Translanguaging, a strategic tool for teaching and learning in the German classrooms: The case of multilingual Cameroonian immigrants.

Translanguaging is a pedagogical program where two or more languages are simultaneously used in the classroom. One language is used to teach and instruct the students, but the student’s output is sometimes allowed to be in their L1/Mother tongue. This practice gives the students” a time to shine”. Students can be encouraged to communicate and make meaning by drawing on and intermingling linguistic features from the different languages in their repertoire.Translanguaging helps students and teachers fully understand the communicative repertoires they bring to the learning arena. It also helps the teacher identify how to draw on those repertoires for successful educational practices for the students concerned. This thesis, therefore, recommends translanguaging in the educational process of immigrants. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”- Nelson Mandela.

About the lecture series

In view of the current political situation, especially the war in Ukraine and the protest movement in Iran, the lecture series “Research at Risk!” is an invitation to discuss the challenges of research in media, theater and cultural studies in crises and war regions beyond national and cultural boundaries. We have invited experts from various disciplinary and geo-political situations/positions to present their research on topics related to the wars and crises in our world and how this affects their research.

The lectures focus on research practices in war and crises as well as on scientific/activist work on war and crises. Specifically, our speakers address the questions of how research, education and study can be carried out under hostile conditions and what influence war, political oppression, diaspora and other crisis-related impacts have on the production of knowledge. Which forms of knowledge and cultures receive credit in the academic world, and which are excluded? Where do scientists and students place the significance of the media when faced with these circumstances?

The event is a continuation of an initiative from within German Media Studies to support scholars at risk affected by the ongoing Russian invasion on Ukraine. We want to use the attention currently being raised by the war in Ukraine to give stage to researchers from various zones of war and risk across Europe and worldwide, including Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Turkey, Kamerun, and Afghanistan.

The lecture series “Research at Risk” is a cooperation project of German media scholars and supported by: the CRC 1187 “Media of Cooperation”, the CRC 1472 “Transformationen des Populären“ and the Media Studies department at the University of Siegen, the Graduiertenkolleg 2132 “Das Dokumentarische” and the Faculty for Philology at Ruhr University Bochum, and the European Media Studies at the University Flensburg.

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