Webinar Series "Diversity Matters"

Die Webinar-Reihe "Diversity Matters", die von der Forschungsgruppe Migrations and Diversities von Eurac Research veranstaltet wird."Diversity Matters" untersucht die Auswirkungen von Migration, Diversität und Mobilität auf zunehmend vielfältige territoriale Realitäten. In den interdisziplinären Webinare teilen Expertinnen ihr Fachwissen mit einem Fachpublikum aus Forschung und Praxis.

Upcoming webinar:

Networking individual repertoires and learning skills in the plurilingual primary school. A conversation with Emanuela Atz, Cecilia Varcasia and Marta Guarda 30 May 2023, 11am CET Please register here by 29 May 2023: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/eb300703-9ffb-4fa7-8a4a-b25c97c5d3ef@92513267-03e3-401a-80d4-c58ed6674e3b

Abstract: This contribution presents some results of a three-year project that is taking place in primary school on the enhancement of language skills and language reflection. The project is inspired by the Éveil aux langues approach of CARAP (Candelier et al. 2012) and the studies and experiments of Andorno and Sordella (Andorno & Sordella 2018, 2020, Andorno 2020). The data presented here were collected in the school year 2021-22 in two second and one third primary school classes in the province of Bolzano, characterized by a high incidence of migration. Through the red thread of storytelling, the activities involved the languages of schooling, Italian and German, but also family languages such as Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, and languages not spoken by any of the children, such as Romanian, Albanian, Dutch and Ladin. The story was divided into eight sequences and the key words of the narrative were identified on a lexical level. The frequent and repeated manipulation of known and unfamiliar words in several languages were related to the morphology of the noun: gender and number/plural. The manipulation activities in pairs and groups served to increase the learners' metalinguistic competence (Andorno & Sordella 2018, Jessner & Allgäuer-Hackl 2022) and to enrich the related vocabulary. Moreover, the gradualness in a non-rigid multilingual sequencing allowed the learners to connect knowledge and elements (also acquired in informal contexts) into an increasingly broader and coherent network. We will examine and discuss some pupils’ metalinguistic and metacognitive comments that show how this approach was fostering learners and contributed to enhancing the importance of all languages spoken in class.

The webinar will take place in English. Questions from the audience will be welcome in Italian and German, too.

Previous webinars:

"The Spiralling of the Securitization of Migration" A conversation with Valeria Bello, Sarah Leonard and Andrea Carlà, 3 May 2023.

"Linguistic diversity in secondary and tertiary educational contexts: exploring students’ attitudes and perceptions" A conversation with Anja Binanzer, Fiona Dalziel and Marta Guarda, 22 March

"Rights: on paper, in practice, not practiced" A conversation with Victoria Finn, Ramesh Ganohariti and Verena Wisthaler, 28 February 2023.

"Diversity and inclusion in the labor market" A conversation with Marzia Bona, Claudia Lintner, Maura Di Mauro and Johanna Mitterhofer, Monday, 23 January.

"Enti subnazionali e immigrazione oltre le politiche sull'integrazione" Una conversazione con Davide Strazzari, Roberta Medda-Windischer, Andrea Carlà e Mattia Zeba, 28 April 2022.

"Intersectionality and Minority Studies" A conversation with Bilgin Ayata, Angéla Kóczé, Raphaële Xenidis and Verena Wisthaler, 29 March 2022.

"Students and scholars at risk as new migrants in Europe: facilitating access to higher education" A conversation with Fiona Dalziel and Francesca Helm (University of Padova) and Marta Guarda (Eurac Research), 21 February 2022.

"Health, Diversity and Covid-19" A conversation with Rohini Mathur (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Orkan Okan (Technical University of Munich) and Katharina Crepaz (Eurac Research), 26 January 2022.

"Access to and Exclusion from Housing over Time: Migrants’ Experiences in Rural Areas" A conversation with Tobias Weidinger, Stefan Kordel and Marzia Bona (Eurac Research), 18 November 2021.

"Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development" A conversation with Domenica Farinella, Michele Nori and Marzia Bona (Eurac Research), 21 Oct 2021.

"Indigenous Urbanization and Mobility: identity, resilience and rights" A conversation with Philipp Horn (University of Sheffield), Claire Wright (Queens University Belfast) and Alexandra Tomaselli (Eurac Research), 22 Sep 2021.

**Info and contact: johanna.mitterhofer@eurac.edu marta.guarda@eurac.edu