TEMARI/ተማሪ: Teaching and Learning in English-Medium Schools: Adapting Everyday Language Resources for Instruction using Translanguaging Theory and Principles.

This research project will investigate the capacity of translanguaging resources to improve students’ learning outcomes after transitioning to English-medium schools in Ethiopia. The shift to learning in English occurs in all African countries in upper primary or secondary school, despite the majority of students having little or no previous understanding of English. While politically and economically expedient, this change in the language of instruction exacerbates structural inequalities in education, including socio-economic and gender inequalities. The research team will work with students and teachers in a proof-of-concept study to co-design and evaluate a set of pedagogical tools and principles within a translanguaging framework (the process whereby multilingual speakers use their languages as an integrated communication system). This will build on the everyday communicative resources of teachers and students including language, gesture, visual and material culture. The project will provide an empirical proof-of-concept of the value of translanguaging in English-medium schools.

Professor Karen Wells, Birkbeck, University of London; Professor Getnet Tadele, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia