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Description：

Last week, I took a mock listening test. I have finished the listening multiple-choice questions and a writing based on the listening content. And achieved a good score.

Feeling：

I found it quite tricky at the beginning, as some words are too difficult for me. And I felt that the speaker was speaking very fast. However, it went well because I can catch some key words and understand the meaning based on the speaker's tone and key words.

Evaluation：

I was interested in finding out how take notes more quickly or do better in listening practice, because is helpful for my listening score. If I had done better, I would have got a higher score.

Analysis:

Looking back, I think the problem was that I often spend a lot of time taking notes and thus miss important content.

Conclusion:

What I learned is that notes are very important for the listening test, but you should not spend long time to take notes that led to affect your understanding of the video's meaning.

Action plan:

From now on, I will try to use simple Chinese characters, graphics and abbreviations to help me catch the key points of the video when I'm doing listening practice. And then I will learn more words related to activism and try to familiar with them.

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For my activism poster presentation, I think it went well. I started with a question, and this made the audience interested and the atmosphere was good. I spoke clearly and felt confident during the talk. One thing that could be better is to include more about the artists who inspired my project, because this could make the ideas stronger and give more context. Next time, I will prepare a short part to explain the connection between my work and their art. This will help the audience understand my message better and see the deeper meaning of my poster.

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Reflection and Feedback：

My reading score was lower than I expected, but I understand. Many words in the choice questions were unfamiliar for me, so I couldn't choose with confidence. The feedback that helped me most was about the listening Part Two writing. My teacher suggested me to add more personal opinions or specific examples from the presentation to make my ideas stronger.

I will focus on reading vocabulary, especially words related to activism and social issues. In listening, I will change my note-taking style. Before, I wrote too many full sentences, which wasted time. I will try to note down only key words.

Goals:

Listening

Practice listening materials , focusing on note-taking with keywords only.

Reading

Rising vocabulary on activism, social justice, cultural identity, language rights, and environmental issues.

Writing

Before writing, planning examples for each point.

Use Gibbs model and reflection language model help writing.

Speaking

Practice explaining difficult ideas or academic words use simple English.

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Reflection – after the mocks(L&NT + R&W)

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Reflection – after the mocks(L&NT + R&W)

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Before the mock test, I felt a bit nervous. During the test, I felt confused because it was really hard. After the test, I was not confident. I think my choice answers maybe very bad. Many words I didn't t know, even if I understand the meaning from listening or reading, I still did not make correct.

Writing was not too hard for me. But some reading content was difficult, luckily I could understand part of it, so it was easier to write about it.

Listening was very hard, especially in part two. I only understood the main meaning, but some words I don't know how to write, for example “discrimination” and “government inaction”. The time was too short and I did not have enough time to plan my ideas.

I used some reflective sentences I practiced before. I also used the correct writing structure. I think my listening score will be low, but I feel confident about the reading part.

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Art activism uses creative works to inspire people and bring attention to social problems. This essay use two examples --El Seed and Olafur Eliassonin's work that in order to shown how art can influence people’s thinking.

Eliasson linked art and social business and used light as a creative medium in order to make people focus on sustainable energy and fairness around the world. He creatived "little sun" project with engineer together. This project design and product solar-energy light goods, and it can solve electrical grid problem in poor place. Solar-energy products make users feel resourceful and powerful. I think this is a good idea because it not only helps people live better, but also makes them feel part of a global community.

EL Seed’s art not only shows his love for Arabic culture, but also sends a strong message of peace. He creates powerful images that speak to people from different backgrounds that use Arabic calligraphy and street graffiti. His work encourages respect and open between cultures around the world. I think this is a good way to use art, because it helps people think and talk about important topics, at the same time also give my project new idea.

I feel inspired by how a creative idea can lead to social action. As a design student, I learned that art can be useful, emotional, and powerful at the same time. Also, it makes me want to think more about how my own work can help solve problems in the world.

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Reading into Writing Practice - Texts and Model

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What did you learn from the photographer’s reflection?

I learned that taking a photo is not just about recording what we see, but also about how we feel and how we want others to feel.

How did it show critical thinking or awareness of impact?

