Building Inclusive Language Classroom Spaces through Multilingual Writing Practices for Newly-Arrived Students in Norway

Abstract

This paper presents an action research project that aimed to increase opportunities for multilingual literacy engagement and identity investment for newly-arrived immigrant students in Norway. A language teacher and a researcher jointly developed a cross-curricular, multilingual module focusing on identity texts written in three languages: English, Norwegian, and each student's home language. Fourteen adolescent students speaking 15 different home languages participated. To assess the effectiveness of the multilingual pedagogical practices, the data collected included a language use questionnaire, student reflection logs, students’ identity texts, lesson plans, and the teacher's notes and reflections. The results suggest that explicit emphasis on including all languages in students’ linguistic repertories can help build inclusive classroom spaces and foster learners’ multilingual identities.