Creative Language Practices

I wanted to tell you a bit more about the Translanguaging Team I mentioned in my last email. This is a grant project that I am a part of called CREATIVE LANGUAGE PRACTICES: EXPLORING TRANSLANGUAGING IN PEDAGOGICAL CONTEXTS AND BEYOND. Several artists were brought on board for the project (including me) to come up with creative activities to help promote translanguaging support in classrooms.
     So, what is translanguaging exactly?
     Well, lots of classrooms will teach one or two languages - think of Spanish being taught in an English-speaking classroom. However, classrooms (in the UK especially) are becoming more diverse and you can often end up with a room-full of students whose first language isn't English, and perhaps even a myriad of languages in one room. They end up speaking in a mix of English, their native tongue, and a few words here and there from a variety of different languages. Studies have shown, this mix of languages is more common than becoming individually fluent and sticking with one language or another.
     Our project creates games that encourage the use and acceptance of the variety of languages in a classroom. And if a teacher isn't proficient in a certain language, the student whose native tongue it is, gets to become the expert and guide their classmates - this gives them agency and expertise, helping to include them in the group rather than exclude them as different or defficient. Good idea, right?
     Indeed, I'm so proud to be a part of this project. Click on the image to visit our website and learn more!