ROMtels – Interactive dual language immersive learning space Erasmus Project

Project Title

ROMtels – Interactive dual language immersive learning space

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Romas and/or other minorities; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

This project arises from two long-standing, global educational challenges: firstly Eastern European Traveller, including Roma pupils’ poor participation and persistently low achievement in education, and secondly the decline of home language use in primary classrooms (age 5-11) as a pedagogic tool to raise the academic achievement of pupils whose home language(s) differs from the official language of schools.
The project’s response to these challenges began in the UK with the development of an innovative integration of two technologies working in tandem (digital table and large scale 360 degree projected displays) to act as a medium through which pupils experienced high quality learning through translanguaging. Accompanying software incorporated sound files for characters speaking in pupils’ home languages alongside English, and pupils were encouraged to communicate in whichever language supported their activity, i.e. to translanguage together for learning. The activities operating through this technology were enquiries (problems or puzzles) consistent with schools’ curriculum subject knowledge requirements, and which therefore demanded purposeful language use. Parents’ expert knowledge of their children’s translanguaging practices was acknowledged as they undertook all of the translation work. The objective was to improve Eastern European parents’ understanding of and pupils’ motivation and engagement towards institutionalised school activity, at the same time as improving pupils’ proficiency in using cognitive academic language for learning in translanguaging. The transformation of teachers’ attitudes towards Gypsy Roma communities was an integral part of the project so that children’s cultural and linguistic backgrounds are made available to schools by parents who trust this information is respected, valorised and used by teachers to improve the educational and social inclusion of their children.
The results from the UK acted as a springboard for work in phase two to promote a translanguaging pedagogy in France, Finland and Romania. In France, the children from 2 schools in Sète, near Montpellier in the south of France, worked with their parents and teachers in school to reflect on art work in the local museum (task-problems). Pupils and parents working together, with the aid of tablets, wrote placards about the paintings in the Museum, where the placards now stand next to the art work. The placards are written in a translanguaged form of Romanian and Ursari. In Finland work centred on development teacher expertise drawing on the evidence from the UK and France. Work in Romania focussed on teacher training to introduce children’s Romani language into everyday lessons more effectively. Teachers have begun to use a standardised form of Roma being developed in Romania in their classrooms to support pupils in writing in both Romanian and Romani.
Over 20 video excerpts from the project with subtitles into English, from the UK and France have already been added to the project website for use in training in Translanguaging pedagogy and collaboration between school and parents. These videos have been categorized into 5 groups of material:
Translanguaging for Learning
Translanguaging for participation
Natural translanguaging and awareness of language choice
Tanslanguaging and affect
Additional videos
The additional videos include videos of parents involved in the project presenting at conferences, telling us about their life and supplemental material from other project complementary to the ROMtels project. They are available on the website at: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/romtels/resources/video/.

Work with parents and grandparents has been a particularly successful part of this project, and it has led to a process of engagement we have termed a ‘Languages for Dignity approach’. This together with work with pupils has led to increased school attendance as well as improved attainment trends. Evidence from videos taken in the UK and France alongside other forms of evidence from and materials produced for the project as a whole has been drawn together in the ROMtels website (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/romtels/) and in the production of several guidance documents for teachers. All technology resources produced for the project are also available to download and configure as appropriate to age, language and curriculum content. Dissemination to teachers, teacher educators, specialist teachers and education organisation at several conferences (the resources and feedback from which are also available from the ROMtels website) has shown how a translanguaging pedagogy could be effectively appropriated and employed by teachers to benefit plurilingual pupils’ learning, including those of Roma heritage.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 247869,33 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
• PEOPLE TO PEOPLE FOUNDATION
• MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION CORPORATION
• Westgate Hill Primary School
• UNIVERSITE MONTPELLIER III PAUL VALERY