Critical Connections: Multilingual Digital Storytelling Project

By Jim Anderson, 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 different countries including Australia, Brazil, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Taiwan and the UK. 
• It draws on the affordances of digital media and develops skills in multimodal digital composition. 
• It harnesses the power of the arts in their different forms (drama, visual art, music, dance as well as film-making) to stimulate the imagination and enable creative self-expression. 
• It connects students, wherever they are, with a global audience affirming bilingual/multilingual identities and giving young people a voice. 
• It takes learning beyond the classroom drawing on resources in the home and community as well as online and this offers an empowering context for the heritage language learner in particular. 
• Pedagogically, it represents a powerful example of (Technology Enhanced) Project Based Language Learning (TEPBLL), an approach which has proved highly effective in meeting the needs of heritage language learners (see: M. Carreira, Project-based Learning forHeritage Language Learners).

Examples of digital stories

Over the years heritage language learners involved in the Critical Connections project have produced an array of impressive work much of which can be viewed on the project website. The following three multilingual digital stories created for the Our Planet Festival 2022 demonstrate creative ways in which heritage languages are integrated into the project across a range of educational contexts.

1. The Extinction Crisis of Kintaro’s Friend – The Future of Bears in Japan 
Shirasu Bunko UK, Japanese Reading Group (Japanese and English)

Today’s Japan. The film shows how bears, which were once regarded as gentle mountain creatures, are now causing problems in the human habitat and where the problems are coming from. The students used digital tools such as movies and slides as well as traditional skills of origami and calligraphy to present their ideas. The film was produced remotely throughout the whole process without students’ gathering due to the corvid restrictions and the conditions that our Saturday school faces.

To watch the story on Vimeo click here 

2. Solutions, Herz-Jesu Institut Mühlbach, Italy (German, German dialect, Italian, Latin, Spanish and English) 

Our film is about a boy who wants to see his future. He goes into the future to see that everything is polluted. Then a professor makes some calculations, and they go back into the future but this time everything is nice. At the end of the film, we all talk about different ways to help the environment. If we all chip in a little, the world will be better for the new generation.

To watch the story on Vimeo click here 

3. Our Dying Planet, Secondary College of Languages, Australia (Arabic, Turkish and English)

The film focuses on the idea of sustainability. In the film a group of concerned students realise that if they were to continue with their current attitude, that the future generations will not have any resources left. In the short video they try to bring awareness to the importance of saving water and recycling. Thus, the aim of the film is to raise awareness of the environmental issues prevalent within our current world.

To watch the story on Vimeo click here

Process and reflections

Whilst many striking films have been produced through the project, it should be remembered that it is the PROCESS that is most important for students’ learning. This is a guided process based on development from pre-production to production and post-production culminating in a film festival which takes place both at Goldsmiths and online. 

It derives its energy from the way student agency, collaboration and creativity are established as core principles. As a form of serious play it requires space to make connections, to experiment and make mistakes, to build communication across languages and modes, to redraft and review. It validates all varieties of language and affirms multifaceted identities. Whilst projects develop differently in different contexts it has been found to inspire both students and teachers internationally.

 

Critical Connections Handbook for Teachers

As the project has progressed we have worked with teachers to develop guidance on planning and creating multilingual digital stories. Our Critical Connections Handbook for Teachers is free to download here. We hope it will be helpful to all teachers who would like to introduce this approach in their schools!

If you would like to learn more about the project, please visit the project website or contact the project Directors: Prof Vicky Macleroy, Dr Yu-Chiao Chung, Dr Judith Rifeser, Dr Jim Anderson.