Multilingual Resources Research Articles

Creating translanguaging spaces in a Hong Kong English medium instruction mathematics classroom: A comparative analysis of classroom interactions with and without the use of iPad

Recent educational studies have paid less attention to how teachers utilize resources to contingently respond to unexpected technical issues. This comparative study investigates how various resources are employed in moments when the teacher creates a technology-mediated space through the affordance of a mobile device (iPad) and moments that are not mediated by the iPad due to technical failure in an English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) mathematics classroom. The analysis, conducted using Multimodal Conversation Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, illustrates that the linguistic and multimodal resources, which are used in a technology-mediated space for developing pedagogical strategies, transcend the boundaries of mode since they are re-enacted in the context without using the iPad. I argue that an EMI classroom can be conceptualised as an integrated translanguaging space with different sub-spaces, allowing the teacher to strategically draw on multilingual and multimodal resources to transcend mode boundaries and shape the classroom as a space for learning.

‘It’s Too nice’: Adapting iSupport Lite for Ethnically Diverse Family Carers of a Person with Dementia

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES Resources to support dementia carers from ethnically diverse families are limited. We explored carers’ and service providers’ views on adapting the World Health Organization’s iSupport Lite messages to meet their needs. METHODS Six online workshops were conducted with ethnically diverse family carers and service providers (n = 21) from nine linguistic groups across Australia. Recruitment was via convenience and snowball sampling from existing networks. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS Participants reported that iSupport Lite over-emphasized support from family and friends and made help-seeking sound “too easy”. They wanted messages to dispel notions of carers as “superheroes”, demonstrate that caring and help-seeking is stressful and time-consuming, and that poor decision-making and relationship breakdown does occur. Feedback was incorporated to co-produce a revised suite of resources. CONCLUSIONS Beyond language translation, cultural adaptation using co-design provided participants the opportunity to develop more culturally relevant care resources that meet their needs. These resources will be evaluated for clinical and cost-effectiveness in future research. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS By design, multilingual resources for carers must incorporate cultural needs to communicate support messages. If this intervention is effective, it could help to reduce dementia care disparities in ethnically diverse populations in Australia and globally.

Inclusive STEM Teaching from a Language Perspective: Teacher Learning in a Professional Development Program

Worldwide, pupils with migrant backgrounds do not participate in school STEM subjects as successfully as their peers. Migrant pupils’ subject-specific language proficiency lags behind, which hinders participation and learning. Primary teachers experience difficulty in teaching STEM as well as promoting required language development. This study investigates how a professional development program (PDP) focusing on inclusive STEM teaching can promote teacher learning of language-promoting strategies (promoting interaction, scaffolding language and using multilingual resources). Participants were five case study teachers in multilingual schools in the Netherlands (<i>N</i> = 2), Sweden (<i>N </i>= 1) and Norway (<i>N</i> = 2), who taught in primary classrooms with migrant pupils. The PDP focused on three STEM units (sound, maintenance, plant growth) and language-promoting strategies. To trace teachers’ learning, three interviews were conducted with each of the five teachers (one after each unit). The teachers also filled in digital logs (one after each unit). The interviews showed positive changes in teachers’ awareness, beliefs and attitudes towards language-supporting strategies. However, changes in practice and intentions for practice were reported to a lesser extent. This study shows that a PDP can be an effective starting point for teacher learning regarding inclusive STEM teaching. It also illuminates possible enablers (e.g., fostering language awareness) or hinderers (e.g., teachers’ limited STEM knowledge) to be considered in future PDP design.