She chose to focus on the mother’s face, her hands, and the children hiding their faces. She wanted people to feel something and to understand the serious problems caused by poverty. The photo is not neutral. It’s a useful message.

How does this link to our course and why do we reflect as artists/designers?

It shows how art can be used to speak about social issues. We don’t just make things look good—we also need to think about meaning and impact.

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My early idea was to create a massage space, an interactive project. On the UCA campus, I found a perfect place — the Linear Gallery.

I wanted a location that everyone walks past, but doesn’t stand out — it represents how some students are ignored in public spaces, only a few are truly seen. People can write their silenced experiences in their own languages. Others can try to understand, translate, or respond in their own languages — or even use drawings if words are hard.

This space invites reflection on language, identity, and who gets to speak or be heard.

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What did you learn from the game and class discussions?

I learned some useful skills, like checking if the source is reliable, and looking at different places to confirm the information. I also learned how to spot fake information from websites or magazines. Some big websites may also have both true and false information mixed together, so we need to be careful.

What examples stood out to you?

One example was a fake social media post （like Daily Buzz） that looked real web and urgent post, but it was made to mislead people. It showed how fake news uses emotions to trick readers.

Why is critical thinking important at university?

At university, we need to create new ideas, not just learn from others. So it is important to check information carefully. This helps us do good work that is true and original.

How can you apply these ideas to both your activism project and academic studies?

For academic work ，I’ll ensure all references come from reputable, verifiable publications; critically compare different perspectives; and explicitly address how I evaluated sources in my writing.

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International Journal of Social Pedagogy

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Inclusion in a multilingual higher education environment: a foreign student perspective

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The issue of migrant integration has been a focus of debate by the Council of Europe for many decades. In this context, knowledge of the local language(s) is increasingly recognised as a condition for the acquisition of rights in the host country. It is also a key determinant of academic success and access to higher education. At the University of Luxembourg, several study programmes require simultaneous proficiency in one, two, three or even four languages, and while this policy may have its benefits, it can also represent a challenge, especially for foreign students. In this article, we use selected survey results to examine foreign students’ perceptions of the multilingual higher education environment at the University of Luxembourg. The results show that multilingual educational policies can represent a risk for the inclusion of some foreign students. However, the findings also reveal that the process of inclusion really begins with teachers. Language teachers in particular are perceived by foreign students as resource people from whom they primarily expect linguistic, emotional and motivational support. The survey also shows that foreign students pay particular attention to teaching methods – including those designed around digital technologies, which are often well received – as well as the professional skills and attitudes of teaching staff, and that this in turn enables them to decide whether they can develop a relationship of trust and collaboration with their teacher.

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‘Language is a massive exclusionary tool’: Delaine Le Bas, the Turner prize nominee battling Romany discrimination

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A new exhibition shows how the acclaimed artist uses mixed media where words usually fail – in unravelling misconceptions about Traveller communities

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Center for Language & Technology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

I will be preparing your arrival

as a gardener tends to the garden

for the rose that shall come in spring.

-Paulo Freire, Obvious Song

1. Introduction

A common trope of higher education today portrays the academy as a global contact zone. This image engages our imagination in the worldwide exchange of ideas and human capital. The fact that linguistic specifications about contact and exchange are rarely necessary to entertain the trope points to a postlingual era, a place where struggles over matters of language are already behind us. The label post, however, is not always interchangeable with past. Quite frequently, it is suggestive of concealed power dynamics.

A few years back, I attended a small exploratory meeting with fellow-language professionals to discuss the state of multilingualism at the University of Hawaiʻi. Initially, the focus of the discussion was on the ethnic diversity of the student population, reflective of the Islands' demographics and Hawaii's location on the Pacific Rim. In the process of brainstorming, one colleague approached the topic through the angle of language access, a concept enshrined in state law and federal directives. The State of Hawaii's language access law mandates any institution or organization supported by government funds to ensure meaningful language access to public services, for instance via interpreters and translators, although "meaningful" is open for interpretation to account for a wide range of scenarios. The colleague, in our exploratory meeting, raised the question of what the concept of language access has to offer to higher education and to potential students who may not meet the required English proficiency standards for admission put forth by the university. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the conversation, which had started out in unequivocal support of multilingualism, turned into a defense of the primary role of English in American higher education: One participant found English to act as the unifying force of communication in classes and beyond; another suggested English was a quality proof for an awarded degree in the United States. Another fellow wanted us to imagine the dreaded possibility of having to offer lectures through an interpreter or having to translate exams into multiple languages.

