAR/PRESCHOOL
AND CHILD CARE
 INTRODUCTION
Early year’s education has experienced great change in
Europe.
1) There are growing numbers of children attending early
childhood education and care and many start at an earlier
age (0 to 3 years) due to the higher labor force
participation of women (Eurostat 2012; Kamerman 2000).
2) Socio-economic and political developments have created a
Europe of ‘super-diversity’ as coined by Vertovec (2006).
3) The traditional focus of early years’ institutions on play
and care has shifted towards preparing toddlers for school
entrance (Kamerman 2000).
 STRATEGY 2020

Present European discourses identify the necessity to provide

quality education and care services for young children.

•This considers young children as “human capital” and an

investment towards economic progress.

 EDUCATIONAL LANGUAGE POLICY IN EUROPE

European Union policy completely ignored the existing

linguistic repertoire of its migrant population.
a) They expected multilingual citizens and children to ‘neglect’
their home language and culture.
b) Immigrants should adopt the nationally dominant language as
fast as possible in order to enhance assimilation into the
country that they were living in.
•It was in year 2003 when the European Union acknowledged the
positive value of minority languages of migrants and welcomed
linguistic diversity.
The European Commission set its aim to ensure that every
citizen should, in addition to the mother tongue, “master at
least two foreign languages, with the emphasis on effective
communicative ability” (European Commission 2003: 8).
 The target languages of EU multilingualism policy were those
of the other member states, e.g., French, English, German,
Italian, and Dutch.
 “Education systems need to ensure the harmonious
development of learners pluralingual competence through a
coherent, transversal and integrated approach that takes into
account all the languages in learners’ plurilingual repertoire
and their respective functions.” -Council of Europe 2012
 EU POLICY: “THE LANGUAGES OF
SCHOOLING”

This project explicitly states that the instruction language may very
well be the second language of children who, therefore, need extra
support.
• A further aim of the current EU policy is to raise Europeans’
awareness of their existing linguistic repertoire and to help them to
draw on the knowledge and skills of all their languages and language
varieties in order to become fully competent – linguistically and
interculturally –members of the plurilingual European society.
 ONE PERSON ONE LANGUAGE

• “One person, one language” or OPOL approach is a popular

method adopted by parents attempting to raise simultaneous
bilingual children.

INFORMAL SETTING FORMAL SETTING

• The parents of the • The teachers of the
child are the dispenser child are the dispenser
of the language. of the language.
 EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE IN

EUROPE

•ECEC refers to any regulated arrangement that provides education

and care for children from birth to compulsory primary school

age.

•In Europe, ECEC services cover children outside the

compulsory age of schooling, which is usually from 0 to 6 years

old
 ECEC SYSTEMS

Unitary system. Split system.

 An ECEC service for  Two ministries or different

children aged 0-6 years old
government agencies are
is under the provision of
one ministry or a major responsible for the ECEC

government agency. services.

 SPILT SYSTEM

Government agency Ministry of Education

 Responsible for the  Responsible for the

services directed to
older children from 3-6
the younger children
years old.
from 0-3 years.

 Most European countries, including France use the split system

 ECEC PERSONNEL

Education staff members working with children from 3 to 6

• Bachelor’s degree as minimum qualifications.

Education staff members for the younger children (0-3)
• Classified into different types depending on their function.
• These staffs are under the non-school ECEC.

The salary of each staffs is based on their function/title and

relevant work experience.
 CONCLUSION
• Indeed that with these policies children are viewed as “human
capital” (Navracsics, 2015) to ensure the future of Europe.
• Nothing is wrong about this perspective as long as authorities
should also acknowledge that children at this stage (preschool)
are acquiring language and at the same time, understanding
their place in society through their interactions with the people
who care for them.
•This means that whatever policy is being implemented on their
education system, their rights of having the opportunity to reach
his/her fullest potential should be considered as well.
 THANK YOU!
TO GOD BE GLORY.