RESEARCH SEMINAR

Malika Pedley, PhD student, Bordeaux Montaigne University (France)

Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a multilingual poetry competition run in primary and secondary schools in Scotland by SCILT, Scotland’s national centre for languages,which showcases the variety of languages spoken at home or learnt in school by pupils. Within my PhD project, which focuses on multilingualism in the United Kingdom, Mother Tongue Other Tongue plays a central role as it has become my fieldwork.

Through my doctorate research, I want to show that languages other than English can be considered in a more inclusive approach, regardless of language categories. Along this line, Mother Tongue Other Tongue welcomes all languages in the competition and celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity. My main objective conducting this fieldwork investigation was to witness how children’s attitudes and representations evolved during this creative writing project regarding their own language practices, language learning and multilingualism as a whole. As well as analysing 2015-2016 bilingual entries, I have interviewed children participating in the competition from four different schools. I would like to take the opportunity of this seminar to discuss my PhD project, methods and some of my initial results. Being based in France, my literature review is very much influenced by French scholars. Researching the fields of applied linguistics and didactics (didactique des langues), I have noticed that it is very rare for links to be made between French and British/Scottish researchers on multilingualism and education. I would also like this presentation to be an opportunity to share ideas and references beyond academic and national borders.