TEACHER MULTILINGUAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM: IMPLICATIONS FOR COURSE DEVELOPMENT

Oct 15, 2026

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CEFR and its Companion Volume guide European language teaching, learning, and assessment while promoting students’ diverse linguistic repertoires as classroom assets. The article examines Ukrainian EFL teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism and whether those beliefs translate into multilingual teaching practices. Quantitative analysis of an online questionnaire from 73 teachers across 12 Ukrainian universities uses descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations. Results show favorable perceptions alongside uneven implementation, limited expertise, and critical gaps, informing a scenario-based teacher professional development course.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Multilingual education context and policy-practice gap

Purpose and research questions

Method: participants and online questionnaire

Data analysis and correlation results

Findings and implications for course development

TEACHER MULTILINGUAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM: IMPLICATIONS FOR COURSE DEVELOPMENT Viktoriia Osidak,1 Associate Professor, Department of Methodology of Teaching Ukrainian and Foreign Languages and Literature Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine [viktoriya_osidak@ukr.net](viktoriya_osidak@ukr.net) [ORCID: 0000-0001-7304-3026](ORCID: 0000-0001-7304-3026) Maryana Natsiuk,2 Associate Professor, Department of Methodology of Teaching Ukrainian and Foreign Languages and Literature Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , Kyiv, Ukraine [nymaryana@gmail.com](nymaryana@gmail.com) ORCID: 0000-0002-5887-8321 Karin Vogt,3 Professor, Head of English Department University of Education , Heidelberg, Germany vogt@ph-heidelberg.de ORCID: 0000-0001-6019-2655 Abstract. The CEFR and the Companion Volume to the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001, 2020), as the main language policy documents in Europe, intend to improve the standard of language teaching, learning and assessment. These documents among other things proclaim students’ diverse linguistic repertoire as an asset in the language classroom. In this light, the promotion of multilingual education initiatives and enhancing students’plurilingualism is an educational requirement. Teachers, language teachers included, are seen as agents of change who can foster multilingual approaches in their language classrooms (Krulatz et al., 2022). Although previous studies have found that many language teachers hold favourable views on multilingualism, they face challenges when implementing multilingual approaches in the (foreign) language classroom. Teachers’ beliefs on multilingualism in (foreign) language teaching and learning and how these impact their teaching practices have not been investigated in the Ukrainian education context, which has always been multilingual. The purpose of the article is to share and discuss the results of a quantitative study designed to investigate Ukrainian teacher beliefs in learning English and whether these beliefs are reflected in teaching practices. Data were collected using an online questionnaire administered to 73 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers from 12 1 Corresponding author, responsible for conceptualising, methodology, investigation, resources, data curation, writing – original draft, validation, formal analysis. 2 Co-author, responsible for investigation, resources, validation, formal analysis, writing – review & editing. 3 Co-author, responsible for writing – review & editing, supervision, project administration. Ukrainian universities. The research questions were ascertained using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. The collected insights helped to identify areas that require a more careful consideration in the multilingual education in Ukraine. The outcomes reveal complex and uneven relationships between teacher multilingual beliefs and the implementation of multilingual practices in EFL classrooms in Ukraine, with discrepancies in their perceptions and practices. The main finding suggests that the majority of Ukrainian language teachers have a favorable perception of multilingualism, yet they lack the required expertise and confidence to effectively build on their students' linguistic resources in teaching English. In addition, there are some critical gaps in teacher understanding of fundamental concerns about multilingualism. Suggestions will be made fora scenario-based approach to a teacher professional development course. Keywords: multilingualism, linguistic repertoire, belief system, multilingual practices, teacher professional development course. БАГАТОМОВНІСТЬ У ВИКЛАДАННІ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ: ВИВЧЕННЯ ДОСВІДУВИЩИХ НАВЧАЛЬНИХ ЗАКЛАДІВ УКРАЇНИ Багатомовність стала реалією у більшості регіонах світу внаслідок глобалізаційнихта демографічних змін, які призвели до зростання числа багатомовних спільнот. Узв'язку з потребою в адаптації до соціальн

FAQs

What is the article’s main purpose regarding multilingualism in English classrooms?

To investigate Ukrainian EFL teachers’ beliefs about learning English and determine whether these beliefs are reflected in their teaching practices.

How were data collected and analyzed?

Data came from an online questionnaire completed by 73 EFL teachers from 12 Ukrainian universities, analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation.

What do the findings indicate about teachers’ perceptions and practice?

Teachers generally perceive multilingualism favorably, but their implementation is complex and uneven, due to limited expertise, confidence, and gaps in understanding key issues.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào