Creativity in the Community languages Classroom: pedagogies and professional development

Context

Task A Task B Task C

Sarah Bonnell School(Mainstream secondary girls’ school in Newham) Class: Yr 7/8 (Students from diverse backgrounds, but mainly beginners in Arabic) (Age 11-12)

Art work integrating images and text.(Exhibition)

Dual-language storybooks. (Presentation in local primary school)

Puppet Show.(Performance in class)

Downderry Primary School(Mainstream mixed primary school in Lewisham) Class: Yr 3-6 (After school)(Age 6-10, mainly 2nd generation) (Tamil)

South Indian Dance based on song stories. Complementary work carried out in language and dance lessons.

South Indian Dance based on song stories.(Performance in school assembly and local Tamil community event)

Drama and digital film-making based on song stories.(Presentation in class)

London Mandarin School(Mixed primary-secondary complementary school in Hackney)Class:Yr 1-3 (Age 5-7, mainly 2nd - 3rd generation) (Mandarin)

‘Four Season Song’ based on traditional three word chant.

Scrapbook. Pages made up of drawings, natural garden material as well as Chinese characters representing spring and summer.(Slide show posted on school website)

Drama adaptation of the Chinese classic “Journey to the West”.(Performance in school talent show)

Rathmore Asian Community Project(Mixed primary-secondary complementary school in Greenwich)Class: Yr 3-12 (Age 6-17, mainly 3rd – 4th generation) (Panjabi)

Family drama conceived, scripted and performed by students with support of teachers and parents.(Performance for school and community members)

Wedding scene from drama expanded to incorporate traditional and modern dance.(Performed for school and community members)

Dual language comic book based on the family drama.(Presented to school and community members)

Approaches to the teaching of community/heritage languages have for a long time been caught between foreign language and mother tongue models, neither of which appropriately reflect the needs of the learners concerned. This project locates itself within a growing body of research seeking to identify more clearly a pedagogical approach which is sensitive to the situation of this group of students and which also has the potential to contribute significantly to building of broader intercultural literacy for all learners.

The focus on creativity emerged from a previous Goldsmiths project supported by Nuffield (2004-2007) which produced a series of Curriculum Guides for teachers of Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi, Tamil and Urdu. Creative work was encouraged in these guides, but it was realised that a clearer understanding of the contribution that creativity could make in the context of the community language classroom was needed as well as professional development support to enable teachers to engage with ideas and implement them in their own classrooms.

- What kinds of cultural artefact/skill can be used as a stimulus for creative learning activities in community/heritage language classes?

- How can these activities support different aspects of learning for children from bilingual backgrounds: (multi-) literacy development, intercultural understanding, cognitive skills, personal and social development?

- How can parents and other community members contribute to activities based around creative works in mainstream and complementary schools?

- What pedagogical approaches in relation to creative work are appropriate for different languages, learners and settings?

- What are the implications for the professional development of teachers?

(Normally in lessons) It is like

you are on a motorway and there is no way down or out. It is the same all the time,

not something different… This (creative work) makes it more.. sort of up and

then down and then left and then something else and then up and

then right.

I have learnt how to organise other

people, myself and to organise the

whole performance. I have learnt

how to help the children without making them feel

bad.

I think the task has made learning Panjabi a lot more

interesting. When you learn Panjabi, you usually sit there and prepare for tests. It seems a bit

boring … but then this, you get the chance to learn words from the lyrics, you got the chance to learn about your culture. I am sure the other children also enjoyed this activity and have learnt a lot from

it. It helps us to learn a lot more culture than we could when sitting in the classroom.

I think they (creativity activities)

were really fun and enjoyable and like when we do these stories, we learnt lots and lots of Arabic words, verbs and nouns and stuff,

all the words that we made into our stories.

The students have learnt more profoundly because of this project. If you don’t put the languages into a live context, which is I am learning and so I can use it. If you don’t put them into this context, I don’t think they can

understand why they are learning.

This project inspired us how we can teach in

a different way, such as the language teacher can work with the dance teacher.

Previously the language and dance classes were separate, so children didn’t make connections. The teachers have also learnt different teaching styles and teaching techniques. We tried different

things in classrooms. We also learnt to use ICT in our classes.Comments from students

Comments from teachersQuestions

- significant shift involved in teacher-learner roles

- importance of collaborative, process oriented approach

- need to provide appropriate support (scaffolding)

- potential benefits of cross-curricular approaches

- importance of presentation/performance to an audience

- value of involving parents /community members

Creativity can:

Implications for pedagogy identified through the project include:

- provide conditions for a dynamic interaction with heritage and with the reality of living with different cultures (intercultural understanding, inclusion, personalisation, identity)

- support and extend children’s multiliteracy development (literacy, cognition, intercultural understanding, translanguaging)

- empower learners and promote active citizenship (student voice, personalisation, inclusion)

- make language learning more meaningful and engaging and contribute to the development of more appropriate pedagogies for community/heritage language learners (context, purpose, genuine communication, personalisation, raising achievement)

- facilitate home and community involvement (personalisation, community cohesion).

