In this paper we will analyze the ways in which community arts and sociolinguists achieve their common goals in an action research project. Our research shows that sociolinguistically informed art sessions can create a space where the institutional monolingual norm is overcome, and the children embrace their role as language experts.
This paper is based on dialogue between a sociolinguist and a community artist in a 3-year action research project. The project was carried out by linguists, community artists, and a journalist, in cooperation with teachers and pupils in an elementary school in East Helsinki. The general aims of the project are to make the local linguistic diversity visible, and encourage participants to display their knowledge about and affiliation to minority languages that often go unnoticed in institutional spaces, as well as to develop language awareness and encourage (trans)languaging practices. This is achieved by organizing community art sessions informed by applied sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. To mention a few sessions, we have prepared artistic representations of the Cyrillic or Arabic alphabet, and drawn “linguistic super heroes” that were turned into murals. In this paper we will analyze the ways in which community arts and sociolinguists achieve their common goals in the project. The data consist of photos, video and audio recordings of the sessions, as well as field notes. The core of community arts lies in appreciating the potential of individuals and communities. The community artist’s expertise on art supports the process that puts this potential in action. These principals include linguistic potential: an individual is treated as an expert of their own language, and a channel is created for them to display their expertise. Our research shows that sociolinguistically informed art sessions can create a space where the institutional monolingual norm is overcome, and the children embrace their role as language experts. Artistic process offers a natural way of shared action despite the participants’ diverse backgrounds. The process activates the participants to gather information about different languages and strengthen their linguistic awareness. Art has the power to show that all kinds of linguistic and cultural resources can create something valuable.
