ENHANCING MULTILINGUALISM AND LINGUISTIC ECOLOGY THROUGH TRANSLANGUAGING
Renata Zanin, Giulia Consalvo, Lynn Mastellotto, Maria Gall
in collaboration with
Angelika Pranter, Gertrud Fischnaller
Target group: UNIBZ students, L1 and L2 teachers (primary school)
Introduction
The bilingual classes project in the Euregio – primary school Innere Stadt and primary school Altwilten (Innsbruck) and primary school Cognola (Trento) – has shown a first way towards multilingualism. This successful model is to be presented and deepened.
Today’s classrooms, in which children grow and learn, are characterised by an increasing linguistic heterogeneity, as confirmed by the most recent studies. In spite of this evidence, the school system does not (yet) formally address the linguistic needs of these children. The languages of schooling, even when more than one language is present, do not always coincide with the linguistic repertoires of the class.
Valuing children’s linguistic diversity means affirming their right to be understood and to tell their stories. Promoting multilingual competence, even beyond the usual L1, L2… boxes, means simultaneously promoting intercultural competence, necessary for encounters, exchange and belonging – the building blocks of citizenship education.
Schools should also promote a learning environment that balances communicative and academic competences within a linguistic and didactic continuum.
Translanguaging, understood both as an individual communicative strategy and as a teaching methodology, can be the key to creating an inclusive learning environment, but above all an effective one in terms of language acquisition.
The proposal
Theoretical and practical study also in the context of “TRANSLANG”, the DAAD-financed Translanguaging Project with the University of Hildesheim (P.I. unibz Renata Zanin).
A series of meetings to reflect on the organisation of linguistically inclusive learning spaces:
- how to explore and document the linguistic diversity of a class group (socio-linguistic questionnaire, language biography, language portfolio, etc.)
- how to enhance the different linguistic repertoires in the schoolscape (the linguistic landscape of school)
- how to promote plurilingual and multicultural competences
- how to design and implement teaching measures
- how to organise a plurilingual learning environment (spaces, materials, activities)
- how to integrate repertoire languages and schooling languages
- how to balance interpersonal communication skills and linguistic-academic skills
- how to promote disciplinary literacy activities
- how to reflect on literacy processes in multilingual contexts (synchronous literacy)
- how to create an interdisciplinary and multilingual curriculum
- how to plan and evaluate language education courses that enhance linguistic diversity.
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Meetings 2022:
Prof. Saverio Carpentieri e Dorothea Carpentieri: Presentation “Bilingual classes”.
Visits of schools:
Volksschule Altwilten Innsbruck, primary school Cognola, Trento and primary school Montessori, Bressanone.