Spaces for translanguaging in mother tongue tuition

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to generate knowledge about an MTT classroom in a Swedish elementary school and how MTT is positioned as a safe space for translanguaging. By studying a school context as a potential translanguaging space, our focus is mainly on two dimensions of space: the physical, including the material space of MTT, and the social, including safe spaces in MTT. The material is mainly from one selected Kurdish MTT classroom, in the form of field notes from lesson observations, photographs in the classroom interior, video recordings co-created with the MTT teacher. This classroom may be perceived as a space where Kurdish dominates, while being included in a Swedish-dominant school setting. This Kurdish space has borders that are physical and related to the scheduled lesson in the specific classroom. Both students and the teacher pass the door and through this shift language practices. Linguistic landscaping as a method, in combination with the collective reflection between the researcher and teacher, added another dimension to the study of MTT. Schoolscaping made language hierarchies and the language policy of the school concrete and visible.

KEYWORDS:

• Mother tongue tuition
• translanguaging
• safe space
• linguistic landscaping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. “Kurdish” is used here to refer to all varieties of Kurdish used among students and teachers in this specific school, including mainly Kurmanji, and to a lesser degree Sorani and occasionally other varieties.

2. Translated from Swedish by the authors.

3. Interviews were conducted in Swedish and have been translated by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Boglárka Straszer

Boglárka Straszer is Associate Professor of Swedish as a Second Language, Dalarna University, Sweden, with 20 years of experience teaching foreign languages, second languages, mother tongue and sociolinguistics. Her research interests include the sociology of language, linguistic schoolscaping, multilingualism and translanguaging, language identity and attitudes, and education in various immigrant and minority language settings. She has previously co-edited two volumes on translanguaging and education and is currently working on volumes on Mother Tongue Instruction, Home Language Instruction and Translanguaging in the Age of Mobility.

Jenny Rosén

Jenny Rosén, holds a PhD in Education and works as Associate Professor in Swedish as a Second Language at the Department of Language Education at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research interest is multilingualism, literacy, language policy and diversity in educational settings.

Åsa Wedin

Åsa Wedinholds a PhD in linguistics and is a professor in educational work at Dalarna University, Sweden.  She has carried out research in Tanzania, on literacy practices in primary school, and in Sweden on literacy and interactional patterns in classrooms and on conditions for multilingual students’ learning. Her research is ethnographically inspired, particularly using linguistic ethnography and theoretical perspectives where languaging is studied as social and cultural practices and where opportunities for learning are related to questions of power.