Connecting target content with students through translanguaging in a postgraduate EMI pharmacology module

ABSTRACT The use of English as medium of instruction (EMI) in non-Anglophone contexts can be seen as part of a process of ‘Englishisation’ which favours a monolingual policy of using only one language in the classroom. However, EMI can be seen as a multilingual phenomenon, where the declared policy of using one language (English) as the medium of instruction may not reflect actual classroom practices in which other languages are used. Such practices can be described as ‘translanguaging’, in which participants engage their full linguistic repertoires in making meaning, and which does not see languages as distinct, compartmentalized entities. In this sense, this study aims to investigate how a lecturer deploys bilingual practices in an EMI postgraduate pharmacology module at a Spanish university for content knowledge building and meaning making purposes. The study uses multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine the multilingual and multimodal resources enacted by the lecturer both at the ‘local’ level of interactional sequences, and at the level of ‘overall’ medium of practice. The findings suggest that translanguaging (not just English or Spanish) was used as a way of connecting target content knowledge with the students by referring to the students’ experience and the shared classroom community.

Measuring digital humanities learning requirements in Spanish & English-speaking practitioner communities

Technology is global, but our use of it is subtly local. Digital scholarship in the humanities is no different. Where one is doing digital scholarship affects the types of methods and tools one will find most fruitful for humanities research. This paper considers global variations in digital humanities tool demand, by comparing broad patterns in digital skill-seeking through Programming Historian tutorial web traffic data. Programming Historian is a multilingual open learning resource publishing digital humanities tutorials in four languages. Its tutorials have played an important role for scholars seeking to learn about new tools and skills in digital humanities. Drawing on a unique dataset of 3.7 million visitors to Programming Historian between May 2019 and May 2022, this paper looks for patterns of regional use to identify skills most and least in demand in certain parts of the world. It does so through a pair of case studies that look at the top three national sources of anonymised web traffic to the English-language publication (United States, India, United Kingdom) and Spanish-language publication (Spain, Mexico, Colombia). The resultant conclusions identify key differences in skill-seeking both across the language divide (English / Spanish) and in different countries, some of which can be explained by cultural, economic, and bureaucratic factors. The paper concludes that while the specific variations of need will evolve, they will continue to exist, and digital humanities educators should adopt practices that acknowledge those differences and make space for local experts to define and best serve those needs.

The Role of Language Technologies in Digital Humanities (The Case of Parliamentary Debates)

The paper focuses on the use case of parliamentary debates as part of Digital Humanities. First, the ParlaMint project is outlined as a flagship initiative of CLARIN ERIC infrastructure. The project makes content from the national and regional parliaments visible, comparable and accessible for policy making and research. Then, the approaches are considered that have been applied in the creation of 31 corpora from national and regional parliaments. Last but not least, the utility of the multilingual resource is discussed.

General practitioner experiences in delivering early medical abortion services to women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds: A qualitative-descriptive study.

General practitioners (GPs) are ideally placed to deliver early medical abortion (EMA), yet little is known about how GPs deliver this care to women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. We explored GP experiences in providing EMA to women from CALDbackgrounds and their recommendations for service improvements. This was a qualitative study involving telephone interviews with 18 Australian GPs who provide EMA to women from CALD backgrounds. Data were thematically analysed using the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Behaviour model. GPs experienced challenges in communication and cultural competency when delivering EMA to women from CALD backgrounds due to insufficient training, lackof multilingual resources and difficulties accessing interpreters. In addition, the stigma surrounding abortion and concerns around reproductive coercion made engaging these women challenging. Upskilling GPs in culturally competent care, improving access to multilingual resources and enabling efficient interpreter use can optimise EMA delivery to women from CALD backgrounds.

Translanguaging in English-medium instruction (EMI): Examining English literature content classrooms

Recently, translanguaging has begun challenging and replacing English-only policies in English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts, advocating that bi/multilingual learners may better internalise information in two or more languages. Within this perspective and using linguistic ethnography as the framework, this case study examines the translanguaging practices used by the instructor and the students in English literature classrooms and how/whether these practices mediate learning when multilingual resources are used for pedagogical purposes. The data for this study comes from the researcher, as the instructor, observing and recording their two content classrooms in an English Literature department, namely Contemporary British Novel and Discourse Analysis courses. These observations and recordings were analysed from a pedagogical translanguaging lens to identify the instructor’s input and the students’ output in terms of their display of linguistic repertoires in English (the language of instruction) and Turkish (the shared language in the classroom). The results provide implications for research and practice, offerings suggestions for how/whether a pedagogical translanguaging lens might be adopted in content classrooms.