A cautious warning was uttered that "we don't want to open Pandora's box and upset the administration with references to language access." In the end, we left the meeting with a rather detailed understanding of what any actions in favor of multilingualism on campus should not, could not, and must not do-in other words, under no circumstances should they pose a threat to the prevalent English monolingual environment at the university. That afternoon, plenty of good intentions to rise to the challenge of a more inclusive and equitable language environment around campus had taken a detour to issue reassurances that hegemonic systems of language serve an allegedly rational, and therefore legitimate purpose. Had we simply crossed our arms in the face of possible change? Had we just made the world, as we know it, a little more permanent?

Such setbacks, as disheartening they may be for educators committed to social change, are not uncommon, as practitioners and proponents of critical pedagogy readily point out. The relinquishing of control [ 1], the sudden disruption of alienating yet familiar social relations [ 2] with uncertain alternatives, and commitments to ideological purity [ 3, 4] all factor into our individual and collective repositionings and may quell the oxygen before a critical intervention sees the light of day. Paulo Freire, the late Brazilian educator, philosopher, and, at one point, secretary of education in Brazil's most diverse city, São Paulo, dedicated his life's work to social change. In his writings he argued that collective, transformative action plays a key role in a humanizing approach to education. Progressive relations, whether in or beyond the classroom, ought to nurture encounters with the most fundamental knowledge of all which "is one's certainty that while change is difficult, it is possible" [ 5] (p. 33).

In recent years, calls from applied linguists committed to social justice have amplified in the face of the ever-tightening grip that neoliberalism holds on education [ 6, 7, 8]. They remind us that, despite various inroads criticality's commitment to diversity, equity, and democracy have made, such advances all too often do not generate the groundswell necessary to a collective transformation of the world around us [ 9, 10, 11]. It has been argued that meso- and macro-level policy changes on language-related issues in education, at minimum, require the support of an active voter base and the leverage of recognized, and perhaps charismatic, experts who can articulate the cause favorably and persuasively to the public [ 12]. However, the research literature has consistently acknowledged that educators find themselves at the heart of language policy processes, as they exercise a great deal of creative agency in taking up, resisting, and transforming top-down language policies on a daily basis [ 13, 14, 15, 16].

The role students play in policy processes often goes unreported, reinforcing the division between policy agents who create, issue, and implement on the one side and passive policy subjects who merely find themselves at the receiving end. Davis & Phyak [ 17, 18] have proposed Engaged Language Policy and Practices (ELP) to overcome such divisions in praxis. They enlist critical pedagogy for a participatory ideological analysis of harmful language ideologies and practices and subsequently move members of different communities towards a re-envisioning of egalitarian, multilingual policies from the ground.

Returning to the language classroom, critical pedagogy, in fact, offers educators a scaffolding process to engage with students in transformative praxis, a cycle of action and reflection, which has gained renewed attention among critical applied linguists [ 19, 20]. However, even in critical pedagogy literature for language teaching, the action phase remains the most under-researched component of the trifold model [ 3]. This lacuna is understandable in the face of ever more brazen accountability politics in K-20 education that stifle creative experimentation and make it increasingly difficult to locate "wiggle room" for critical pedagogy [ 21] in curricula and classroom materials.

Meanwhile, a major national survey that probed attitudes among U.S. youth toward civic engagement suggests that most young people in the age range between 15 and 24 years hold a negative view of political activism, in particular when it comes to protests [ 22]. Whether the substantive involvement and leadership of youth in the wave of #blacklivesmatter protests during the summer of 2020 and in voter drives for the U.S. 2020 presidential election will change such attitudes over time remains to be seen. For language educators dedicated to a critical engagement with social justice, these insights should make it clear that many students, while they are perceptive of society's manifold shortcomings, may find it difficult to locate positions from where, as Freire [ 5] puts it, a "critical insertion within the world" (p. 36) becomes possible and transformative change achievable. Our classrooms and teacher training programs, as I will further discuss in the context of engaging preservice language teachers in language activism, can be supportive of this personal and professional journey.

