How we worked with children to produce heritage language resources
The Children’s Language Book Making Project – engaging young native speakers who are speaking ‘little to nothing’ of their mother tongues.
With the funding of Creative Multilingualism, last summer, I coordinated a Children’s Language Book Project which was designed in response to concerns regarding the passing on of heritage languages from one generation to another in linguistic minority communities, in this case Chimwini (also known as ‘Bravanese’), Dari, Pashto and Somali.
The idea for the project came about when I visited the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association (SBWA) seeking help to find resources for a project I was doing at my school in East London which encourages maintaining and building pupils’ linguistic repertoires through activities which foster plurilingual practices. One student in the group spoke Chimwini, a language I had not heard of before, so we were on the hunt for some resources that she could use in her plurilingual practice.
I met with the directors of the SBWA and they told me about the language and the history of the speakers. They gave me some resources such as poetry and a dictionary that could be used with the students. The SBWA were very interested in my project, particularly the element of intergenerational transmission. In conversation about the principles of the project, which set out to find ways in which mainstream school can play a role in the development and maintenance of heritage languages, concerns emerged about the children in the Brawanese community who were not learning the language.
40 students attended the first project meeting in which we discussed what we would like to get out of the project. When it came to sharing stories and gauging the group’s proficiency in Chimwini it became clear that not all of the students in the room spoke the language and that, as the SBWA welcomes students from all language backgrounds, Pashto, Dari and Somali were also represented in the group. We decided to extend the project to all of the languages in the room and plan for language books for speakers and learners of the languages.
We created the books using the vast array of resources we had at our fingertips: adult members of the community who joined the sessions (one of whom had not written in her heritage language for 13 years), the internet (although Somali is the only language in the group that is on Google Translate), vocabulary lists, songs, poems, prayers, traditions and even a Chimwini dictionary that was actually written by the grandfather of some of the younger members of the group!
The next step was deciding what type of book each group wanted to make and organising the content of the book. One group did a parallel text about the day in the life of an Afghani boy, another group did an A-Z of Pashto and objects associated with the language, another group did a fruit and vegetables book for children, another group created a Somali counting book using objects associated with the language, and there was also an A-Z book of everyday Chimwini objects.
We perfected our designs and decided which illustrations would make the final cut! And we designed front covers, blurbs and contents pages! The final stage of the project was to prepare for the book launch at the SBWA Annual Event and present the project to family and friends.
The books are now being sent to local primary schools so that students can see our work and enjoy multilingual books in the classroom that represent the languages spoken in their local area.
Interview with Asma, Director of SBWA
What was the idea behind the project?
The aim of this project was to help the Chimwini language, a minority language, not to become an endangered language and thus aimed to continue the legacy of the language in order to restore and maintain the cultural identity of the Bravanese people.
Why are projects like this important?
Projects like this are important as it will enable the preservation of minority languages/communities. Such projects should be funded and protected in the most professional methods. Languages begin to decline in use when they are not continued to be spoken whether they are native or non-native.
What were the strengths?
The project was innovative in its kind as it explored and addressed languages in terms of engaging young native speakers who are speaking little to nothing of their mother tongues. The young people became interested and engaged in the whole process of carrying out the project. It set an example for future projects, especially as a successful one.
What were the challenges?
To start the actual process from the beginning was not so simple because it was something new for the children when they were writing the book. They have never ever been given the opportunity to design a professional book in such a short period of time but they eventually have managed to complete it. The main challenges for the group was that they were working on the book once a week after school from 5-7pm, just two hours a week.
What did the students get out of it?
Students gained an interest in the history and knowledge of their cultures and language vocabulary. It gave them an avenue to explore what they wouldn’t otherwise be able to learn outside of this project. The students learned to get parental support to help them out with basic information for example on how to say and write numbers to 100 in Chimwini!
What did the process tell us about the students’ proficiency and attitudes?
The students realised what they have been missing in their own mother tongue language and started to appreciate the project by knowing that they are increasing their knowledge of their native language.
Sophie Liggins is a secondary school Spanish and EAL teacher in London and a PhD student at the University of Essex. Her PhD research focuses on heritage language maintenance in adolescent students and the shape that plurilingualism takes in mainstream educational settings.