Multilingual Learning Inside/Outside the Classroom: Insights from Intra‐Active Events

AbstractAs K‐5 dual language programs gain popularity in the United States, language teaching, however, often still prioritizes discrete and decontextualized learning that is not built on students’ interests and experiences or their multilingual and multimodal resources. This article reports on a classroom‐based ethnographic case study and illustrates how emergent bilinguals in a fifth grade dual language class engaged in a variety of multimodal experiences to understand local history through their first and second languages, community‐based inquiries, and writing. Drawing on translanguaging and new materialist understandings of language and literacy, the authors describe intra‐active events generated through museum activities and discussions in English and Chinese that allowed students to assemble whole‐body experiences and discussions in their journal writing about a day in the 18th century. The study shows how translanguaging can foster students’ engagement in learning as assemblages of their multilingual, multimodal, and multisensory experiences and support their writing processes and products, not only in a second language, but all language and literacy classrooms.

‘Mask must wear at all times’: top-down and bottom-up multilingual COVID-scape in Hong Kong as a prime site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic brings to the fore language's primacy in crisis communication. Given our diverse world, how effectively vital information is conveyed multilingually may make or break a place’s anti-Covid battle. In the study, a locale’s Covid-related multilingual landscape (multilingual Covidscape) is conceptualised as a prime multilingual/mediated site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction, where pandemic-related information is (re)contextualised and communicated multilingually by various agents (including translators). A former British colony and global financial centre, China’s Hong Kong SAR represents a most cosmopolitan and diverse place in Asia, constituting a fertile ground for linguistic landscape (LL) research. Drawing on real-world data, this study explores the multilingual practices enacted in Hong Kong’s multilingual Covidscape. This interdisciplinary study illustrates how multilingual resources and repertoires are brought to bear in a global city’s pandemic communication. Beyond the traditionally ‘choreographed’ LL in Chinese and English, various multilingual practices are discussed at multiple levels.

Транслатологическое обоснование создания многоязычных ресурсов Интернета

The article analyses the determined character of forming multilingual Internet space in terms of the status of language in the system of world languages and in the set of languages of website content. Multilingualism is considered as a new stage in the development of web communication, replacing the brief periods of English dominance and the emergence of Internet segments in national languages. The tendency towards representation of content in different languages reflects an attitude towards considering users as participants in institutional discourses. The study uses the examples from material that has undergone a detailed interpretation stage in translation classes and during the preparation of final qualification papers by students in translation. The basis of translatological logistics of a multilingual resource consists in the fact that a site hypertext is objectively conditioned by a set of linguistic characteristics of the original content and the pragmatics of creating translated versions. Therefore, creating a global version in English involves not only changing the site structure, reducing texts and neutralising linguistic and cultural markings, but also ensuring that content is understandable to a wide audience owing to appropriate translation techniques application. Translation into German may be driven by marketing factors, French versions occur in response to high demands of linguistic "purism" in the state and society, while translation into Russian allows expanding the audience of potential users. It is revealed that the use of machine translation in the material reviewed is restricted by the purposes of the discourse and the sociopragmatics of the recipient of the translated version. The refusal to translate using a built-in browser extension reflects the sender's focus on effective communication and his desire to meet the recipient's "horizon of expectations". It is stated that the Internet space development is not determined by regulatory mechanisms, but by the orientation of resources towards the objectives of discourses and the needs and capabilities of their participants.

