Teaching English in a multicultural classroom in mainstream education : challenges and strategies

Abstract

This dissertation looks into the opportunities, challenges and strategies that primary and secondary state school teachers experienced within multicultural education. Previous research in an international and Maltese context has listed a number of challenges that teachers and even learners could face including the language barrier, keeping up with the curriculum, the influence of L1 and parental involvement. Along with strategies which are; translation, visual aids, collaborative learning and adapting resources and curriculum. The research methods used were questionnaires, observations, and semi-structured interviews which were vital to figure the perspectives of the teachers’ benefits and challenges not only for themselves, but also the implications for the migrant and non-migrant learners. The findings demonstrate that primary school teachers face more of a difficulty with regards to other subjects such as religion and Maltese while the secondary school teachers have more problems with class sizes and prejudice issues between their students. All teachers highlighted their need for training to be able to deal with the rise in migrants in their classrooms and hope to find ways to improve the integration of the learners. Further research is needed to gain an understanding of what teachers from other schools experience, along with the perspectives of migrant students in order to achieve a successful learning and teaching experience for all.