Workshops

Background to session

This is a hands-on interactive arts-based workshop which builds on a current research project, ‘Multilingual Streets: Translating and Curating the Linguistic Landscape’. In this workshop we will explore creative inquiry in the context of researching languages in public space using current methodologies from the research project. This area of research is often referred to as 'Linguistic Landscapes'. For the Multilingual Streets project we explore understandings of language as experienced in everyday life - and creative methods are central to our inquiry. The project is participatory with students from two secondary schools based in Manchester, UK. We therefore extend the reach of linguistic landscapes research beyond more traditional linguistic research methods to encompass the arts and participatory approaches. Our work links to theories of dynamic multilingualism (e.g. Garcia & Li, 2014) and spatial repertoires (e.g. Pennycook & Otsuji, 2014), as well as the creative turn in applied linguistics (e.g. Bradley & Harvey, 2019).

Here is an example of one of the creative outputs from the project, which is a zine created from images some of the school students we worked with made and data they collected. You can see examples of the artworks created in the schools workshops here. Before you come to the workshop, have a look at the zine and note down what your initial thoughts are.

Collage Workshop and pre-workshop activities

There are a few activities for you to do prior to the workshop and these are listed below. During the workshop itself we will be working collaboratively to consider the themes emerging from your preparatory work and analyse your collages. It is an exploratory workshop, and these collages are working documents or ‘sketches’. We don’t expect polished artworks and we are certainly not assessing artistic quality! You don’t need to have a printer at home/work to participate - you can also create your collages digitally by arranging images together in a document.

You will need

Phone or similar to take photographs with; background paper (e.g. white A3 paper); coloured paper; pens; magazines/newspapers/fliers etc; glue / scissors.

Pre-workshop activities: guidance

1. Take a series of photographs around the area in which you live and/or work, or generally spend time. The photographs should reflect language and / or linguistic diversity. You can use your phone for this.

2. Select 5-10 images that best represent the idea of language and / or linguistic diversity.

3. Using a sheet of paper as the background (can be white, or can be any colour, should be around A3 size).

4. Cut up coloured paper, newspaper or magazines to recreate shapes and colours from the photographs. You can also cut out lettering.

5. You can also use coloured pens if you wish to write words that you find in the photographs

6. Your image can be an amalgamation of all of the photographs combined, a number of photographs together or one image.

7. When you have finished your collage, write a short paragraph explaining your process in terms of:

a. Selection of images

b. Chosen image(s) for the collage

c. The collage itself and decisions about media (e.g. pens/coloured paper/newspaper)

d. Types of language(s) represented, e.g. different kinds of signage, levels of temporality, audiences, etc.

8. Using this Google Drive, make a folder with your name (SURNAME_NAME). Add a photograph of your collage, your notes and a selection of your photographs. Please use the following file naming convention: surname_name_image and surname_name_text. Please do this by midnight (UK) on 31 May 2021.

Additional reading

You can read this paper (Bradley et al., 2018) and our chapter (Bradley & Atkinson, 2020) as you prepare for our workshop, as these publications will give you insights into the ways in which we are bringing artistic methods into our research. You can also read about creative inquiry in applied linguistics here.

Transformative Language Education in Novice Level Classes: Intercultural Citizenship and Social Justice

Manuela Wagner, Allison Spenader & Cassandra Glynn

There is often a perception that novice language learners or younger learners are lacking the requisite emotional or intellectual development or the language skills to be challenged with meaningful, relevant social justice topics that impact their own communities or those of the culture(s) they are studying. In that same vein, it can be challenging for language teachers and teacher educators to envision how novices and young learners can develop intercultural citizenship, defined as ”being active in one’s community – local or beyond the local – and using one’s linguistic and intercultural competences to realize and enrich discussions, relationships, and activities with people of varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds” (Wagner, Cardetti, & Byram, 2019). Too often, these goals and topics are reserved for students at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels.

In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn and experience how teachers and teacher educators can transform novice level classrooms to increase critical thinking among learners, challenge learners with complex, important topics, and systematically promote the development of intercultural citizenship among all learners. Participants will be introduced to theoretical frameworks, experience and evaluate their applications through examples and instruction in different target languages (e.g. Swedish, German, French, Spanish), and consider how they can apply this approach to their own contexts. Presenters will share resources including theoretical papers, examples in which theory was applied to practice, handouts with reflection tools for teachers and teacher candidates, and lesson and unit plan templates. A red thread throughout the workshop is how teachers can help novice language learners interpret complex information and make critical judgments through the use of multimodal interaction with authentic resources and content in the target language. Guided reflection and effective use of comprehensible input can develop students’ proficiency as well as their plurilingual and pluricultural identities.