Multilingual NLP

The subject area of multilingual natural language processing (NLP) is concerned with the processing of natural language data in several languages. NLP systems that can translate between languages are becoming more and more necessary as the globe gets more interconnected in order to promote understanding and communication among speakers of various languages. To be effective, communication must overcome a number of obstacles presented by multilingual NLP. Lack of language standardization, which results in major variations in the grammatical constructions, vocabulary, and writing systems used in many languages, is one of the fundamental problems. The requirement for substantial amounts of annotated data for machine learning model training presents another difficulty. The creation of high-quality annotated datasets in numerous languages is time- and money-consuming, which restricts the supply of multilingual NLP resources. The problem of creating NLP systems that can handle several languages at once is the last one. This necessitates the deployment of sophisticated algorithms that can handle and evaluate data in numerous languages while producing precise findings. Researchers and developers are working on a variety of methods to address these issues. Creating standardized formats for multilingual data representation, like Universal Dependencies, which offers a unified framework for annotating linguistic data in several languages, is one strategy. Using transfer learning techniques to transfer knowledge from high-resource languages to low-resource languages is an alternative strategy. The amount of annotated data required for training NLP models in low-resource languages can bede creased with the use of this method. Last but not least, researchers are working to create multilingual NLP models that can manage numerous languages at once. To deliver precise results across numerous languages, these models employ cutting-edge methodologies like neural machine translation and multilingual word embedding’s. Despite the fact that multilingual NLP presents a number of difficult issues, with continuing study and development, it is possible to create NLP systems that are capable of processing natural language data from several languages.

Creating a Questionnaire to Explore Language Teacher Multilingual Beliefs and Practices

Ukraine is a multilingual country whose language policy strives to promote language diversity. However, foreign language teaching is predominantly based on monolingual practice and languages are taught in isolation from one another in a foreign language classroom. These facts lead to realizing that language teachers should be trained in order to be able to promote their students' multilingualism through employing their multilingual resources. Before the multilingual training or programme design, it is essential to evaluate teachers' multilingual beliefs and teaching practices to make targeted and informed changes. The paper describes the evolution of the questionnaire to explore Ukrainian university language teachers' beliefs about multilingualism and multilingual practices. For this purpose, a detailed insight into the phases and steps of the questionnaire development is presented. This comprises scrutiny of theory-based evidence to map the constituents of language teacher multilingualism, the description of how critical concepts for the study were identified and how relevant content for each part of the questionnaire was generated. In addition, the questionnaire's verification process is described in detail, including item analysis carried out with Cronbach's Alpha to verify the internal consistency of the items, participants' feedback and expert's opinion to explore content validity and participants' feedback to check feasibility. The study invited 37 language teachers from different European and Ukrainian universities to complete the pilot questionnaire. The preliminary results of the pilot version are discussed, and a finalized version of the questionnaire is offered. In addition, this study adds to the knowledge of teachers' current perspectives on practices in multilingual education. Funding This study was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation Research Programme. Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Exploring Tibetan residents’ everyday language practices in Danba county, Southwest China: a case study

Abstract In this case study, seventy Tibetan residents selected from two Tibetan villages in Danba county, Southwest China, were invited to participate in an investigation of their everyday use of Tibetan, standard Chinese, and English, as well as their expectations of future multilingual practices. It was found that there are intergenerational differences in the participants’ use of these languages. This paper, in the context of neoliberal ideology and rural development, suggests that attention should be given to support local Tibetan residents’ language learning and improve their multilingual competence, thus enabling the conversion of their linguistic/human capital to economic capital. The study contributes to understandings of how local multilingual resources can be exploited for the betterment of living standards and opportunities, and it calls for governments to address the issues regarding poverty reduction, rural development, and language preservation by improving the quality of multilingual education in ethnic minority areas.