In this article, I offer a reflective discussion on strategies devised and insights gained from the implementation of a critical action project with preservice language teachers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Through a course of action inspired by Freirian critical pedagogy, the group created plurilingual translations of official campus signage which, in guerrilla-style, were added to the original English. The activity was a scaffolding element for a course project in a research study on language advocacy and activism. It aimed to increase the visibility of multilingualism on campus which had been eclipsed by the university's covert language policy. As I will discuss in the following paragraphs, this policy creates a de facto English-dominant environment for a student body that is, in fact, plurilingual.

2. Diversity in Higher Education

Never before in the history of American higher education have universities had a more diverse student population. Numerous positive changes around gender, racial, and ethnic diversity are the result of court battles and voter decisions as well as shifting demographics since the 1970s [ 23]. Between 1996 and 2016 alone, American students of color who were enrolled in undergraduate degree programs increased from roughly 30 to approximately 45 percent [ 24]. Meanwhile, U.S. college campuses have greatly benefited from the forces of internationalization. The currency of English as a hypercentral language [ 25] in research and neoliberal globalization continues to attract international students in large numbers. In the same period, their enrollment jumped from 0.9 to 5.3 percent [ 26]. No single comprehensive data source currently exists that documents students' knowledge of heritage, community, and world languages across U.S. institutions of higher education. However, there are other strong indicators that American university campuses constitute linguistically diverse, intensely multilingual communities: official records document the plurilingualism in U.S. homes [ 27], the rapid increase of dual-language programs in the P-12 education system [ 28], incentives such as the Seal of Biliteracy which recognizes proficiency in two or more languages [ 4], and, last but not least, the enrollment rates of foreign students from countries in which other languages are used in everyday life [ 29].

U.S. universities have responded to the demographic changes in their student population with strategic planning efforts towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. In fact, prominent accreditation agencies have made diversity policies or variations thereof a requirement for institutional accreditation in the United States. Diversification in this context has been motivated, primarily, by two ideologies that sometimes coexist, at other times collide, or become conflated: the first perspective is grounded in a social-justice oriented liberal multiculturalism (echoing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other legal challenges to discrimination); the second perspective co-opts diversity for economic and symbolic gain, also known as "racial capitalism" [ 30]. In university policies, diversity on either side and across the ideological spectrum is first and foremost, if not exclusively concerned with racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. By contrast, campuses as multilingual places and linguistic crossroads have received insufficient attention in the language planning of U.S. higher education. By and large, American universities embrace a tacit English monolingual approach to the administration of diversity-a praxis followed also in other geographic areas of the Anglosphere [ 31, 32] who observed a similar trend in British and Australian tertiary education systems respectively).

This prompts the question of whether universities, aside from remedial English courses and accredited world language programs, engage in institutional language diversity planning to any significant extent. An apt observation about higher education in the Anglosphere concludes, "In countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia, where English is not only an academic lingua franca but also the dominant language of public communication, universities have often shown little interest in the linguistic consequences of internationalization" [ 33] (p. 232).

Track records for the strategic engagement with heritage and community languages, which often differ from the prestigious foreign languages offered at the program level, appear similarly remiss in campuses' meso- and macro-level planning efforts. Ignorance, neglect, or denial of a plurilingual U.S. academy, it could be argued, may limit, or even tarnish a university's diversity brand in domestic and overseas markets as a growing number of institutions worldwide now offer English-medium instruction with the additional benefit of immersion in the local and national languages (cf. [ 34, 35]). This is to say that, even when put under the neoliberal microscope-the gaze administrators most likely will adopt today-a greater visibility of the plurilingual potential on campuses is in the best interest of a 21st century institution of higher education.

