Description
The project promotes a “translanguaging turn”, which focuses on the necessity to include in the curricular educational activities all languages and dialects belonging to students’ individual and collective repertoires, in the light of a multilingual learning approach. The linguistic repertoires of students are endorsed, thus improving the process of empowerment of bilingual students and de-constructing language hierarchies as well as culture-based stereotypes and prejudices, making a step beyond the sole “intercultural approach”. The project is coordinated by the University for Foreigners of Siena (CLUSS Center) and since 2016 it has been implemented in five schools (kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools) characterized by a high presence of bilingual students and diverse linguistic repertoires. The main phases of the project include preliminary informative meetings with school principals, teachers, students and parents; teacher training about bilingualism and translanguaging as a pedagogical praxis; translanguaging-based activities carried out during curricular classes; data collection through different research perspectives (mostly ethnographic, interactional, cognitive ones). One of the strengths of the project is the strict interconnection between academic research and school didactics. The project is funded by Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona Foundation (year 2019/2020) and the CLUSS Center. Minor contributions are provided by the schools’ network.
- Children maintain their cultural identity while adopting new cultural values and intercultural competences
- Children's academic skills
- Children's competence in host language
- Children's sense of belonging
- Friends and peers (bridges)
- Friends and peers (support)
- Institutions
- Teachers
Evaluation ex post
So far, about 850 pupils and 75 teachers have been involved in the project.
One of the most significant phases of the project has been the impact evaluation through interviews and questionnaires. Teaching activities have enthusiastically been welcomed by teachers, students, and parents. Newly arrived migrant children have found adequate means to effectively communicate, whereas second-generation migrant children have got the chance to enhance their mother tongue, avoiding language attrition phenomena. Teachers and students have changed their perception about multilingual classes. Activities have had a positive impact in terms of inclusivity and equity. In most of the schools belonging to the network, translanguaging-based activities have become a constitutive part of the curricular didactic plan.
Project evaluation carried out by ISMU can be found at the following link.
https://www.ismu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Plurilinguismo-nella-scuola-che-scambia_.pdf
Projects’ deliverables
Scientific articles in national and international reviews
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A., Bagna C. (2020). L’AltRoparlante. ricerca, sperimentazione e didattica plurilingue nella scuola primaria e secondaria: il coinvolgimento delle famiglie fra approccio interculturale e translanguaging. Italiano LinguaDue, vol. 12, p. 353-371. ISSN: 2037-3597.
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (2020). Integrating translanguaging pedagogy into Italian primary schools: implications for language practices and children's empowerment. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, p. 1-21, ISSN: 1367-0050.
- Scibetta A., Carbonara V. (2020). Unveiling discourses on interculturality and identities in primary schools in Italy: a study based on translanguaging pedagogy. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, p. 1-14, ISSN: 1744-7143.
- Carbonara V., Martini S. (2019). Un modello operativo per l’approccio pedagogico del translanguaging? Esempi di applicazione in una Unità di Lavoro/Apprendimento (UdLA). LEND. Lingua e nuova didattica, vol. 4, p. 18-36, ISSN: 1121-5291.
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (2018). Il translanguaging come strumento efficace per la gestione delle classi plurilingui: il progetto “L’AltRoparlante”. Rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata (RILA), vol. 1, p. 65-82, ISSN: 0033-9725.
Book chapters in national and international volumes
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (in press). ‛我的…futuro?’: Multilingual Practices Shaping Classroom Interaction in Italian Mainstream Education. In Juvonen P., Källkvist M. (Eds.) Pedagogical Translanguaging: Teachers and Researchers Shaping Plurilingual Practices. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (2021). “L’AltRoparlante” project: Integrating translanguaging practices in Italian schools (Teacher/Researcher Box 17.1). In Translanguaging and Transformative Teaching for Emergent Bilingual Students. Lessons from the CUNY-NYSIEB Project. Edited by City University of New York – New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals, p. 280-283. New York: Routledge.
- Scibetta A. (2020). The promotion of Chinese in Italian primary schools: a study based on translanguaging as a pedagogical praxis. In: (Eds.): Piccinini C., Giunipero E., Italian Association for Chinese Studies. Selected Papers 3. vol. 3, p. 135-155, VENEZIA:Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, ISBN: 978-88-7543-475-5
- Scibetta A., Carbonara V. (2020). “Translanguaging as a pedagogical resource in Italian primary schools: Making visible the ordinariness of multilingualism”. In: (Eds.): Won Lee J., Dovchin S., Translinguistics: Negotiating Innovation and Ordinariness. p. 115-129, Abingdon, New York:Routledge, ISBN: 978-1-138-32633-0
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (2019). Oltre le parole: translanguaging come strategia didattica e di mediazione nella classe plurilingue. In Aldinucci B., Carbonara V., Caruso G., La Grassa M., Nadal C., Salvatore E. (Eds.) Parola. Una nozione unica per una ricerca multidisciplinare, p. 491-510. Siena: Edizioni Università per Stranieri di Siena.
- Scibetta A., Carbonara V. (2019). Oltre lo scritto e il parlato: traslanguaging come strategia didattica multimodale. In Carbonara V., Cosenza L., Masillo P., Salvati L., Scibetta A. (Eds.) Il parlato e lo scritto: aspetti teorici e didattici, p. 357-370. Pisa: Pacini Editore.
Monographs
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (2020). Imparare attraverso le lingue. Il translanguaging come pratica didattica (with a preface by Jim Cummins). Lingue e letterature, vol. 313, p. 1-264, Roma: Carocci, ISBN: 9788843099283
Multilingual teaching materials
- Carbonara V., Scibetta A. (Eds.) (2021). “Unu, dy, san”. Proposte operative per la didattica plurilingue nella scuola del primo ciclo. Bologna: Editore La Linea. ISBN: 9788897462842.
Reproducibility
After the first edition (2016), the project has been replicated in other schools (currently 5 schools are involved, and some other schools are asking to become members of the network), and, in most cases, it has become a constitutive part of the curricular didactic plan.
According to ISMU’s evaluation, the project is replicable, considering a first analysis of the context and the specificities of the students. Materials are also available to facilitate transferability
Motivation for the submission
Erasmus+ INDIRE selected L'AltRoparlante as winner of the European Label for Languages 2018. Furthermore, the project has been presented as the representative of the Italian Educational Systems (in terms of innovativeness in multilingual education) in a video which collected the European initiatives that have mostly contributed to the promotion of languages and which has been shown at the European Commission’s online conference "Education Begins with Language" (68/09/2020). Moreover, ISMU has classified the project as a good practice.
