ARE LITHUANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHERS READY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PLURILINGUAL APPROACH?

Abstract

The growing global outreach of the EU, intensified immigration, and increasing linguistic and cultural diversity have significantly affected the European higher education (HE) landscape. As HE institutions become more multilingual and multicultural, educators are expected to develop competences in linguistic sensitivity and plurilingual practices. This study addresses two research questions: do Lithuanian HE teachers consider themselves prepared to implement the plurilingual approach in their teaching, and do teacher education programs in Lithuania equip educators to work in multilingual and multicultural settings? The research was conducted in two stages. Firstly, the data of 67 Lithuanian HE language and EMI teachers responding to the  questionnaire-based survey (developed by the APATCHE project team) were analyzed. Secondly, a preliminary screening of university courses was carried out across three teacher education programs (Initial Teacher Education, Continuous Professional Development, and BA/MA Philology programs) in two major teacher education centers in Lithuania: Vilnius University (VU) and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The findings suggest that Lithuanian HE is making progress toward greater linguistic and cultural inclusiveness. Teachers demonstrated a favorable orientation toward plurilingual practices, as reflected in their self-assessments. However, the curriculum analysis revealed that current and prospective language teachers are being insufficiently prepared for the challenges of multilingual classrooms. These results highlight the need to reconceptualize teacher training programs and expand opportunities for in-service and continuous language program teachers to acquire competences to meet the challenges of multilingual and multicultural classrooms.