The social aspect of sustainable development in language teaching and learning – Pre-service language teachers’ perceptions on multilingualism

Abstract

Tackling climate change is the ultimate goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda includes 17 sustainable development goals. The current Finnish core curriculum for basic education also stresses the importance of strengthening the role of basic education in building a sustainable future. The data consists of pre-service language teachers’ responses to an online survey. 48 MA-level language students responded to the survey, and responses to an open-ended question was analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The responses were categorised into the following categories: 1) definition of multilingualism, 2) multilingualism as actions, and 3) use of language in relation to multilingualism. Most participants considered multilingualism to be an individual characteristic. More than half of the respondents described a multilingual person as someone who knows at least two languages. Two-thirds of the participants emphasised that multilingualism involves the frequent use of multiple languages. According to the participants, multilingualism includes using languages fluently, in everyday life, frequently, actively, and officially. Overall, the participants seemed aware of the many forms of multilingualism, which equips them to support their students by using multilingual pedagogies, and thus promotes the sustainability goals set by the UN. However, more research is needed to examine the actual multilingual practices used in the classroom.