Spanish Synonyms as Part of a Multilingual Event-Type Ontology

Abstract This paper presents an ongoing work on the multilingual event-type ontology SynSemClass, where multilingual verbal synonymy is formalized in terms of syntactic and semantic properties. In the ontology, verbs are grouped into synonym classes, both monolingually and cross-lingually. Specifically, verbs are considered to belong to the same class if they both express the same meaning in a specific context, and their valency frame can be mapped to the set of roles defined for a particular class. SynSemClass is built following a bottom-up approach where translational equivalents are automatically extracted from parallel corpora and annotated by human annotators. The task of the annotators consists in mapping the valency frame of a particular verb with the set of roles defined for the class where the verb is included as a potential class member, establishing links to external resources, and selecting relevant examples. The Spanish part of the ontology currently contains 257 classes enriched with Spanish synonyms. The resulting resource provides finegrained syntactic and semantic information on multilingual verbal synonyms and links to other existing monolingual and multilingual resources.

Liminalising and affectivising cityscape as a branding practice: a sociolinguistic ethnography in urban China

ABSTRACT The emerging ‘affective turn’ across different disciplines has demonstrated how affect serves as indispensable driving forces in the constitution of practices in social life. Against this backdrop, inspired by posthumanism, the materialisation of affect in the field of linguistic/semiotic landscape is still short on empirical backgrounds, especially in the urban context of China. In this article, by combining approaches of sensory ethnography and walking ethnography, I conducted a fieldwork in the ‘old commercial port area’, Jinan city, to investigate affective regimes of how affects are discursively organised and situated through different semiotic artefacts. Based on various ethnographic data including photographs and walking narrative interviews, the results showed that generic liminality and concrete liminal affects of ‘nostalgia' and ‘multilingualism-friendliness' are created and situated for branding the city’s new icons as a symbolic economy. During this process, multilingual, multimodal and multi-layered spatiotemporal resources are mobilised for reproducing and humanising cityscapes as commodified affective experiences. In doing so, the transformed urbanscapes radically subvert local and societal normalcies and cultivate citizen-consumers’ new perceptions, values and identities towards local heritage, multilingualism and global multiculturality. The intersections and interplays between language, psychosocial constitution of space, urbanisation, globalisation and authenticity are also proposed and discussed.

“I made many discoveries for myself”: The development of a teacher candidate's pedagogical knowledge of translanguaging

While research has highlighted the importance of translanguaging for emergent multilingual learners (EMLs), very few studies have focused on teacher candidates (TCs)’ knowledge of translanguaging and how they implement the pedagogy. Using ethnographic methods and multimodal conversation analysis, this study examined how an English as an Additional Language (EAL) TC's knowledge of translanguaging evolved and how she bridged theory to practice in a field-based setting. The participant was a multilingual speaker who did not speak her EMLs' home languages. Data sources included: 1) the participant's course assessments, 2) a reflection, and 3) transcripts of a video classroom observation. The findings revealed her strong stance and ability to use a variety of strategies to create a translanguaging space, as a result of her training. We recommend teachers to enrich their pedagogical repertoire by understanding the affordances of a diverse range of multilingual, multimodal, and multi-sensory resources to effectively facilitate the teaching and learning processes. We also advise teacher educators to be intentional in course design, offering opportunities for TCs to reflect and connect their second language acquisition knowledge with pedagogical translanguaging in order to discover their own ways to create a translanguaging space for EMLs.

Multilingual Meaning Making—An Explorative Study of German-Turkish Learners’ Translanguaging Processes Regarding the Part-Whole-Concept

Educational Research in Multilingualism indicates that multlingual students’ thinking-and-speaking processes might be associated with different nuances when interpreting concepts and notions. From a subject-didactical perspective, this leads to the question, if or how these nuances can be reconstructed and which possible relevance they possess for mathematical learning trajectories. In a design-based study from the German context, the activation of multilingual resources in the conceptual development of German-Turkish 6th grade learners is examined. Follwing the translanguaging-paradigm, the learners were allowed to use all of their linguistic resources in a small-group-setting with a mulilingual learning environment for conceptually understanding fractions (with the share-notion being focussed), being designed according to a content-and-language-integrated approach. This article outlines the synthesis of the interdisciplinary theoretical background as well as the main research outcomes regarding the form and function of multilinguals’ learning trajectories by reconstructing conceptual fields and further analysing these with the linguistic translanguaging-paradigm in an interdisciplinary approach.