The pursuit of transformative action towards a linguistically just and equitable university requires us to distinguish between two concepts that sometimes are conflated in everyday discourse: diversity and pluralism, which, in the present context, becomes linguistic diversity on the one hand and plurilingualism on the other. This conceptual distinction is relevant to the implementation of critical pedagogy. Certainly, greater diversity may be a goal in itself, for instance in the admission process of U.S. universities or the hiring of new personnel (keywords diversity rankings, diversity statements, and diversity hires). However, this conceptualization, whether linguistic, cultural, ethnic, economic, gendered, or ideological tends to stop at optics and statistics measured against a white, English monolingual majority culture (cf. [ 36]), sometimes referred to as the "Anglophone centre" [ 37]. It falls short on devising a compelling agenda for an ongoing engagement with plural, including plurilingual, relationships sufficiently robust to struggle through the opportunities and problems of social difference.

3. The Context

3.1. Social and Institutional Environment

A public institution established in 1907 under the Morrill land-grant system, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is subject to federal and state language policies. In the absence of an official language enshrined in the U.S. constitution-which resulted in a potent "masked policy" in favor of English [ 38]-a majority of U.S. states have adopted statutes and constitutional amendments that designate English as the official language [ 39, 40]. In Hawaiʻi, although English and Hawaiian are widely referenced as the State's two official languages, the State Constitution specifies English as the default language for government services. It continues to abate that "Hawaiian shall not be required for public acts and transactions" [ 41].

This legally established hegemony of English is folded into the Islands' history and its raciolinguistic politics [ 42, 43]. It has resulted in a struggle over decades and centuries, led by Kānaka Maoli whose Indigenous language, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, was pushed to the brink of extinction through harmful English-dominant language policies and widespread discriminatory and segregationist practices [ 44, 45, 46, 47]. Hawaiʻi is one example where the mutual reinforcement between settler colonialism and liberal multiculturalism in the education of a multiethnic population has further strengthend the dominance of English [ 48, 49, 50]. This situation continues to echo through the hallways, linguistic landscapes, and policy documents of higher education in the Islands. Relevant university records, such as executive policies and strategic plans, do not make specific reference to a language policy at large for the institution, although, over time, some provisions have been made for the Indigenous language. For instance, the institution accepts theses written in either English or Hawaiian; a few years after the guerrilla initiative took place, the university also began to issue diplomas in the English and Hawaiian languages. Yet, in its absence from most official documents, English becomes materially and ideologically elevated to the commonsensical choice in the pursuit and management of higher education and campus life.

3.2. Course and Research Design

The instructional backdrop for the multilingual intervention presented in this article emerged from an upper-level course in the university's applied linguistics program. Compressed into a six-week intensive summer term, the course curriculum set forth an ambitious agenda revolving around teaching languages in linguistically diverse, globally connected societies. Through in-class activities and collaborative projects, students examined some of the overt and covert power dynamics created and sustained through lingual practices. These exercises also aimed at opening ideological spaces for a critical (re)appraisal of multilingualism and its workings in and across different contexts.

The course was offered as an elective, i.e., those enrolled in it engaged, voluntarily, with a social justice perspective as they completed their B.A. program. Most other courses in the program were grounded in mainstream perspectives on second language acquisition and applied linguistics. As a result, the preservice language teachers had little previous exposure to envisioning applied linguistics and world language education through a critical, transformative agenda. The participants, a mix of international students and local residents of Hawaiʻi, were plurilingual, although at the beginning of the course, heritage language speakers and those who had learned another language primarily in formal educational settings, displayed a certain hesitancy towards identifying as legitimate speakers of those languages. Among the languages in which students had varying levels of proficiency were Chinese, English, Hawaiʻi Creole (locally known as Pidgin), Japanese, and Korean.

Critical pedagogy, in this scenario, not only furnished a fair share of the course content; it also informed the dialogic approach through which critical consciousness is raised about harmful practices and whereby agency among policy actors is promoted. As mentioned earlier, Davis & Phyak [ 17] refer to this conceptual and analytical process as ELP, a methodology that nurtures "growing service to one's own and other institutional communities through modeling service, advocacy and activism" (p. 92).

