Developing a co-languaging pedagogy: the role of a multilingual digital learning tool called Binogi/ Studi

As a consequence of the surge of influx of refugees originating from all parts of the world, schools are experiencing a rise in the numbers of students who do not master the school language. Although some progress has been made in recent years, issues that prevent an acceptable educational continuum still persist. Amongst them is the high risk of segregation, inherent to the fact that the integration into mainstream education is delayed by the requirement to learn the school language. One particularly powerful tool to facilitate this integration process is to maximize the literacy engagement in student’s own language. This strategy is supported by a host of studies. However, policy makers and school boards may be reluctant to embrace this starting point, as they do not possess the necessary tools to support plurilingual development and as teachers cannot engage with all the languages of the students. In this paper, we report on the implementation of a novel web-based multilingual learning tool called Studi/Binogi in two schools in Toronto (Canada). The innovation of this tool resides in its ability to deliver academic content in different languages. By giving students the option to choose between home and school languages it makes academic content accessible to all students, thereby facilitating integration of different language levels. Our research aimed to understand the impact of the online platform on the students learning experience and how teachers integrated the tool in their lessons. In addition, our findings suggest that this tool may also support teachers in discovering how the languages of the students can be integrated in functional ways to the benefit of the students learning. This co-languaging pedagogy (Lewis, Jones & Baker, 2012) may represent an important contribution to addressing the challenge of accelerating the academic catch up phase of language learners.