Languages - Research
Key London Issues > The Languages of London > Research:
Here we present short reviews of 15 recent or current pieces of work. We hope you will find them useful, and would like to extend a big thank you to all the contributors who have made their work available in this way.
- TATE Britain: Ideas Factory Action Research Project
Sophia Diamantopoulou - IOE, University of London
This project aimed to explore the impact that art has on children’s literacy development, placing a particular focuson EAL children. It ran from September 2005 – June 2006 in collaboration with two Newham and Greenwich primary schools. The project involved Year 3 and 4 pupils and a wide range of practitioners:artists, writers, poets, gallery educators, classroom teachers and a researcher.
- Negotiating Confucian Tradition and Group Discussion: A Study in Cultural Discords Faced by Korean Students
Inyoung Yoo - Ioe, University of London
This ongoing PhD study has been conducted with the Korean postgraduate engineering students currently studying at Imperial College in London and their lecturers. Questionnaires and interviews were used as research tools.
- The Raja’s Big Ears: the Journey of a Story across Cultures
Raymonde Sneddon and Kanta Patel University of East Londonn
The story of The Raja’s Big Ears, as we encountered it, has been on a long journey. In the course of a study of the language use and literacy practices of Gujerati-speaking Muslim children in North London, children aged eleven were recorded retelling the tale both in English (in school) and in Gujerati (at home). The children had been given copies of the Gujerati/English version of the text to read at home. Building on Kanta Patel’s experience of the story as a child, the study explores how the story travelled: from Gujerat, in India, where it is a well-known folk tale, via a skilled story-teller, to London, where it was transformed through contact with the multicultural world of London schoolchildren.
- Developing bilingual learning strategies in mainstream and community contexts
Charmian Kenner, Eve Gregory and Mahera Ruby - Goldsmiths, University of London
This is an action research project based in two primary schools in Tower Hamlets. It examines how second and third generation British Bangladeshi children learn bilingually in after-school community language classes and investigates the benefits that can be gained if children use Sylheti/Bengali alongside English in the mainstream classroom. Year 2, 4 and 6 children were visited at their after-school Bengali classes to find out how they learned language, literacy and mathematics in their mother tongue. With the help of community class teachers, primary teachers and bilingual assistants, the research team then devised bilingual activities that children could do in mainstream school to link with the curriculum. Activities were videorecorded and analysed to determine the strategies involved.
- Children’s views on identity and language
Ana Souza, Goldsmiths, University of London
This study was conducted between 1999 and 2006. It focused on mixed-heritage, children attending a Brazilian Portuguese community language school in London. The children, who had Brazilian mothers and fathers of other nationalities, were interviewed and observed in their community school.
- Magda and Albana: Learning to Read with Dual Language Books
Raymonde Sneddon University of East London
T his project explored the ways in which dual language books can be used in England to support bilingual pupils in school, in a context in which the languages of the home rarely feature on the curriculum. In the context of a project in which an education authority provided dual language books to primary schools, the article describes how two women used Albanian/English story books to teach their six year old daughters to read in Albanian. The women and their daughters were observed and recorded reading together over four sessions. The study reports on how the mothers and their children used both texts to transfer skills from one language to another, to negotiate meaning in both languages and to compare reading strategies.
- Bilingualism in Mainstream Education: What do Headteachers Make of It?
Dina Mehmedbegovic - IoE, University of London
This research conducted in 2003 aimed to gain an insight into the values that key professionals in mainstream schooling attach to bilingualism and the influence attitudes have on practice in their schools. It is based on in-depth interviews with four London heads, running schools with 30–70 percent bilingual pupils, and relevant document analysis.
- Intergenerational learning between children and grandparents in East London
Charmian Kenner, Eve Gregory, John Jessssel, Mahera Ruby and Tahera Arju Goldsmiths, University of London
This research provides an insight in the mutual learning between three- to six-year-old childrenattending a Tower Hamlets primary school and their grandparents. Families were: of Bangladeshi origin Sylheti/Bengali-speaking and UK monolingual English-speaking families (some of mixed race). Grandparents answered a questionnaire about what kind of activities they did with their grandchildren, and were interviewed about the learning that took place. Videorecordings were made of grandparents and children doing activities together, from cookery and gardening to reading poetry and working on the computer.