Each course lesson was built as an iteration of Freire's blueprint problem-posing-critical dialogue-action/reflection. The idea behind this instructional and analytical design was to (re)center all learning, throughout the course, in critical praxis. By incorporating several transformative action activities in the course, which scaffolded the final course assignment, a video-project related to language advocacy, the larger objective was to present teaching for social transformation as an achievable goal to this group of preservice language teachers. In a time that subjects educators to ever more rigorous accountability measures, this messaging appeared particularly important. In the words of Randolph and Johnson [ 8], "Ideally, a social justice minded teacher would choose a few concrete steps that feel manageable and commit to moving forward one step at a time. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something" (p. 27). Consequently, social justice, in this context, was not enacted as an abstract personal virtue or social ideal. It was envisioned as a situated practice of teaching and research into policy activism, a daily individual and collective struggle in the work of language educators, including plurilingual, preservice language teachers pursuing a degree from universities governed by an English monolingual habitus.

4. Codefining Key Terminology

The dialogic unraveling of hidden agendas in the cultural politics of education is a hallmark of critical pedagogy. Critics have challenged critical pedagogy for its grandstanding concepts such as democracy, voice, empowerment, responsible citizenship, and social justice (cf. [ 51]). They argue that this disposition, when entering a classroom, may be a factor in accounts of student resistance to critical pedagogy (cf. [ 52]). To be clear: Freire himself always objected to cognitive and ideological conquests in the name of revolutions and favored dialogical action instead. Meanwhile, he also emphasized that the egalitarian and evolutionary nature of critical dialogue must not be confused with a lack of perspective and direction: "Dialogue does not impose, does not manipulate, does not domesticate, does not 'sloganize.' This does not mean, however, that the theory of dialogical action leads nowhere; nor does it mean that the dialogical human does not have a clear idea of what she wants, or of the objectives to which she is committed" [ 53] (p. 168).

In the language classroom, democratic dialogue for transformative action can begin with shifting the definitional and cultural authority which resides in grand philosophical concepts such as justice, freedom, equality, and democracy towards a situated, vernacular, cross- or inter-cultural articulation of these constructs. It also can nurture a positive understanding of multilingual citizenship [ 54]. In a concrete example, the preservice language teachers were asked to approach the term responsibility from different cultural, and later personalized perspectives. Responsibility, in fact, offers a link between critical awareness and translating awareness into action (cf. [ 55]). Achieving clarity on reciprocity, on mutual interests and obligations is imperative for engaged, collaborative approaches to language policy and planning and, more broadly speaking, for the ethics of language activism (cf. [ 56]).

The discussion prompt anchored responsibility in the multiethnic environment of Hawaiʻi where the Indigenous Hawaiian word kuleana coexists with its English counterpart. Kuleana exceeds Western notions of 'obligation' and 'accountability' in the definition of responsibility, giving further consideration to an individual's or a community's ʻright' and privilege' to act upon matters of concern [ 57]. In this sense, kuleana emphasizes the importance of balance, as obligation can quickly become patronizing if the right and privilege of marginalized groups and individuals to take ownership of their liberation is ignored. Freire, too, highlights that responsible change through critical education embraces the dialectic relationship between authority and freedom, between limits and possibilities [ 58] (pp. 8,9).

The students were asked to share conceptualizations of responsibility in cultures familiar to them and/or develop their personal definition. Subsequently, they were asked to discuss what their definition(s) of responsibility would mean for building and sustaining pluri-/multi-lingual relationships on campus and in the communities they frequent. Below is a response supplied by one of the students in the course.

"I believe that it's my Kuleana to make our society notice the tendency of thinking one language is better than another. (...) We also could raise awareness for others' kuleana toward multilingual speakers in Hawaii by making them feel proud of their multilingualism and change stereotypes."

By moving from I towards we in the account, the student balances individual and collective responsibilities in the language-based power dynamics of Hawaiʻi. There is also an emergent sense of the need for alliance building, as the student suggests raising awareness for others' kuleana toward multilingual speakers.

Another student articulated the idea of balance by expressing concern for monolingual speakers amidst the rise of a new powerful paradigm:

"Our kuleana is not only multilingual speakers but also monolingual. Each of them may have different opinions of multilingualism. Some people may not think positive. On the other hand, some people strongly agree with it. I think listening to both opinion (sic) carefully, respecting their opinions is very important."

