Exploring Migrant Students’ Attitudes towards Their Multilingual Identities through Language Portraits

Antonia Stavrakaki and Peggy Manoli ()
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Antonia Stavrakaki: School of Humanities, Hellenic Open University, 26335 Patra, Greece
Peggy Manoli: School of Humanities, Hellenic Open University, 26335 Patra, Greece

Societies, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: The increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in contemporary societies inevitably affects the field of education by challenging teachers to cope with the coexistence of different languages in the classroom. The present research was intended to investigate migrant children’s attitudes towards languages through language portraits in order to help educators obtain insights into student multilingual repertoires and experiences. To this end, by adopting a qualitative approach, the study used linguistic portraits and semi-structured interviews to collect the data. The participants of the study were 10 primary school children whose ages ranged from 8 to 12 with a migrant background who have been living in Greece, particularly on the island of Crete. Using the method of content analysis, the findings of the study indicated that migrant children made specific color choices based on flags, emotions, and world experience, and they put colors on parts of the body according to their functions, which signified students’ multilingual identities and experiences. Moreover, the findings highlighted multilingual students’ need to negotiate their multiple linguistic repertoires, make choices between the languages, prioritize them, rank them, or give priority to the second language, Greek, without, however, abandoning their first languages. The present study aspires to contribute to the relevant research and draws implications for the implementation of multilingual education and culturally sustaining pedagogies.

Keywords: multilingualism; refugee/migrant identities; language portraits; multilingual education; linguistic and cultural diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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