Critical Connections: Multilingual Digital Storytelling Project
By Jim Anderso n, Goldsmiths University of London, with schools and universities across the world Community based heritage language schools often experience difficulty in engaging students in studying the HL, especially once they go beyond primary age. There may be a feeling that the language does not connect with their lived experience or with real world issues. The link to culture may feel artificial and unchanging. There may be little opportunity for students to invest themselves emotionally in their learning or to feel the excitement of genuine meaning-making. Addressing the needs of HL learners The international Critical Connections project, launched in 2012, seeks to address the above issue by involving young people in creating short bi/multi-lingual digital stories around issues which matter to them such as the environment. It is innovative in bringing together learners of heritage as well as foreign languages in community based as well as mainstream settings in differ