Enhancing L2 learning in a class of unaccompanied minor refugee students through translanguaging pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at how the promotion and usage of translanguaging practices in the teaching process facilitates learning Greek as a L2 by unaccompanied minor refugee students in a class of non-formal education. Drawing on ethnographic data the present study examines how educational interventions that were designed following the principles of translanguaging pedagogy can facilitate language learning and encourage unaccompanied minor refugees to participate in the teaching process. The main methodological tools that were implemented were action research, class observation, field notes and interviews with students. The findings show that translanguaging pedagogy can promote learning effortlessly by doing, as students stated in their interviews that they were actively engaged in teamwork through real-life language interactions empowering their multilingual and multicultural identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Translanguaging
• action research
• non-formal education
• refugees
• unaccompanied minors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ UAM stands for Unaccompanied Adolescent Minors.

² Interviews were conducted in English and the students’ answers are presented here without any linguistic corrections.