Teaching in Multicultural and Multilingual Classes: Implications and Tools for Teachers in the Current Superdiverse World

In such multicultural classrooms, language diversity is a prominent feature that contributes to cultural differences among students—not only do students come from different linguistic backgrounds, but even those who speak the same language may exhibit variations due to diverse dialects, creating a rich tapestry of spoken languages (Bailey & Tarone, 2012).

Cultural differences in multilingual classes extend beyond language to encompass various aspects of students' lives, including values, beliefs, customs, and social norms. These cultural differences can shape students' behaviours, expectations, and learning styles, influencing their academic performance and interactions with peers and teachers. Nonetheless, many students share a—more or less—the same common goal of learning a second language. Overall, across different cultures, education is viewed as an investment in the future (Phalet et al., 2004).

The existence of multicultural classes also give rise to the concept of cultural identity negotiation (Cohen, 2018). Not only immigrants, but also students in multicultural classrooms often navigate the complexities of their cultural identities, grappling with questions of belonging, self-acceptance, and cultural integration. They may experience acculturative stress, which refers to the psychological and emotional challenges associated with adapting to a new culture while maintaining one's cultural heritage (Berry, 2006). However, they may also face conflicts between their home culture and the dominant culture in the classroom, leading to identity confusion and a sense of cultural dissonance (Lahire, 2008). For this reason, it is crucial to talk more in depth about the phenomenon of acculturation.

As we have seen earlier, acculturation refers to the psychological and sociocultural processes individuals undergo when they come into contact with a new culture and adopt its beliefs, values, and behaviours while maintaining aspects of their original culture (Berry, 2005). Individual adaptation strategies are categorized along two aspects in Berry's suggested model of acculturation (Berry, 2005). The first dimension pertains to the extent to which individuals maintain or abandon their cultural heritage from the country of origin.
The second dimension, instead, reflects the desire to engage with and connect to the people and culture of the majority group in the host country.

Building upon these dimensions, Berry identified four acculturation strategies (Table 1):
1. Integration: this strategy represents a desire to maintain one's cultural identity while actively participating in and forming connections with the culture of the host country.
2. Assimilation: characterized by a strong emphasis on adopting the dominant culture while disregarding one's own cultural traditions and practices.
3. Separation: involves maintaining the cultural traditions and practices of the country of origin while actively avoiding contact and interaction with the culture of the host country.
4. Marginalization: this strategy occurs when individuals show little interest in preserving their cultural heritage or engaging with other cultures present in the host country. [...]

It is important to note that these acculturation strategies are associate with certain outcomes, for example, individuals who adopt marginalization strategies are more likely to report less favourable outcomes; conversely, individuals who adopt integration strategies tend to experience better outcomes, such as higher self-esteem, absence of behavioural problems, greater life satisfaction, improved psychosocial adaptation and wellbeing (Berry 2017).

Therefore, within the educational context (and particularly in L2 classes) teachers need to identify and understand the acculturation strategies adopted by their students, so trying to (1) promote integration rather than assimilation strategies, as well as to (2) identify those students who adopt marginalization and separation strategies, which are undoubtedly at higher risk not only in terms of difficulties they may encounter in learning, but also in terms of higher degree of relational/social/psychological suffering.

Oppedal (2006) proposed another theoretical model known as the acculturation development model, which focuses on developmental psychology and describes the process by which children and adolescents acquire competence and engagement in two distinct cultural domains—the host country and the country of origin. According to Oppedal, foreign children experience the simultaneous influence of both socio-cultural domains, which consist of various contexts, such as institutional settings (e.g., school, parents' workplace) and informal settings (e.g., friends, neighbours), that directly and indirectly shape their development. The key components of the model are the child and the family system.