The resistance to subscribe to a celebratory or totalitarian perspective of multi/plurilingualism as the solution to old and new language problems is a stance that finds support in critical research literature (e.g., [ 59]). The student's call for careful listening and respect in the discussion serves as a reminder that responsible critical language educators need to work towards a mutually committed coexistence between mono- and multi-lingual people (if we accept the abstraction of monolingualism versus multi-/plurilingualism in the first place.). Freire made a similar point about transformative action when he argued that true liberation is not achieved by trading hands between the oppressor and the oppressed. "We cannot say in the process of revolution someone liberates someone else, nor yet that someone liberates himself, but rather that human beings in communion liberate each other" [ 53] (p. 133). Moving from codefinitions to committed coexistences, the activity foreshadowed the critical action phase.

5. Designing a Guerrilla Intervention

The course syllabus introduced the students to the concept of linguistic landscapes (LLs), a relatively new and flourishing subfield in applied linguistics. It is dedicated to the study of uses, receptions, varieties, and ideologies of language and other semiotic systems on display in public space [ 60, 61]. A growing body of research involving students of all ages in the documentation of languages in their local environment, combined with critical reflection on social relations, testifies to LLs' capacity to pair up grassroots participatory research with critical language education (e.g., [ 62, 63, 64]). Findings from educational environments, also known as schoolscapes [ 65, 66] offer an increasingly nuanced understanding of the material (re)presentation of languages and linguistic resources in those settings, in particular the ways that social inequalities among students are perpetuated (e.g., [ 67, 68]) alongside opportunities for a positive appraisal of multilingual pedagogies and programs [ 69]. Overall, as research in this area progresses, some authors have highlighted the agentive dynamic of LLs, speaking of linguistic landscaping as a verb (e.g., [ 70, 71]). Yet, partnerships between LL researchers and communities to facilitate a more egalitarian approach to the understanding of linguistic landscapes are still in their infancy.

In critical pedagogy, the teacher's role is to field generative themes in the learning process, i.e., topics that "grow out of student culture" and lend themselves to problem-posing critical dialogue [ 72] (p. 55). Student-run language clubs, religious groups, cafeterias, dorm housing, and other college courses were only a few of the campus reference frames on which students in this class relied heavily when they discussed reading assignments in light of personal experiences. Sometimes, it is important to remind ourselves that, on our teaching quest to transcend classroom walls for the facilitation of real-world experiences and education with a public impact [ 73, 74], we do not have to overcome distance. In this case, campus not only allowed for a critical examination of a lifeworld in which we all were invested; it also opened the possibility for students to engage in critical policy praxis, i.e., in planning together an intervention that attempted to disrupt, if only temporarily, some of the power dynamics solidified in the linguistic landscape of the university.

The prompt for the activity was three-fold: It instructed students, individually or in groups, to take pictures of signs in outdoor spaces that naturalize the status of English as the means of communication at the university. They also were asked to document any visuals in other languages. The pictures were supposed to be compiled into a PowerPoint ® presentation to be shared in class the following day. Lastly, the students were directed to index specific signage that would benefit from translation (whether into English or other languages was left open). In this form, the prompt blended three types of subject matter themes: the earlier discussed generative theme; the academic theme supplied by the syllabus, linguistic landscapes; and a topical theme, which Shor [ 72] defines as "a social question of key importance" to the matter at hand, offered by the teacher. In a more orthodox approach to critical pedagogy, the activity prompt, in particular its reference to the naturalized status of English on campus (a topical theme), could have invited a deeper democratic involvement of the preservice language teachers, allowing them to negotiate some tasks and its overall ideological orientation. Certainly, in an ideal world, all philosophical and pedagogical boxes would be carefully checked, but ideal worlds are not in need of the emancipatory work of critical pedagogy. In the world we know, it is safe to assume that educators rarely work under ideal conditions, and critical pedagogy is in dire need in such environments.

