Multilingual study mentoring for critical multilingual language awareness among migrant adolescents: scenarios of possibility

Abstract

This paper builds on a collaborative pilot project on Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) in a linguistically diverse Preparatory Class with migrant adolescents in Sweden. Importantly, the approach involved Multilingual Study Mentors (MSMs), whose role normally is to provide scaffolding in the strongest language of recently arrived students to facilitate learning in the language of instruction. Previous research has shown that MSMs are left at the margins of education. This paper explores some of the many audio-recorded conversations on multilingualism between the six MSMs and the students as scenarios of possibility (Heath, S. B. 2000. “Seeing Our Way into Learning.” Cambridge Journal of Education 30 (1): 121–132. doi:10.1080/03057640050005816), facilitated by the MSMs' widened epistemic authority and invested symbolic self (Kramsch, C. 2011. “The Symbolic Dimensions of the Intercultural.” Language Teaching 44 (3): 354–367. doi:10.1017/s0261444810000431). Through their careful positionings and personal involvement, students were encouraged to engage in various themes on multilingualism via co-learning processes and translingual practices, beyond the mere display of accurate and efficient communication in the majority language, hence, moving towards increased student participation. These findings demonstrate the potential MSMs–or possibly other community members–have to shape co-learning that is of importance to CMLA.