Sumak, ribar i dečak

Book published by Self-published (2021)

This book is an illustrated book for immigrant parents who struggle to learn a new language and fit into a new country. Sumak is a woman who fled the war and is trying to understand new cultural and ... [more ▼]

This book is an illustrated book for immigrant parents who struggle to learn a new language and fit into a new country. Sumak is a woman who fled the war and is trying to understand new cultural and language codes in order to find her way. A fisherman helps her to do that. [less ▲]

Translanguaging program for teachers - website

Learning material (2021)

The www.transla-program.org website is a resource of theoretical and practical materials for teachers working with multilingual children. It exists in English, French, and German.

A professional development course in translanguaging: Teachers, parents and children working together.

Scientific Conference (2021, September 04)

Translanguaging pedagogy promotes deeper understanding of school subjects, increases metalinguistic awareness, affirms multilingual identities, and encourages home-school collaboration (García, 2017 ... [more ▼]

Translanguaging pedagogy promotes deeper understanding of school subjects, increases metalinguistic awareness, affirms multilingual identities, and encourages home-school collaboration (García, 2017). Given that multilingual education is mandatory In Luxembourg, our project aims to (1) offer a professional development (PD) course in translanguaging to preschool teachers, (2) involve children’s families to reinforce home-school collaboration, and (3) foster children’s cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional engagement in the classroom. We used a mixed-method approach: language portraits, questionnaires, and focus groups with teachers, questionnaires and interviews with parents, and a test in early literacy and numeracy in school and home language and video observations with children. During the period of six months, we delivered a 22-hour PD course that focused on the development of teachers’ multilingual classroom, home-school collaboration, information about the multilingual brain and cross-linguistic transfer, oracy and multiliteracies. We worked with 40 teachers, children in their preschools, and the children’s parents. In the final focus groups, the teachers shared that they felt more relieved that children’s home languages do not confuse them and do not hinder the learning of Luxembourgish. They saw children’s emergent multilingualism as beneficial for their learning and let them express themselves freely. In addition, they understood that translanguaging is about communication, which invited them to start using languages they did not know to better relate to the children in their class. The effect of the PD course on parents and children was also positive. Some children were more involved in learning activities when their languages were used and some parents were enthusiastic to share their language through storytelling in the classroom. García, O. (2017). Translanguaging in schools: Subiendo y Bajando, Bajando y Subiendo as afterword. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 16(4), 256-263. doi:10.1080/15348458.2017.1329657 [less ▲]

Developing multiliteracies in early years education in Luxembourg

Poster (2021, August 17)

Teacher education in translanguaging to achieve social justice?

Scientific Conference (2021, April 29)

Multilingual and multicultural settings are an ever-growing reality all over the world. The potential of migrant’s multilingual and multicultural heritage can be unfolded if the citizens of the host ... [more ▼]