Keywords: social justice, intercultural competence, intercultural citizenship, novice learners

The inviting, yet difficult, work of translanguaging

Lavinia Hirsu

Translanguaging, seen as practice, language ideology, or paradigm shift, has appealed to many scholars, teachers and practitioners. In theory, translanguaging has great potential to facilitate language learning in a more just and balanced way because it recognises the integrated, intertwined and always changing relationships between the language resources we all carry and deploy in various contexts. Despite its great potential to improve language education, translanguaging has seen a slow take-up leaving many teachers still wondering about the ways in which translanguaging may be put into practice. Challenged with the gap between theory and practice, we have developed a project in Glasgow, in collaboration with teachers enrolled in the English as an Additional Language unit. Guided by a team of creative artists, we have developed a Language Suitcase Toolkit, packed with activities that implement the principles behind translanguaging. Alongside this toolkit, we have developed a training methodology based on language metaphors that enable teachers to see why they may have trouble working with a translingual approach. In this workshop, I will present both the suitcase and the training methodology as means towards building sustained language practices which operate under a translingual approach. I present these materials to show how, even in contexts where teachers are already oriented towards a social justice agenda in language learning and teaching, they may still struggle to work with these principles in the their daily work.

Keywords: translanguaging, methodology, creativity, metaphor

Group reflection as a tool for linguistically sensitive teaching

Julia Llompart & Mari Bergroth

In the European Union the multilingual realities, practices and identities have promoted changes in the conception of language education based, basically, on the shift from a ’monolingual paradigm’ –which is still present in many schools in different countries– to a ’multilingual paradigm’, that tends to privilege multilingual models based on parallel multilingualisms, thus teaching languages separately. Often, in teacher training and practice, both paradigms translate into monolingual pedagogical approaches and views about the students, although all students in the European Union need teachers who are linguistically sensitive in order to receive a more equal education. The European project LISTiac (Linguistically Sensitive Teaching in all classrooms, LST, 606695- EPP-1-2018-2-FI-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY) aims at bringing change on multiple levels related to education, language and social justice through the development and experimentation of a reflection tool for in-service teachers, teacher educator and future teachers in order to make them more linguistically sensitive in their believes, attitudes and actions. In this workshop we will propose a collaborative reflection on the staff group discussion reflection tool that has been pre-designed by the LISTiac group. Therefore, participants –in-service teachers and/ or researchers– will be invited to: a) first, analyze data from a group discussion about teacher training and LST and discuss about the relationship between teacher training, identity and prejudices; 2) use the staff group discussion reflection tool to participate in a group discussion and think about their contribution to LST in their professional field; 3) discuss the strong points and the weak points of the tool and propose changes in order to co-create a reflection tool on LST. Moreover, by taking part in the workshop, participants are encouraged to reflect on their own teaching practice, their own view of the world and LST.

Keywords: linguistically sensitive teaching, reflection, teacher training, plurilingualism

The language classroom as a political space for organising and addressing power: examples from a participatory ESOL practitioner in the UK

Amira Elwakil

In the UK, adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English provision for migrant communities, is a field that is at the heart of the highly politicised debate around migration and ’integration’. Political figures regularly call for more integration through language, while practitioners in the field highlight the drastic cuts to ESOL funding. Within this context, the ESOL classroom emerges as a politicised space that contends with this debate. Likewise, its very essence, English, is arguably a structural barrier with the classroom a space to address this barrier. With teachers and students from myriads of backgrounds assembling for ESOL, questions around the power dynamics between these different entities – including with respect to race, language, gender, class, religion, and sexual orientation – arise and act as a reminder that the ESOL classroom is never a neutral space, but a political one. With this backdrop of the ESOL classroom as a politicised and political space, I wish to share practical tools and methodologies used by critical, radical and participatory ESOL practitioners such as myself to challenge power dynamics and allow for the emergence of forms of community organising that centre students’ lived experiences and voices. I will draw on examples from my own practice on how, through the ESOL classroom, students can organise around housing injustice, Islamophobia and cuts to ESOL provision, while showcasing how tackling social justice issues can be a natural component of ESOL teaching. I wish to run this as an interactive, experiential workshop open to researchers and practitioners who are interested in the application of participatory language pedagogy in the context of language learning for migrant communities, through which we will use the above-mentioned participatory tools to assess their usefulness and discuss their application and any barriers to it, including in online learning.

