As the focus of my research is set on children’s multilingualism coupled with foreign language learning at school, I aim to see how children use their existing languages at school. I am also interested in how they show awareness of themselves as multilingual learners and at the same time how they become identified as learners by the teacher. In this question, I use the term existing languages to describe all of the
languages the children already have at their disposal; these may include languages, languages spoken at home or learnt in faith communities but also language classes provided by the diasporic community outside mainstream schools which are referred to as complementary,
supplementary, heritage language schools or community schools. Even though I have used the term existing languages in my research question to emphasise the multiplicity of languages and their contexts in which they are used, I use the term home languages in my thesis to unite the different names given to the languages spoken outside school, used within the family and/or community also referred as family language, mother tongue or native language. The participant pupils in my research often spoke more than one home language with their families, so this term frequently appears in its plural form.
Learning while drawing on the resources from existing languages has been widely discussed and recognised within a variety of settings (mainstream schools, complementary schools, family or faith settings), for example in the work of Martin et al. (2007), Robertson (2007),
Ruby et al. (2010), Gregory et al. (2012), Kenner and Ruby (2012) or Sierens and Ramaut (2018). Within my research, I use the term
multilingual learning to describe the use and contribution of all language
resources at children’s disposal within any learning situation. However, specifically to my research, the dynamics of the mainstream primary school classroom may influence pupils’ learning. I am particularly interested in observing the relationship and environment created between multilingual pupils and their teacher in the foreign language lesson because here the foreign language could be a subject where some pupils may have more knowledge and experience than the teacher. This interesting deviation from the customary expert-novice dichotomy may create a unique set of circumstances for learning and interacting. While multilingual learning as a term does not appear in this sub-question, it is a significant component of my study. I argue that multilingual learning can be seen as neither an outcome nor an
approach used in teaching, but instead as a process that occurs when pupils engage in creating meaning using multiple linguistic means. With this understanding, it seems useful to me to adopt a sociocultural perspective, where learning can be described as an active process of knowledge construction, a socially mediated activity and interaction between teacher and pupil as discussed, for example, in the work of Mitchell et al. (2013), which I will further address in Section 3.1 where I discuss a sociocultural perspective on children’s learning. Conteh (2015, p. 41) argues that under this premise, learning is “a process of negotiation and co-construction between teachers and learners”.
This may and should include the use of children’s multilingual languages as contributing resources for learning and, which I will explore in Chapter 3.
In summary, I would argue that fostering multilingual learning in the mainstream primary classroom draws on values but also validates the children’s cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Thereby, pupils may feel empowered to act in accordance to their identities in and through
multilingual language practices using their languages as contributions to and resources for learning.
While my first two sub-questions focus specifically on children, my third sub-question takes a closer look at the teacher which I lay out as follows.
1.2.4 Sub-question 3: In what ways does a teacher with limited expertise in the subject approach teaching French as a foreign language to a classroom of multilingual pupils?
I use the term approach to describe how the teacher engages with the lesson materials as well as with the pupils themselves to achieve learning goals. Further, the term approach describes something in motion, something which may developed over time which may well be unintentional, as opposed to the terms strategy or tactic which rather describe an action to achieve something.
I wonder if the teacher’s approach to teaching the French language has a bearing on the teacher-pupil power dynamics. Here I mean the either coercive or collaborative power relations (Cummins and Early, 2011b)
that may exist within the classroom environment. The traditional power dynamic in the classroom is often rooted in the teacher’s overall
authority and possessing knowledge the pupils do not have. However, adopting a sociocultural perspective and Rogoff’s (1990) concept of
guided participation, learning is seen as a much more equitable process
in which both teacher and pupils contribute to the learning. Such an approach stresses the reciprocity between teacher and pupils. Here learning is achieved through a collaborative process, drawing on the notion of learning power which has been discussed by Kenner and Ruby (2012). To this end, I will explore the above-mentioned concepts in the literature review in Chapter 3.
So, what constitutes effective teaching and successful learning in multilingual contexts? Conteh and Brock (2011, p. 349) discuss safe
spaces, an environment or classroom where “people create for
themselves opportunities for meaning-making and identity construction through language and other social tools”. In such a space the learners’ multilayered identities are valued, and teachers acknowledge children’s language knowledge and prior experiences through, for example,
recognising children’s funds of identity (Esteban-Guitart and Moll, 2014) and fostering language practices such as translanguaging (Conteh et al., 2014; García and Wei, 2014) which will be discussed in the literature review in Chapter 3. On that basis, for my research, the notion of safe space incorporates the children’s feeling of safety while expressing themselves drawing on their linguistic knowledge which is used as a resource for co-constructing their learning. However, at the core of this
idea is the question: Do they feel free and able to express themselves in any and all languages at their disposal? I am interested in seeing how foreign language lessons in my study may or may not be a safe space within the mainstream school environment and where pupils feel safe sharing more of their linguistic knowledge with the class.
Within my research, I am curious to see how the relationship within the learner community, between teacher and pupils, shifts the foreign language lesson. Finally, I am curious to see how aspects of the pupils’ home languages surface as the teacher conducts the French language lesson.
All in all, multilingual learning might be successful if the school creates a space where the pupils are able to draw on their language knowledge and language learning from home and at school. In order for pupils to engage in successful multilingual learning in the classroom, mainstream schools and teachers are key in supporting the children’s multilingualism. This can be achieved by
modelling multilingual learning approaches and explicitly allowing, fostering and encouraging them to engage and use all of their languages in the classroom “to promote academic achievement for learners, professional recognition for
teachers and social justice for all” (Conteh, 2018b, p. 211). Providing
opportunities for children to use their languages as resources for successful learning can bridge the two fields of multilingualism and foreign language learning rather than seeing them as separates fields.
I aimed to adopt an ethnographic approach to gathering data in order to observe and collect information about the participants and their
environment, which I discuss and provide a rationale for in Chapter 4. The chosen methods of data collection and data analysis will be set out in Chapter 5.