Multilingual and multicultural settings are an ever-growing reality all over the world. The potential of migrant’s multilingual and multicultural heritage can be unfolded if the citizens of the host country are open to it. However, immigrants are often confronted with cultural and linguistic supremacy while nationals of the host country are afraid of a loss or ‘dilution’ of their existing culture and language. The increase of multilingual and multicultural settings as well as the difficulty in overcoming this fear impelled scholars of various sciences to conduct extensive research on the issues of marginalization and cultural imperialism. Researchers in educational sciences, most notably Li Wei and Ofelia García, have opposed the linguistic and cultural hegemony in education through the promotion of translanguaging pedagogy. Translanguaging as a term describes both the natural discourse of bi- and multilingual people through the use of their entire linguistic repertoire and the pedagogy that makes use of these unique linguistic repertoires of bi- and multilingual students to foster learning, comprehension and academic achievement (Celic & Selzer, 2011; Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015). The use of a translanguaging pedagogy in multicultural and multilingual settings proves beyond useful to disrupt linguistic hegemonies and socio-politically constructed named languages by giving bi- and multilingual students a voice and space to prosper, learn and develop their bi- and multilingual identities (García, 2019). The need of a translanguaging pedagogy becomes necessary in countries such as the small trilingual Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The culturally and linguistically highly diverse country with its three official languages (Luxembourgish, French, and German) sees a staggering gap between the school achievements of native and non-native children, forcing even the government to implement mandatory multilingual education in preschools (PISA, 2019). The development of Luxembourgish, familiarization of French and valorization of the home languages of the children have become an official requirement for preschool teachers since 2017. Given that 64 % of four-year olds in Luxembourg do not speak Luxembourgish at home, multiple projects and courses have launched to aid teachers in the practical application of this new law (MENJE, 2018). Thus, we developed our professional development course in translanguaging for preschool teachers in Luxembourg to support their work with multilingual children and their families. The disruption of the linguistic hegemony in Luxembourgish classrooms was implicitly carried through three distinct objectives of the project : (1) 18-hours professional development course in translanguaging to 38 preschool teachers from June to December 2019 divided into 7 sessions (multilingual ecology, home-school collaboration, multilingual brain, multilingual oracy and literacy), (2) active inclusion of children’s families to foster home-school collaboration through parents’ questionnaires and interviews and the promotion of partnerships between families and teachers in the course, and (3) support of children’s linguistic, socio-emotional and cognitive development and engagement in the classroom through early literacy and numeracy tests in the school and home languages, and video observations of classroom activities and interactions. As the goal of social justice was thematized implicitly throughout the course given that most teachers are monolingually and monoculturally biased to be confronted with the topic of cultural imperialism and linguistic hegemony head-on, we tried to assess the teachers change in attitudes through the use of focus group and questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the course. This is the present focus. As the voluntary participation in a translanguaging course would already suggest, the preliminary results of our project show an overall openness of the participating teachers towards other languages and cultures and an awareness of the need of inclusion of the home languages of the children for the benefit of their development and well-being. The results from teacher questionnaires show that there was a significant increase in positive attitudes towards multilingualism (t(35) = -3.83, p < .001) and significant decrease in exclusive interest in Luxembourgish (t(35) = 3.45, p < .001), after the course. This openness and awareness do, however, not automatically translate into social justice as only a very small number of teachers was open to the idea of disrupting linguistic hegemonies and in the video observations unconsciously put all the languages at a same level. The majority of the participants did change their views about their multilingual students (from deficit to richness) realizing that the inclusion of children’s home languages and cultures is a valuable tool for comprehension, learning and socio-emotional development instead of only being a stepping-stone until full mastery of Luxembourgish is achieved. Yet, their strong focus on the development of Luxembourgish and its absolute untouchable status as the language that receives the most recognition did not change. Beside the linguistic superiority of Luxembourgish, even linguistic hierarchies became blatantly obvious during video observations, showing just how much work still needs to be done for teachers to truly interiorize the potentially harmful consequences of linguistic hegemonies and hierarchies. It is our responsibility as researchers to continue to work with teachers, and involve parents, children, and their communities. Change in attitudes and raise of social responsibility and justice is a process. At this point of our project, we see it in fragments, and it is important for all of us not to disrupt it. If we do, the networks that we created will dissolve and the positive impact on multilingual children’s lives and their families could disappear. Therefore, we see two opportunities to continue the work on translanguaging pedagogy by: (1) organizing an additional training for teachers in which we will analyze the video observations to focus on power relations, and (2) organizing a teacher/parent conference in which we will facilitate the discussion on translanguaging pedagogy. Educational and social contexts are rapidly changing and we believe that our professional development course in translanguaging pedagogy is contributing to the process of adaptation to these changes by explicitly inviting us to be more socially responsible and fair. The Conference will give us the opportunity to present the final results and future directions of the project. References Celic, C., & Selzer, K. (2011). Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators. New York: CUNY-NYSIEB. García, O. (2019). Translanguaging: a coda to the code?, Classroom Discourse, 10(3-4), 369-373, doi: 10.1080/19463014.2019.1638277 Ministry of National Education, Childhood and Youth [MENJE]. (2018). Les chiffres clés de l'Éducation nationale: statistiques et indicateurs - Année scolaire 2016-2017 [Key numbers of the national education: statistics and indicators – School year 2016-20167]. Retrieved from http://www.men.public.lu/fr/actualites/publications/themes-transversaux/statistiques-analyses/chiffres-cles/index.html OECD (2019). PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What students know and can do. PISA, OECD Publishing: Paris. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/5f07c754-en Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named langauges: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistic Review, 6(3), 281–307. [less ▲]

Multilingual practices and literacies in Luxembourg: perspectives from teachers, parents and children

Scientific Conference (2021, April 21)

Multilingual education in early years in Luxembourg: a paradigm shift?

in International Journal of Multilingualism (2021)

This paper is based in Luxembourg where a multilingual programme has been implemented in early childhood education in 2017. The research project examines the language use in daily communication and ... [more ▼]

This paper is based in Luxembourg where a multilingual programme has been implemented in early childhood education in 2017. The research project examines the language use in daily communication and literacy activities of educators and parents in day care centres, as reported by educators in two online-questionnaires. The findings show that the educators and parents use multiple languages when communicating, singing and reading with children in the centres. In addition to French and Luxembourgish which dominate, they use five other languages. Their reported multilingual practice reflects their beliefs that speaking and reading in several languages promotes language learning. However, while the programme is multilingual, a range of home languages are marginalised. The educators produce a language hierarchy in the centres which the parents reproduce. While collaboration with parents can be effective in bringing home languages into day care centres, educators need to be aware of language hierarchies and ideologies. [less ▲]