Empowering English as an Additional Language students through digital multimodal composing

AbstractWhile digital multimodal composing, underpinned by a critical literacies approach, provides opportunities for students to make informed semiotic choices and voice concerns about social issues, there is limited research exploring how digital multimodal composing is employed to interrogate and challenge the entanglements of language, immigration status and power. This article explores how 23 primary‐aged English as an Additional Language (EAL) students (Years 3–6) engaged in digital multimodal composing, in the context of an after‐school multiliteracies programme in one Australian school. Conceptualising critical literacies as a bridge to access and transform codes of power, the article explores how the participating students selected and used different semiotic resources for their digital texts while challenging and redefining dominant discourses based on their lived experiences and interests. The study found that both students and pre‐service teachers found value in students having access to digital technologies and experimenting with a range of multimodal and multilingual resources to create digital texts, which reflected cultural and linguistic identities. The findings illustrate how the creation of digital multimodal and multilingual texts allows for opportunities for students to reposition themselves as knowledgeable and active meaning‐makers with strategic support from teachers and peers.

Assessing the speech production of multilingual children: A survey of speech-language therapists in French-speaking Belgium.

Assessing the speech production of multilingual children is challenging for speech-language therapists (SLTs) around the world. Scientific recommendations to improve clinical practice are available, but their implementation has mostly been described in studies from English-speaking countries. This survey aimed to describe the perspectives and practices of SLTs in assessing the speech production of multilingual children in French-speaking Belgium. An online survey was completed by 134 SLTs in French-speaking Belgium. SLTs predominantly used norm-referenced assessment approaches, which are not recommended for use with multilingual children, and lacked necessary training and resources to implement recommended practices in the assessment of speech production of multilingual children. The shift towards more appropriate practices with multilingual children seems to be in its infancy among SLTs in French-speaking Belgium. Some challenges identified by the SLTs were common to those in other countries and languages, such as the difficulty to distinguish between speech differences and speech disorders. Other challenges were specific to the French language and/or the Belgian context, such as the lack of appropriate tools in French. Action is required to improve clinical practice in assessing the speech production of multilingual children in French-speaking contexts: better training for SLTs regarding linguistic diversity, more implementation research in the field of SLT, and advocacy for linguistic diversity with decision makers. What is already known on this subject Existing research indicates that assessing the speech production of multilingual children is challenging for speech-language therapists (SLTs). Scientific recommendations for best practices have been published, and the shift to more appropriate assessment practices may be progressing differently across countries. SLTs' practices have been described in surveys, mostly conducted in English-speaking countries. Although French is the fifth most spoken language in the world, data about SLTs' perspectives and practices in French-speaking regions are scarce. What this study adds The implementation of recommended practices in assessing multilingual children's speech production was limited among SLTs in French-speaking Belgium. The norm-referenced approach to assessment was predominant and few SLTs used recommended practices (e.g., criterion-referenced measures, dynamic assessment, assessment of the child's speech production in the home language). Some challenges were identified that related specifically to practices in French-speaking contexts (e.g., lack of French tools) and Belgian context (e.g., health policies unfavourable to multilingualism). These findings confirm that specific understanding of a situation is needed to develop context- and/or language-specific solutions-and ultimately improve clinical practice. What are the clinical implications of this work? SLTs in French-speaking Belgium require specific training and support to provide appropriate assessment of speech production in multilingual children. Efforts to improve practices in French-speaking contexts should focus on increasing understanding and consideration of cultural and linguistic diversity at all levels of the child's environment. Evidence-based knowledge, assessment tools and multilingual resources are available to SLTs on websites in French and in English.