Findings

They (classmates) want to see my story! They want to see it. They have been asking me all the time. They asked me “where is your story and everything?” even my mum. Because my mum helped me make it, too. She has been asking me and she will be happy to see that when it

is all together.

Comments from parents

This project connects the books with practical things. Before,

they only learnt these in the textbook. But now, those are in the real world for them.

When they go out sometimes, they cannot stop looking for the things they want for the work. They kept on asking

me what things are in Mandarin as well.

I only helped them when

they didn’t know how to write some words. They are full of their

own ideas and they want their work to be in the

way they like. They didn’t even allow me to write the Chinese characters on their paper. I have to write them on another

piece of paper and then they tried to copy them to their

work.

I thought I was going to take

control of everything because they needed help. But all of them turned out to say “No, we want to do it in our way.” I gave up the sheets I prepared; I put them aside. They started to control me instead of me controlling them…It is a good feeling that they want to learn! It is not that I want to teach them and

want them to learn. They want to

learn!

Pupils… benefited as was clear from their increased confidence and enthusiasm as well as their achievements. They became more independent and took control of their own learning. They also developed a heightened sense of self, drawing on their personal and cultural histories and interrogating some of their customs and beliefs. In this they involved parents and the wider community. (External advisor)

Everybody has reported on the way in which the teaching process has become more interactive and the students have more sense of control and become more independent. Sometimes it is difficult for teachers to take a back seat and see what their students are doing. However, we have seen here that the children in this project have become very confident in their learning. (External advisor)

The cross-curricular dance-language project is such a great idea. The tutor comes in once a week and it’s not just aimed at the Tamil community. It’s actually aimed at all the children in the school and they take part in learning the language through dance. It’s a very exciting and useful way of actually learning the language. We are trying to do that as a school with our broader curriculum, for instance we are trying to link in literacy with other subjects including PE, including dance so for our language project to actually have the dance curriculum and language going on fitted in so well with our vision for the school. The scheme of work that has been developed for this project is absolutely fantastic. It really does link in well with our integrated curriculum. (Headteacher)

Obviously, an idea like this is what the new curriculum is all about because the new curriculum is moving towards more project based, more diverse, more cross-curriculum based activities. So certainly, this kind of activity, when you see what [Teacher] has been doing… Of course, there is initial cost in it and an initial effort to make, but once that is done, you can really see how much the students really get out of it. So I think it is certainly something I will encourage other teachers to be doing. (Head of Languages Department)

The contribution of Goldsmiths and their partner primary school, Downderry, in the development of the Tamil/dance scheme of work had significant impact on the (Our Languages) project: this exemplar scheme of work set a high standard and reflected the latest thinking in curriculum development in terms of cross-curricular teaching and creativity. (Director of the Our Languages project)

…the engagement of Goldsmiths in the Our Languages project ensured an in-depth grasp of curricular issues and had significant impact on curriculum development at national level, bringing together teachers from complementary and mainstream schools. (Director of the Our Languages project)

My teachers are very keen to put this sort of creative ideas in practice. Your support for the continued professional development of community languages teachers is greatly appreciated. (Comment from EAL and Community Languages Manager, Equalities and Diversity Service, Wolverhampton following dissemination event)

… there have been individual and lasting changes. The research can serve as a model to others who want to facilitate change. (External advisor)

During the course of the research and dissemination it became clear that there was potential for the pedagogy to be extended beyond the community language/MFL and English curriculum. Links were readily made with, for example, citizenship where the role of parents and wider community is central and there are obvious implications for other areas of the curriculum as well. (External advisor)

If the current research can be part of a continuing campaign to spearhead improvements in information and access and sharing of expertise between complementary and mainstream schools then it will have performed an important service to the growing number of pupils from backgrounds where languages other than English are regularly used. (External advisor)

Project directorDr Jim AndersonResearch team

Professor Eve Gregory, Dr Charmian Kenner, Dr Clare Kelly, Dr Claudine Kirsch, Professor Yangguang Chen, Dr Ana Souza & Yu-Chiao Chung

Teachers and schoolsLuma Hameed (Sarah Bonnell School), Xiu Qin Liao (London Mandarin School), Iqbal Sanghara (Rathmore Asian

Community Project) & Kristhuraja Nithiya and Navaraj Muthusamy (Downderry School)Advisors

Maggie Gravelle & Siva Pillai

impaCt and an emerging vision

Further information and resources related to this project are available on the Goldsmiths ‘Multilingual Learning’ website managed by the Centre for Language, Culture and Learning

http://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/multilingual-learning To purchase copies of this booklet please complete and return order form. This is available to download from the website above.

Jim Anderson and Yu-Chiao Chung

This booklet provides practical support for teachers of community languages working in mainstream and community settings who wish to incorporate a focus on arts based creativity (stories, drama, art works, multimedia) into their teaching approach. It draws on research carried out at Goldsmiths, University of London, funded by The Nuffield Foundation. It is also available online with related resources:http://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/multilingual-learning/

A Professional Development Resource

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