Collaboration between home and crèches: perspectives, experiences and expectations of educators in Luxembourg

Scientific Conference (2021)

Multiliteracies in early childhood education are promoted by researchers in multilingual education (García et al., 2017) and the European Commission. One way in which educators in crèches can develop ... [more ▼]

Multiliteracies in early childhood education are promoted by researchers in multilingual education (García et al., 2017) and the European Commission. One way in which educators in crèches can develop literacies in multiple languages is through collaboration with parents. Collaboration has been shown to positively influence educators, parents, and children. Educators, for instance, become aware of children’s funds of knowledge and draw on the learners’ resources and make their teaching more linguistically and culturally inclusive (Wells Rowe & Miller, 2016). While collaboration can be highly effective, the establishment of partnerships is difficult. Successful partnerships depend on several factors, among them the professionals’ beliefs, experiences, expectations, as well as space and time (Lengyel & Salem, 2016; Reynolds et al., 2017). Collaboration has been a focus of attention in Luxembourg since the introduction of multilingual education in formal and non-formal early childhood institutions. Since 2017 teachers in schools and educators in crèches are required to develop children’s skills in Luxembourgish, familiarise them with French, and value their home languages. Partnerships with parents is one pillar of this programme. A previous study has shown that educators are beginning to develop such partnerships (Kirsch 2019). The longitudinal project Collaboration with parents and Multiliteracy in early Childhood Education (COMPARE) uses a mixed-method approach to examine the multiliteracy practices as well as partnership building between parents and educators in crèches in Luxembourg. In this paper we present the perspectives of educators on partnership building and multiliteracy. The data stem from two online questionnaires completed by educators in 2020. We examine the practitioners’ perspectives on collaboration (Betz et al. 2017), modes and types of partnerships (e.g. Thiersch, 2006), types and frequency of collaborative activities in multiple languages (e.g. Hachfeld et al., 2016), and factors influencing collaboration (e.g. Reynolds et al., 2017). The data show that the declared practices are multilingual and that parents come to the crèche to do literacy activities in languages other than the main one(s) of the crèches. However, new language hierarchies are being developed. The findings demonstrate that educators and parents are actors in shaping new policies while also pointing to some arising inequalities. [less ▲]

Translanguaging course for preschool teachers to disrupt inequalities

Presentation (2020, November 12)

The highly linguistically and culturally diverse reality of Luxembourg and its school system pose a great challenge to students, families, and teachers alike. This reality tends to produce one of the ... [more ▼]

The highly linguistically and culturally diverse reality of Luxembourg and its school system pose a great challenge to students, families, and teachers alike. This reality tends to produce one of the largest differences in reading performance between Luxembourgish and language minority children compared to other countries (PISA, 2019), which creates inequalities in students’ academic trajectory. Translanguaging as a pedagogy has been established to overcome these inequalities by disrupting language hierarchies and giving language minority children a space and voice to learn and prosper (García, 2019). To address the inequalities and help implement a translanguaging pedagogy in preschool, our project : (1) offered a professional development course in translanguaging to 40 teachers, (2) involves children’s parents to foster home-school collaboration through questionnaires and interviews, and (3) cultivates children’s linguistic, cognitive, and socio-emotional engagement in the classroom through linguistic tests and video observations. We also used focus groups and questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the course. The 18-hour course in Translanguaging (June to December 2019) aimed to challenge the teachers’ perception about multilingualism and equality in their classroom. Through the preliminary results of the focus groups, questionnaires and field notes, we were able to observe some positive changes in the teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about their language minority children such as realizing that language is a tool of communication. Teachers were also more positive about home-school collaboration. However, despite our continuous creative efforts, some teachers still maintained their traditional monolingual stance and conviction of parents’ lack of education and interest. Most of the teachers did, however, not completely overcome a monolingual bias and this remains our main focus in the remaining points and follow-ups of our project. References García, O. (2019). Translanguaging: a coda to the code?, Classroom Discourse, 10(3-4), 369-373, doi: 10.1080/19463014.2019.1638277 OECD (2019). PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What students know and can do. PISA, OECD Publishing: Paris. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/5f07c754-en [less ▲]

A professional development course in translanguaging: Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes

Scientific Conference (2020, August)

To support preschool teachers with applying the new law that declared multilingual education mandatory in Luxembourg, we offer a professional development course in translanguaging. Our first goal is to ... [more ▼]

To support preschool teachers with applying the new law that declared multilingual education mandatory in Luxembourg, we offer a professional development course in translanguaging. Our first goal is to address teachers’ negative attitudes and beliefs towards children’s multilingualism, proficiency in their home languages, and teachers’ use of French and English. [less ▲]