Teacher and student beliefs towards multilingualism: Relationships and the predictors

In today's linguistically diverse classrooms, teacher and student beliefs towards multilingualism are key variables for innovative multilingual teaching approaches. This study investigates the predictive impact of teacher beliefs towards multilingualism on student beliefs towards multilingualism, and how these beliefs are predicted by teachers' and students' own multilingualism and the proportion of multilingual students. Results from 48 fourth grade teachers and 873 students in Germany reveal that student beliefs are related to teachers' beliefs and predicted by students' own multilingualism. The proportion of multilingual students predicted students' beliefs but showed no significant composition effect, and it did not predict teachers' beliefs. The study emphasizes the decisive role of teachers as role models as their beliefs are significantly related to student beliefs towards multilingualism.