Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in multilingual contexts: A Mixed Methods Case Study

Abstract

In recent years, a significant number of students with a multilingual background have attended Greek educational institutions, mainly because of migration and the refugee crisis. In March 2020, due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Greek educational institutions started organizing emergency remote teaching on online educational platforms. This paper describes a case study (through intervention) conducted in a digital multilingual elementary classroom, that aimed to explore strategies for facilitating remote lesson engagement and establishing inclusive pedagogy under emergency situations. The main aim of this study was to explore to what extent task-based language teaching (TBLT) activities grounded on the migrant students’ needs analysis and supported by computer-assisted language learning (CALL) features contribute to active lesson participation during emergencies and their effect on migrant students’ social inclusion in a formal educational context. Results established the most critical factors required for differentiated multilingual distance education. This is an original research work on how diversity and inclusion in emergency remote teaching may be achieved.