Possible ways of translanguaging at the school’s micro-level. The aftermath of a translanguaging project of introducing non-standardised ways of speaking to school for Roma bilingual children

Abstract

The present study encounters the long-term process of a linguistic ethnographic research. The research took place in a primary school in Hungary, with students being Hungarian-Romani speaking bilingual Roma children and Hungarian as the language of instruction. The research, initiated in 2016, developed an educational approach in the school based on a translanguaging stance through multiple sub-projects and a three-year Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Program. The applied translanguaging approach involved the Roma children’s home ways of speaking into the children’s learning. Translanguaging was first introduced at the macro level of the school with the cooperation of the school’s management, participant researchers, teachers, parents, teacher trainees and university students. The Erasmus program terminated in 2021. This study details the process of how, following the completion of this macro-level project, translanguaging can be sustained at the micro level within the school. It also discusses the difficulties and challenges faced by teachers when implementing translanguaging at the micro level, after macro-level planning and strategy have concluded.

Keywords

• translanguaging
• macro and micro level
• roma children
• bilingual education