Translanguaging for Equal Opportunities: Speaking Romani at School
In Hungary and in Slovakia, several hundreds of thousands of people consider themselves to be Roma. A significant part of this population uses language resources and practices linked to Romani. In both countries, Romani appears at schools merely as a school subject (Romani as a second language, home language, or foreign language) and even in this way it is seldom included in the curriculum at all. Translanguaging (García 2009) is not only a notion of contemporary sociolinguistics which describes bi- and multilingual ways of speaking, but also a pedagogical approach. By offering a holistic approach to communication (Gorter-Cenoz 2017), translanguaging pedagogy emphasizes the development of the entire and unique linguistic repertoire instead of the development of competences in several languages or varieties. Our project Translanguaging for Equal Opportunities: Speaking Romani at School is to build on approaches laid down in translanguaging research in order to study Romani-speaking children’s linguistic practices in primary school settings and to introduce new pedagogical stance and principles in their education (cf. Wei 2014, 2017; García-Kleyn 2016, García et al 2017, García-Wei 2014, Paulsrud et al 2017, Heltai 2019).
The project is carried out in cooperation with University College London, University of Jyväskylä as word-leading centres in translanguaging and research on multilingual education, with the Károli Gáspár University in Budapest, Hungary and the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia as regional and local centres of research in the fields of translanguaging and issues of multilingual education, and from two elementary school institutions from highly disadvantaged schooling areas in Hungary and Slovakia. The aim of our project is to explore the possibilities of integrating the children’s Romani language resources in monolingual primary school settings and curricula. Our approach challenges the tradition which associates school with monolingual and standardized ways of speaking, which dominates discourses of education in Hungary and Slovakia to this day. Instead of developing Hungarian or Romani language skills, our approach supports social equality and competitiveness through the development of the whole repertoire. This is achieved by building on home-language practices of the speakers: everyday ways of translanguaging in out-of-school domains become parts of learning activities. This enhances the feelings of intimacy and continuity in the pupils, as a result of which they feel more secure and confident in class.
The project’s multi-layered intellectual outputs consist of a video repository and an accompanying evolume for the teacher training. Deliverables are developed in the cooperation of students in teacher training, researchers with more theoretical approaches and teachers innovating education in highly deprived and disadvantaged schools. The outputs are developed through a close cooperation of these participants in joint staff and learning activities. The video recordings exemplify translanguaging classroom moments. Each recording includes introductory reflections and commentaries by educators, researchers and/or other participants (presentation of context, purpose and practices). The accompanying e-volume analyses the emergence of the video repository and expands the scope of the project by providing an opportunity for the use of the repository and the handbook in varied educational contexts, including non-Roma settings, such as migrant communityschools across Europe.
References
García, Ofelia – Johnson, Susana Ibarra – Seltzer, Kate 2017. The translanguaging Classroom. Leveraging Students Bilingualism for Learning. Caslon. Philadelphia.
García, Ofelia – Kleyn, Tatyana 2016. Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments. Routledge. New York.
García, Ofelia – Li Wei 2014. Translanguaging. Language, Bilingualism, and Education. Palgrave Macmillan. London.
García, Ofelia 2009. Education, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in the 21. Century. In: Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove et al. (ed.): Social Justice through Multilingual Education. Multilingual Matters, Cromwell. 140-158.
Gorter, Durk – Cenoz, Jasone 2017. Language education policy and multilingual assessment. Language and Education 31: 231–248.
Heltai, János Imre 2019. Translanguaging instead of standardisation: Writing Romani at school. Applied Linguistics Review.
Li, Wei 2014. Translanguaging Knowledge and Identity in Complementary Classrooms for Multilingual Minority Ethnic Children. Classroom Discourse 5 (2), pp. 158-175.
Li, Wei. 2018. Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics 39. 9–30. Paulsrud,
BethAnne – Rosén, Jenny – Straszer, Boglárka – Wedin, sa 2017. New Perspectives on Translanguaging and Education. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 108. Multilingual Matters, Bristol.
Project partners
Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem, Hungary
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Magiszter Alapítványi Óvoda, Általános Iskola, Gimnázium, Szakgimnázium, Szakközépiskola és Alapfokú Müvészeti Iskola, Hungary
University College London, United Kingdom
Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre, Slovakia
Základná škola Ányosa Jedlika s vyučovacím jazykom maďarským – Jedlik Ányos Magyar Tanítási Nyelvű Alapiskola, Zemné – Szímő, Slovakia