Dutch Start of Research–Practice Partnership

The Dutch team at the University of Amsterdam has launched a Research–Practice Partnership (RPP) within the European Horizon research project Pluridentities, in collaboration with and supported by Levende Talen Engels and AlfaGammapartners. In this partnership, modern foreign language teachers work together with researchers Indira Wakelkamp and Marrit van de Guchte to explore how multilingual approaches, supported by digital technology, can find a meaningful place in modern foreign language education.

The RPP brings together teachers, teacher educators and researchers for five collaborative sessions in which they co-design concrete teaching materials. The aim is to connect experiences from classroom practice with subject didactics and insights from research. The trajectory aligns with current developments in modern foreign language education in the Netherlands, including the ongoing curriculum reform and the proposed learning outcomes in the domain of language awareness.

During the first meeting, a group of eleven enthusiastic teachers started the trajectory. The participants teach English, German, French and Spanish at different secondary schools and brought a wide range of experiences from their classrooms. The session focused on getting to know each other and exploring participants’ motivations and expectations for the collaboration.

The linguistic diversity present in their classrooms and within the group itself quickly became visible when participants mapped the languages spoken by themselves and by their students. The group also discussed the working approach for the partnership and shared what they consider important for productive collaboration.

The meeting offered an initial glimpse of the diverse experiences and questions teachers have regarding multilingualism and the use of digital technology in language education. It marked a promising start to a collaborative process of learning and designing that will continue in the coming months.