Multilingualism on my mind
Developing multilingual identity through participation in the languages classroom: the MEITS project.
Main content
Programme
| 10:00–10:15 | Coffee and tea |
| 10:15–11:15 | Developing multilingual identity through participation in the languages classroom: the MEITS project, guest lecture by Linda Fisher, Yongcan Liu and Michael Evans, Cambridge University |
| 11:15–11:30 | Break |
| 11:30–12:15 | Presentation of the new research group Multilingualism on my mind by Åsta Haukås, Irina Tiurikova, André Storto, Raees Calafato and Aasne Vikøy |
| 12:15–12:30 | Discussion |
In this presentation we introduce Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Society (MEITS), a large Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project that seeks not only to understand people’s experiences of speaking more than one language, but also to change attitudes towards multilingualism throughout society and amongst key policy-makers.
The presentation focuses on the Education strand of MEITS, where the team is researching the development of multilingual identity in the classroom context. Participants are learners who are engaged in early stages of formal language learning at a purposively chosen sample of schools in England. As well as mapping the development of multilingual identity and progress in classroom language learning, we investigate the effects of an intervention, where teachers have incorporated an identity-focused pedagogy into their practice. We present our theorised model of participative identity construction in the languages classroom and some preliminary findings as to whether pedagogical intervention can support the process of development of multilingual identities and so influence progression.