“Scotland is more multilingual than we know. We have a rich tapestry of languages and this often goes unnoticed both within society and schools. Adopting translanguaging-based approaches brings an opportunity to raise the status of all languages by empowering pupils to showcase their home languages, thus recognising the educational and social benefits that multilingualism brings to the education context, and the society at large.”
My name is Eneida and I am the Principal Investigator in this project, which was fully funded by Creative Multilingualism a research programme supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under its Open World Research Initiative (OWRI).
There are many ways to raise awareness about multilingualism, celebrate home languages and facilitate that pupils develop full literacy in all the languages they have. One of them is by embedding pedagogical translanguaging in our schools.
Hear about the project’s success directly from the AtWiOS characters in the video below.
All the World is Our Stage: primary pupils never lost in translanguaging (AtWiOS) was piloted after the 2018 October break. In just four weeks, pupils, teachers, researcher, and creative partners Rebecca Cameron and The Language Hub produced their own multilingual performance to be showcased in November 2018, at the school with over 300 attendees, and in Glasgow with an audience of over 100. We were very lucky to have pupils from other schools and representatives from the main language stakeholders and policy makers attending. We counted academics, postgraduate students, representatives from the British Council Scotland, Education Scotland and the European Commission in Scotland. AtWiOS had just taken off!
I assembled all the resources created collaboratively with pupils and teachers towards the production of the multilingual performance and created a teacher pack. The materials also include the audios and phonetic transcriptions contributed by parents and families that supported pupils in teaching us their home languages.
Also in November 2018, AtWiOS was presented in Swansea University at the ‘Plurilingual Pathways for Integration; Rethinking Hosts vs. Guests’ BAAL Seminar (British Association for Advanced Linguistics). With such a successful pilot, plans to grow bigger started.
In November 2019, we lived an experience to remember for life! We performed at the Scottish Parliament. Yes, we had the opportunity to meet Ms Nicola Sturgeon and have our photos taken with her! We subsequently showcased our multilingual performance in front of the Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development, MSPs from many constituencies across Scotland, the 1+2 Policy Manager, Education Scotland representatives, 1+2 policy coordinators, HTs, DHTs, support teachers, teachers, our families, and a diverse audience counting amongst others, photographers, architects and a dentist. It really was an unforgettable experience!
Read about how the project developed and evolved under lockdown on our COVID-19 page.
Resources designed to alleviate teacher workload, action research approaches, interdisciplinarity and cross-sectorial collaboration
Engage in creative language learning, place pupils at the centre of learning journey, work on global citizenship, social justice and inclusion
Celebrate home languages, raise awareness about multilingualism, strengthen school-home links, bridge the gap with the wider community
It is always a joy to see and hear learners participate in this celebration of multiculturalism, some using their home language(s) and others using the language(s) they are learning at school. That there is a role and a place for everyone, as they rehearse and deliver their songs, rhymes and plays in different languages is testimony to both the learners’ and their teachers’ hard work and commitment to celebrating equality, diversity and mutual respect. Bravo!
It was so impressive to discover how Eneida had been able to adapt her multilingual project which promotes the value of translanguaging so it could run fully online during the pandemic. We loved hearing how the aims of the project which include celebrating children’s heritage languages and raising awareness of the interconnectedness of languages were achieved. I was very impressed to find out how the project had been able to forge links with the local non-English speaking community with parents and grandparents getting involved too.
Taking part in the Translanguaging project was a transformational experience both for the learners and myself as the teacher. I learned so much from my learners! I was astounded by how the project nurtured their leadership skills and developed their passion for cultures and languages. I strongly believe the project can benefit everyone in education and I am proud of all our performing language ambassadors. Celebrating their similarities as well as their differences, my learners considered each other as Global Citizens, and that is our strength!
Es una excelente iniciativa para acercar a los alumnos de primaria a otras lenguas y culturas, en la línea del enfoque 1+2 promovido por el gobierno escocés. [It is an excellent initiative to bring primary pupils closer to other languages and cultures, in line with the 1+2 approach promoted by the Scottish Government.]
The translanguaging project has been exceptional and has supported our school in celebrating the diverse languages spoken by our children. The power of multilingualism is evident in the success of the skills development of our children.
