More than 20 percent of Australians speak a language other than English at home. However, attrition amongst second generation migrants is very common (Eisenchlas, Schalley & Guillemin, 2013). Home language literacy practices are likely to disappear faster given that they are often unnecessary to daily communication (Ibid.). In this presentation, we will discuss how teachers can promote reading and writing in the home language, thereby providing support for maintenance of these practices at home.
We explore how this can be achieved through the introduction of plurilingual pedagogy in the classroom. Internationally, a holistic understanding of literacy practices for (emergent) bi/multilingual learners is becoming increasingly promoted to teachers in general (e.g. Chumak-Horbatsch, 2019), and is also being promoted in the Australian state of Victoria through the English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) curriculum.
Data is drawn from a Government-funded designed-based study on the incorporation of plurilingual strategies in primary school classrooms. The design-based approach of the study relied on iterative sub-cycles of analysis and exploration, design and construction, and evaluation and reflection (McKenney & Reeves, 2018). Researchers and teachers worked together to develop strategies that drew on established research and situated practices.
Eight primary school teachers from five Victorian Government schools, who were all working with language-background-other-than-English (LBOTE) students, took part in a two-day (non-consecutive) professional learning program developed by the research team. The aim was to help teachers think through strategies that linked to their particular teaching contexts and teaching objectives. The strategies included (1) ways to become familiar with students' home language practices, (2) activities that identified similarities and differences between languages, and (3) student creation of multimodal, bi/multilingual digital texts. Teachers devised lesson sequences specifically for their context with the support of the research team, then taught and reflected on these lessons. Data comprised lesson sequences, teacher reflection and interviews, student work samples and student reflection. This was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019).
In the study, teacher-initiated support for home language literacy practices was found to lead to greater student engagement with these practices. The strategies used by the teachers were multimodal. They incorporated different kinds of meaning-making that were informed by the experiences of the students and the available resources. The students engaged with different scripts often with the assistance of a spoken version of the home language, and the main approach was the active inclusion of teacher assistants who shared languages with students and Google Translate.
References
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2019) Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589-597, https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806.
Chumak-Horbatsch, R. (2019). Using linguistically appropriate practice: A guide for teaching in multilingual classrooms. Multilingual Matters.
Eisenchlas, S., Schalley, A., & Guillemin, D. (2013). The importance of literacy in the home language: The view from Australia. SAGE Open, 3(4), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/2158244013507270.
McKenney, S. & Reeves, T.C. (2018). Conducting educational design research (2nd ed.). Routledge.