Keywords: English, integration, participatory, power

Theatre of the Oppressed: an applied theatre method of language education for social justice

Crystal Green & Viktoria Edes

This two-hour workshop is an introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) as a pedagogical method for language teachers and researchers to approach issues of social justice in the classroom. Workshop participants will negotiate their roles as observers, actors and critics in micro-plays around topics of social injustices. Participants are given a basic introduction to several TO techniques that can be used effectively in classrooms. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to experience and reflect on how TO can be employed with various levels of language learners (e.g. mother tongue, L2, foreign language, CLIL). The aim of this workshop is to present a series of practical techniques within the discipline of applied theatre which could be tailored to language learners’ interests and needs. Social justice is enacted and requires special attention to intersectionality. Theatre of the Oppressed offers an opportunity to experiment and experience how social justice and intersectionality is an embodied practice. Participants will not only use spoken language to talk about injustices, but they will confront them in the moment. We will practice and rehearse, improvise and respond, engaging in an embodied dialogue with scene partner and the audience. The workshop aims to inspire educators to embrace creative performance-based communication and to create a space that will enable students to express themselves, regardless of their language levels. TO- based workshops can raise students’ confidence to play around with language while raising their awareness of social injustices, and giving them a toolset for meaningful action. This workshop is for educators and researchers and will provide both practical tools for classroom teaching, awareness-raising interventions and sources for further reading on the topic.

Keywords: social justice, embodied dialogue, applied theatre, intersectionality

Kieli demokratiakasvatuksen ytimessä - viitekehyksistä OPSeihin ja käytäntöön

Karoliina Inha, Paula Mattila & Katri Kuukka

Koulut ovat kielellisesti ja kulttuurisesti yhä moninaisempia. Keskustelukulttuuria leimaavat jännitteet, toiseuttaminen, vastakkainasettelu ja vihapuhe, mikä peilautuu myös koulun arkeen. Rakentavasti toimiminen valeuutisten, disinformaation ja ääripäiden maailmassa vaatii oppilailta kielellistä ja kulttuurista osaamista, resilienssin rakentamista sekä demokraattisen kansalaisuuden taitoja.

Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden 2014 ja Lukion opetussuunnitelman perusteiden 2015 ja 2019 mukaisesti opetuksen tulee ohjata oppilaita ja opiskelijoita vastuulliseen ja aktiiviseen kansalaisuuteen. Oppiaineiden kautta hankitut tiedot, taidot ja laaja-alainen osaaminen toimivat vaikuttamisen työkaluina. Koulun tehtävä on taata kaikille yhtäläiset mahdollisuudet hankkia näitä taitoja. Tämä edellyttää opettajalta kieli- ja kulttuuritietoista opetusta.

Euroopassa kieltenopetusta ohjaa Euroopan neuvoston ohjausasiakirja Kielten eurooppalainen viitekehys (The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 2001), josta julkaistiin päivitetty versio (Companion volume) keväällä 2018. Keskeiset lisäykset alkuperäiseen viitekehykseen ovat monikielisyydelle ja kulttuuriosaamiselle luodut kuvaimet. Samoihin aikoihin Euroopan neuvosto julkaisi demokraattisen toimintakulttuurin kompetenssikehyksen (Reference Framework of Competence for Democratic Culture 2018), jossa on kuvattu ne arvot, asenteet, tiedot ja taidot, joita oppilas tarvitsee toimiakseen rakentavasti ja vastuullisesti demokraattisissa yhteisöissä. Lisäksi EU:n toukokuussa 2019 vahvistama suositus kokonaisvaltaisesta lähestymistavasta kielten opetukseen ja oppimiseen omalta osaltaan huomioi Kielten eurooppalaisen viitekehyksen ja sitä täydentävän päivitetyn version. Suosituksen mukaisesti monikielisyys ja kulttuurinen ymmärrys tukevat myös kansalaisuus- ja demokratiataitojen kehittymistä, vaikka varsinaista demokratiaviitekehystä ei suosituksessa mainitakaan.

Työpajamme tavoitteena on tuoda esiin viitekehysten yhtymäkohtia ja reflektoida niitä suhteessa opetussuunnitelmien perusteisiin. Tarjoamme konkreettisia esimerkkejä opetuksen ja koulun demokraattisen ja kielitietoisen toimintakulttuurin kehittämiseen perusopetuksessa ja lukiossa sekä aihioita opettajankoulutukseen. Lähtökohtana ovat perusteasiakirjat sekä Euroopan neuvoston kehittämät viitekehykset. Kollokviossa taustoitamme aihetta avaamalla perusteiden avainkäsitteistöä ja tarjoamalla näkökulmia ja työkaluja niiden edistämiseksi. Alustusten jälkeen osallistujat rakentavat yhteistä ymmärrystä keskeisistä kehittämistarpeista pienryhmissä. Keskustelujen anti jaetaan yhteisesti työpajan päätteeksi.

Työpaja on tarkoitettu opettajille, rehtoreille, opettajankouluttajille ja tutkijoille. Työpajan vetäjinä toimivat Opetushallituksen asiantuntijat. Konkreettisia esimerkkejä kuullaan mm. Euroopan nykykielten keskuksen (ECML, www.ecml.at) Roadmap-hankkeen, Helsingin ranskalais-suomalaisen koulun ja mahdollisuuksien mukaan toisen käytännön työtä tekevän koulun edustajilta.