- Investigating Multilingualism in Complementary Schools in Four Communities
Angela Creese (PI), Arvind Bhatt, Adrian BlackleDGe, Shahela Hamid, Vally Lytra, Peter Martin, Li Wei, Chao-Jung Wu, Dilek Yagcioglu-Ali - Birmingham University; University of East London; Birkbeck College and King’s College, University of London
This project is the first comparative investigation of complementary schools in Britain in four ethno-linguistic groups. One of the four ethno-linguistic groups is Turkish in London. The other three are Bangladeshi, Chinese and Gujarati in Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester. In the period of March 2006 to August 2007 the researchers observed and recorded students and teachers for ten weeks in two schools in each of the four communities. Two children aged 9–13 from each school were selected for more detailed observation and audio-recording.
- What Do Students Think about Community Schools?: Researching Greek Community Schools in London
Charalampia Sidiropoulou - IoE, University of London
There are 96 Greek community schools in London attended by 9.500 children. This is an ongoing study in two ofthem. Students aged 9–17 filled in questionnaires including item scales and open ended questions, followed by semi-structured group interviews.
- Conversations around the Literacy Hour in a Multilingual London Primary School
Catherine Wallace - IoE, University of London
This research, conducted against the background of the UK National Literacy Strategy, focused on the literacy practices of four bilingual Year Five children in a London Primary School. Conversations around the Literacy Hour took place with the researcher present over the course of one school year. The study involved weekly observationsof Literacy Hour classes, followed by conversations with the four children, the boys and girls separately, for about half an hour on each occasion.
- Becoming Biliterate: London six-year-olds learning different writing systems
Charmian Kenner, Gunther Kressss, Hayat Al-Khatib, Gwen Kwok, Roy Kam, and Kuan-Chun Tsai ioe and Goldsmiths, University of London
Six bilingual six-year-olds growing up in London, learning more than one writing system simultaneously, were observed over a period of one year. Children were visited at home, community language school and primary school. Data was collected through observation, interviews, and peer teaching sessions in which children taught classmates about writing in Chinese, Arabic or Spanish.
- The Role of Community Groups and Community Language Schools in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)
Leena Helavaara Robertson - Middlesex University
Following the Race Relations Amendment Act (2002) this Multiverse and TDA (Training and Development Agency) funded research project examined the ways in which good relationships between institutions, such as teacher training universities, and different communities can be promoted. The project included an innovative and unique approach of linking final year primary ITE students (as one part of their teacher training) with community language schools (CLS) in London. The participating students visited CLS at least twice and were interviewed before and after their visits. They also kept observation notes of their visits and completed tasks.
- Children learning to read in Urdu, Turkish and French using dual language books
Raymonde Sneddon - University of East London
This is an ongoing pilot study which begun in July 2006. Two mothers teaching their children, four- to seven-years-old, to read in Urdu were observed and recorded over four or five sessions. Three children, aged seven and eight, were observed over three sessions helping each other to read and retell stories in Turkish. A French/English/Lingala speaker aged nine was recorded teaching herself to read in French.
- Language and Literacy: Children’s Experiences in Multilingual Environments
Raymonde Sneddon - University of East London
The study investigates the language use and literacy practices of 36 children (aged three, seven and 11) from a Gujerati and Urdu-speaking Muslim community in north-east London. These experiences are explored in the children’s three-generation families, in the community and in school through interviews, recordings and observations.
If you would like some more information on any of these articles you can click here to download LERU's London Digest publication: Multilingual Learners in London (PDF Format : Size: 3.1 Mb) or you can click here to contact a member of the LERU directly.
- The World in One City
This report investigates the language skills of London's residents and why there is the need to make the most of their talent. Please download this report below and head to Chapter 4 / Page 15 which is entitled "Language skills in a sample of the adult population"
Click here to download this report : The World in One City - April 2008 (PDF Format) .