Plenary sessions

Although Portuguese is the majority language in Brazil − and the only official language at the national level −, more than 200 other languages are spoken in the country, including Indigenous languages, migrant languages, sign languages, and border languages. This linguistic landscape has become even more diverse as Brazil emerges as a key destination for contemporary South-South migrations (Baeninger et al., 2018). Since 2010, the country has received forced migrants from various nationalities. In this context, despite significant advances in Brazilian migration policy − such as the approval of the new Migration Law (Law No. 13,445/2017), which replaced the conservative Foreigner Statute (Law No. 6,815/1980) −, migrants and refugees continue to face violations of their language rights. The main objective of this presentation is to offer insights into ensuring an inalienable language right (Arzoz, 2007) for migrants and refugees: the right to learn at least one of the official languages of the host country, through a process that, in contrast to cultural assimilation, values the languages already present in their repertoires. To this end, I will analyze Portuguese as a Welcoming Language teaching materials, understood here as key instruments of de facto language policy (Shohamy, 2006). Specifically, I will focus on the textbook series Vamos juntos(as)! Curso de Português como Língua de Acolhimento, coordinated by Bizon and Diniz (2021-2025), discussing strategies adopted to promote plurilingualism within a pedagogical framework that is also grounded in multilevel pedagogy (David & Abry, 2018) and decoloniality (Quijano, 1992).

References

Arzoz, X. (2007). The nature of language rights. Jemie, 6, 1.

Baeninger, R., et al. (Eds.). (2018). Migrações Sul-Sul. Campinas: Núcleo de Estudos de População "Elza Berquó" – Nepo/Unicamp.

Bizon, A. C. C., & Diniz, L. R. A. (Coords.). (2021-2025). Vamos juntos(as)! Curso de português como língua de acolhimento [Textbook series]. NEPO. Available at: https://www.nepo.unicamp.br/publicacoes/colecao-vamos-juntosas/

David, C., & Abry, D. (2018). Classe multi-niveaux et pédagogie différenciée. Vanves: Hachette.

Quijano, A. (1992). Colonialidad y modernidad/racionalidad. Perú Indígena, 13(29), 11-20.

Shohamy, E. G. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are increasingly addressed daily on local, regional, national, European and international levels. For education, studies have repeatedly illustrated encounters between bi- and multilingual speakers and officially monolingual educational institutions as challenging (see e.g. Cummins, 2019).  In addition, an underlying presumption has long been that children’s and pupils’ multilingualism, multiculturalism and language identity are issues belonging to language education only. Research has, however, shown that an extension to all actors within the education field is needed to support and include all pupils in school communities.  

The aim of the European policy experimentation project Listiac (Linguistically sensitive teaching in all classrooms, 2019–2022) was to initiate a cognitive change among teacher educators and teachers where LST (linguistically sensitive teaching) forms a natural part of the teacher professional competence. LST refers to the linguistic dimension in education in a broad way, with a focus on inclusive education for social justice for all pupils. Sensitivity refers to acknowledging and understanding the role of languages in learning, identity construction, and well-being at both individual and institutional level. Furthermore, there was an explicit focus on implementation on a national level education policy where ministries were project partners. 

In our keynote, we present and discuss Listiac as an action-research project that involved cooperation between project members and target groups to jointly improve and develop a reflection tool that was expected to function both as a systematic part of the progression in initial teacher training  and as tool for raising discussion about LST in a whole school approach. We further describe also the role of evidence-based research as a key cooperation between researchers and decision-makers/stakeholders to initiate discussions on implementing LST to promote a paradigm shift from the language isolation policy to linguistically sensitive teaching for all, also reaching out to non-language subject teachers and teacher educators. We conclude by summing up our experiences of achievements and challenges within the project.

References

Cummins, J. (2019). Should Schools Undermine or Sustain Multilingualism? An Analysis of Theory, Research, and Pedagogical Practice. Sustainable Multilingualism 15(1), 1-26. 

Bergroth, M., T. Dražnik, J. Llompart Esbert, N. Pepiot, K. van der Worp & S. Sierens. (2022). Linguistically Sensitive Teacher Education: Toolkit for Reflection Tasks and Action Research. Åbo Akademi University.