Interfaces of language use,

multilingualism and identity:

school and family in the

intergration process

Maisa Martin

University of Jyväskylä

FLIN 16.11.2016

Jyväskylä Language Campus

http://kielikampus.jyu.fi/choose-language/pa-svenska/

Theme

How to support the identity of recently arrived school-aged children?

What is the relationship between learning the language and the identity of the

child?

What goes on in language acquisition in the first year or so?

What can school do?

What about the parents? Siblings?

The role of the immigrant community?

I ask questions and provide background with research results, you think of answers.

Topics

Language and identity

Language system, language use

Language learning

Multilingualism – theory and practice

Language at school

Language at home

Language at the immigrant community

Examples

Language and identity

Identity only partly stable, changes across the lifespan but also by situation

and context

Important to some, not to everyone

Much dependent on language and the level of language skills (but not

entirely)

Lots of research on its composition and dynamic aspects, not reviewed

here

Position in the family, gender issues

The role of the home language(s) and the school language(s)

Recently arrived children in a fluctuating phase, SLA crucial

Stuck by your tongue

Language system, language use

The way we imagine language and language learning influence greatly

our decisions.

Language as a stable abstract system, rule-based, vocabulary, grammar

and meaning separate entities, clear boundaries between languages

Language as usage-based, concrete chunks which can be modified,

constantly changing, situated, embodied, vocabulary, grammar and

meaning all intertwined, no discrete boundaries between languages

The latter view better suited to multilingual classrooms

Dynamic systems theory (DST) (Tilma 2013)

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Language learning

Based on beliefs about language

Foreign vs. second language distinction disappearing (internet,

multilingualism)

Rule-based starting point works better in teacher-controlled situations

In SLA learning paths are automatically individual as language contacts

vary. SLA teaching has two goals:

Provide tools for noticing and learning from environment

Make sense of chaos

Clip Art survey (1)

Langauge learning as a

personal activity

Clip Art survey (2)

Language learning as an

interactive effort

Stages of language acquisition

Step by step Taking turns

or …

Spiraling Multidirectional

Very comprehensive / wide (overall) scales are

problematic both in LT and SLA

C2

C1

B2

B1

A2

A1

C2

C1

B2

B1

A2

A1

At which

level

should we

place this

learner or

piece of

writing?

Writing

Different features of grammar,

vocabulary, mechnics,

cohesion, sociolinguistic

appropriatenes, content. …

Linear scale vs. non-linear learning?

C2

C1

B2

B1

A2

A1

? ?

Does a scale

such as CEFR

imply that

learning is

linear?

Whereas in reality, learning is usually

non-linear

= view of learning in SLA

Assessment is often

a snapshot of

somebody’s

proficiency at a

certain point in

time. It does not

often contain any

information about

how the learner got

where he/she is

now.

CEFLING PROJECT http://www.jyu.fi/cefling

The linguistic basis of the Common

European Framework levels:

Combining second language

acquisition and language testing

research

Results on a variety of constructions

PhD studies:

Indirect references (passive, you, one etc.) (Seilonen 2013)

Existential sentences (Kajander 2013)

Local case expressions (concrete vs. abstract uses) (Mustonen 2015)

Transitive constructions (Reiman, in progress, also 2011)

Syntactic complexity (Mylläri, in progress)

MA studies:

Time expressions, noun phrases, verb chains, negation, possessive expressions, personal pronouns, government…

Other: conjunctions, clauses and sentence borders

Vocabulary (overall, common verbs, derivation)

Overall results

Idiomatic use by young learners from A1 but with very limited number of

words

More variability among adults

Occurrance of abstract entities in the constructions grows A>B>C but much

task-related, development of complexity qualitative

Accuracy reached earlier by young writers

Frequency of use grows sharply between A2 and B1 (or B1 to B2 with less

frequently occurring constructions)

Accuracy grows sharply between B1 and B2 (or B2 and C1)

Implications for theory and teaching

Frequency of use precedes accuracy: proof for usage-based approaches

(as opposed to rule-based)

Construction-based approach: still in its infancy but promising, can show

the development from many angles simultaneously

Teaching: Practising until (near) perfection less useful than extensive use

and opportunities to expand the constructions

Tools for learning

Mobile phones bring all languages into the classroom and language

learning tools out of the classroom > learner agency, unlimited affordances,

situated learning

Games and virtual worlds

Motivation

Provides or simulates new ways to use languages

Makes room for individual learning paths

Do the skills transfer to other domains of language use?

Multilingualism

Related to social equality (vs. discrimination) and inclusion (vs. exclusion)

Nearly all classrooms are multilingual

Monolingual habitus of the educational system (Hélot, Bordieau)

Multilingualism as a starting point is difficult to imagine

Translanguaging

How to do it in practice: Christine Hélot, Ofelia García

An example: A classroom book of languages

New curricula in Finland:

”Language aware school”

”All teachers are language teachers”

”Finnish across the lifespan”

In-service training project by Jyväskylä Language Campus 2011 – 2013, financed by the Ministry of Education

Goal: to involve people in and out of school system to help families as a whole

Directed to all groups working with immigrants in a given community

Hard to recruit people other than teachers

Six modules with 2 – 3 days in Jyväskylä and one day working visits to he work sites of the participants between the modules, pre- and intermediatetasks, developing project as the final product, dissemination via publications

Work place visits a success, enlargened to target audience, made people talk to each other

Back to the theme

How to support the identity of recently arrived school-aged children?

What is the relationship between learning the language and the identity of the

child? Does the identity change when the child is moved from the entrance class

to the ”ordinary” class?

What goes on in language acquisition in the first year or so? Learning skills,

phonological awareness, speech patterns, school language …

What can school do? Inclusion.

What about the parents? Siblings? Involvement.

The role of the immigrant community? Support or hindrance?

I ask questions and provide background with research results, you think of answers.