The Search for Truth: A Psychological Analysis of Bulgarian Children’s Adaptation to the Portuguese Language Environment with a Special Focus on Translanguaging

Bojana Matelova

doi:10.22159/ijoe.2023v11i1.46971

Authors

Bojana Matelova University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9465-6534

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22159/ijoe.2023v11i1.46971

Keywords:

Bulgarian migrants, linguistics, translanguaging, observations

Abstract

There is an increasing migration from Bulgaria to Brazil. The group of migrants is very homogenous since they arrive with the same aim of working and saving money for a better future at home in Bulgaria. The statistics reveal that the migrants often arrive with families, including children, who must attend compulsory schools in Brazil. According to Brazilian law, all children are entitled to education in the Portuguese language. This creates many problems for newly arrived families who have limited knowledge of Portuguese. This paper investigates Bulgarian children’s meta-language and translanguaging approaches during official schooling and extracurricular activities. The theoretical framework is grounded in the theories about translanguaging and second language development of newly arrived children. The participants of the study are 55 Bulgarian children who were observed in various environments: at schools, at home and during extracurricular activities with peers. The main findings paint an interesting pattern of the various ways to convey the meaning through translanguaging depending on the contextual situation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adams, P. (1972). Language in thinking: Selected readings. Penguin.

Askeland, L. (2006). Children and youth in adoption, orphanages, and foster care. Greenwood Press.

Battle, D. E. (2002). Communication disorders in multicultural populations (3rd ed). Butterworth-Heinemann.

Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2014). Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy (1st ed). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7856-6_1

Bourne, K., & Watt, D. C. (1983). British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers From the Foreign Office Confidential Print. Australian Library Journal, 32(4), 24–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.1983.10755479

Bulgarian National Statistical Institute. (2022). Demographic and social statistics. https://www.nsi.bg/en/content/766/statistical-data

Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton.

Conteh, J. (2018). Translanguaging. ELT Journal, 72(4), 445–447. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccy034

Cook, V. J. (1985). Chomsky’s universal grammar and second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 6(1), 2–18. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/6.1.2

Cook, V., & Li, W. (2016). The Cambridge handbook of linguistic multi-competence. Cambridge university press.

De Fina, A., Ikizoglu, D., & Wegner, J. (2017). Diversity and super-diversity. Sociocultural linguistic perspectives. Georgetown University Press.

Dyker, D. A., & Radošević, S. (1999). Innovation and structural change in post-socialist countries. Kluwer Academic.

Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. P. (1996). Composing ethnography: Alternative forms of qualitative writing. Alta Mira Press.

Fedorov, V. V., Müller, W. G., & Vuchkov, I. K. (1992). Model-oriented data-analysis: A survey of recent methods. Physica Verlag.

Fenton-Smith, B., Humphreys, B., P., & Walkinshaw, I. (2017). English medium instruction in higher education in Asia-pacific: From policy to pedagogy (1st ed). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51976-0

Gilmore, P., Glatthorn, A. A., & Research for Better Schools, Inc. (1982). Children in and out of school: Ethnography and education. Center for Applied Linguistics.

Hadley, C. (2010). Anthropological perspectives on migration and health. Wiley.

Harman, R. (2018). Bilingual learners and social equity: Critical approaches to systemic functional linguistics (1st ed). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60953-9

Jeanes, E., & Huzzard, T. (2014). Critical management research. Reflections from the field. SAGE.

Karimova, O. (2001). Ранно развитие на речта: Българският поглед [Early Development of Speech: The Bulgarian perspective] (1st ed). Universal Book Ltd.

Knobel, M., Kalman, J., & Lankshear, C. (2020). Data analysis, interpretation, and theory in literacy studies research. Myers Education Press, LLC.

Lähdesmäki, T., Koskinen-Koivisto, E., Čeginskas, V. L. A., & Koistinen, A.-K. (2020). Challenges and solutions in ethnographic research. Routledge.

Leistyna, P., Woodrum, A., & Sherblom, S. A. (1996). Breaking free: The transformative power of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review.

Macedo, D. P. (2019). Decolonizing foreign language education: The misteaching of English and other colonial languages. Routledge.

McChesney, R. W., Wood, E. M., & Foster, J. B. (1998). The political economy of the global communication revolution. Monthly Review Press.

Mennuti, R. B., Freeman, A., & Christner, R. W. (2006). Cognitive-behavioral interventions in educational settings. Routledge.

Miletta, A., & Miletta, M. M. (2008). Classroom conversations: A collection of classics for parents and teachers. The new press.

Monaghan, L. F., & Goodman, J. E. (2007). A cultural approach to interpersonal communication. Blackwell Publishing.

Prochazka, Z. (1962). The labor force of Bulgaria. United States Department of Commerce.

Samuda, R. J. (1998). Advances in cross-cultural assessment. Sage Publications.

Schmidt, O., Mazaeva, K., & Lertermann, I. (2003). Skribent. Лингвистика и Социална Адаптация [Linguistics and Social Adaptation] (1st ed).

Smith, F. (1973). Psycholinguistics and reading. Holt.

Vogel, S., & García, O. (2017). Translanguaging. In G. Noblit & L. (Eds.), Oxford research encyclopedia of education (pp. 1–21). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.181

Walford, G., & Massey, A. (1998). Children learning in context. JAI press.

Wright, W. E., Boun, S., & García, O. (2015). The Handbook of bilingual and multilingual education (1st ed). Wiley-Blackwell.

Zamolodcikova, Z. (2004). Невро лингвистично развитие на речта [Neuro Linguistic Speech Development] (1st ed). Linguo Press.

Zigler, E., Singer, D. G., & Bishop-Josef, S. J. (Eds.) (2004). Children’s play: The roots of reading (pp. Zero–Three). National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families.