Keywords: demokratiakasvatus, kielitietoisuus, opetussuunnitelman perusteet

Writing workshop: Exploring personal and institutional narratives between language education and social justice

Aaron Peltoniemi

The rapid increase in human migration between nations due to globalization has caused dramatic shifts to occur in different social environments. One social environment that has become increasingly complex is the educational environment. Today, diverse student bodies challenge the communicative and socio-cultural competencies of teachers and researchers, particularly those engaged in language education (Hawkins, 2011). While language education may entail the relevant linguistic and cultural training, there remains little discussion or training on how the actual language learning processes and materials may perpetuate power relations and social class among students as well as between students and society (Hawkins, 2011; Vandrick, 2014). Consequently, language education may inadvertently exacerbate the perceptions that students and even teachers have towards certain cultures or languages and their respective roles. The challenge, however, is to recognize how such personal interpretations on language education coincide with the reality outside of the classroom. One effective and impartial way to revisit and reexamine these interpretations is through reflective writing (Lengelle, Meijers, Poell, & Post, 2013). Thus, this workshop intends to have its participants engage in reflective writing exercises and small discussions to discover their personal perceptions regarding language education and its relation towards reality through the theme of social justice. It is hoped that this writing workshop will allow students, researchers, teachers, and policymakers to reconstruct their narratives on language education at their place of study or work in order to promote social justice.

References:
Lengelle, R., Meijers, F., Poell, R., & Post, M. (2013). The effects of creative, expressive, and reflective writing on career learning: An explorative study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(3), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.014
Hawkins, M. R. (2011). Social justice language teacher education. Multilingual Matters.
Vandrick, S. (2014). The role of social class in English language education. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, (13)2, 85–91. doi: 10.1080/15348458.2014.901819

Keywords: social justice, reflective writing, language research, language education

Language Teachers for Social Justice: Preparing to Advocate for Students, Colleagues, and the TESOL Profession

Polina Vinogradova & Heather Linville

As teacher educators in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), we strive to develop pre-service and in-service English language teachers’ understanding of social justice and its role in teachers’ everyday work with English language learners and their families, colleagues, and policymakers. In this work, we grapple with notions of advocacy, institutional and professional demands, political pressure, and our own views on how our students and their families, as well as our colleagues need to be supported. Viewing advocacy as an important part of social justice work, we have recently seen exponential growth of references to advocacy in TESOL-related literature as more advocacy-related research and curricular work has been published (i.e. Athanases & de Oliveira, 2007, 2008; de Oliveira & Athanases, 2007; Haneda & Alexander, 2015; Harrison & McIlwain, 2019; Linville, 2016; Linville & Whiting, 2019; Staehr Fenner, 2014). In spite of this greater focus on teacher advocacy, language educators need support in developing their own understanding of what advocacy means to them and how they can incorporate it into their professional work (Linville & Vinogradova, 2018).

Informed by the results of our recent qualitative study that explored how TESOL professionals of various linguistic and cultural backgrounds understand advocacy and advocate in their daily work, we will present a workshop that prepares language educators to advocate for social justice. We will engage the attendees in several collaborative activities to connect the notions of social justice and advocacy, and provide insights into how power and contextual factors impact professional beliefs about advocacy. The attendees will examine their own advocacy acts, reflect on possibilities and limitations, and will work on preparing a realistic advocacy plan for their own social justice work. Our final goal is to work to diminish social inequalities as a community of language teachers.

Pre-assignment: Recommended materials and readings

Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-990585580/diverse-voices-of-advocacy-2020

Find one article or book chapter on advocacy in participants’ setting. Preferably this article/chapter will help participants understand connections between advocacy and social justice in language education.

Suggested Resources: 

• Avineri, N., Graham, L. R., Johnson, E. J., Conley Riner, R., & Rosa, J. (Eds.) (2019). Language and social justice in practice. Routledge. (https://www.routledge.com/Language-and-Social-Justice-in-Practice/Avineri-Graham-Johnson-Riner-Rosa/p/book/9781138069459) 

• Linville, H. A. & Whiting, J. (Eds.) (2019). Advocacy in English language teaching and learning. Routledge. (https://www.routledge.com/Advocacy-in-English-Language-Teaching-and-Learning/Linville-Whiting/p/book/9781138489851) 

• Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press. (https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001/acprof-9780199937240)  

• TESOL Journal Special Issue (Volume 11, Issue 4) “Exploring the transformative potential of English language teaching for social justice” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19493533/2020/11/4  

Keywords: advocacy, English language learners, TESOL