When the students returned with their photographic yield to the classroom, they were quick to share their surprise at the status of linguistic diversity in the university's material environment, which points to the subtle, yet prominent role LLs play as a support structure of language myths and dominant language ideologies [ 67]. Amidst commercially produced official signage, printed and handwritten flyers, a handful of tags and stickers, only two of the roughly eighty signs had been spotted that also displayed Hawaiian and Japanese repertoires. Of course, this was no exhaustive inventory but a reasonable cross section. One student admitted, as they reflected on how they renegotiated the task:

"I stopped taking pictures like half way through the time when I realized everything we found was in English anyways. I never noticed that or ... I didn't really think about campus in that way."

The student was correct. There was no evidence of any form of "contestation" of any aspects of the campus by way of student-made inscriptions, posters, graffiti, or vandalized installations.

Although the project did not strictly adhere to the three-phase model of Freirian critical pedagogy, the photo documentation as an incomplete inventory of campus signage checked boxes on a list of core elements: First, the compilation of campus signage became learning material created by the students themselves [ 75], allowing the group to discuss places and spaces at the university through the gaze of their peers. Second, the material served as a springboard for critical dialogue, in other words student-generated codifications for problem-posing that would carry the group forward to their guerrilla-style intervention. At this point, the preservice language teachers each selected a sign from their inventory for which they would solicit peer translations. A pooling of the students' plurilingual repertoires was next on the agenda.

This self-assessment of class-internal linguistic resources created opportunities for critical reflections. The discussion was indicative of Kubota's [ 59] call to overcome a "superficial and abstract celebration of linguistic diversity" (p. 18). For its size, the course, drawing on the students' and the teacher's language backgrounds, was rather resourceful: Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Hawaiʻi Creole, and German. Meanwhile, through the process of critical dialogue, the students also noticed that there was a gap between our course-internal language pool and those languages that are strongly present in everyday Island life, for instance, Hawaiian and Filipino. Subsequently, the discussion verged into reflections on the ethnic and socioeconomic stratification of college access, the role of ethnicity and race in choosing a major field of study, and anyone's lack of experience with learning the Indigenous language of the Islands.

6. Multilingual Translations

Up to this point, the outlook of the project may suggest a reification of what is now considered a modernist conception of languages as countable entities comprised of fixed structures [ 76, 77]. This impression would only hold true if the production process of the plurilingual signage is not taken into account. Translanguaging, a speaker's dynamic deployment of their interdependent linguistic resources [ 78, 79] is a creative communicative strategy that came natural to the plurilingual preservice language teachers-no instruction, no modeling needed. Whether semantic finesses had to be clarified, writing systems compared, or pop culture references traded, translanguaging catalyzed the translations in five different languages onto the cardboard signs. Among the signs translated were "Irrigation Recycled Water/Do not drink," "Ocean-friendly Garden/Conservation Permeability Retention." and "Please Enjoy the Chalk and Chalkboard Tables." Clearly, the students showed a concern for content, lexical, and situational complexity in their selections. At this point, the guerrilla signs were ready to be presented to the campus ( Figure 1). For several days, in one instance even for several years, the signs engaged passersby in a collective re-envisioning of the university as a linguistically diverse place where people practice plurilingual relationships.

In subsequent reflections, the group was unanimously positive about the takeaway from this activist experience. One student commented:

"It shows me that nothing is impossible. Those who want to make a difference, whether it's the teacher or the student, can be active. If you want your values and beliefs to be heard, then show everyone what they are and how it may be a benefit."

Another student made a link to the artistic products that involvement with language activism in education may inspire and found the experience could help them on their path forward:

"I learned that it is important to make something creative that many people want to take a look at. Any issues should not be ignored. They should be visible and something everyone thinks and talks about. As a teacher, I would like to assist students in doing that."

About two years later, a strategic multilingual initiative led by faculty from different departments launched a concerted effort to change the English monolingual signage around campus once again. This time, the planning committee focused exclusively on Hawaiian language translations, echoing the university's strategic plan that is committed to making the campus a Hawaiian place of learning. In public presentations, the grassroots multilingual guerrilla action has been referenced by members of the initiative's planning committee as the inspirational predecessor of this now institutionalized enterprise to transform official signage in the linguistic landscape of the campus.

Meanwhile, the students who formed the multilingual guerrilla collective have graduated and stepped into their careers. A longitudinal study on whether and how their involvement with linguistic activism may have shaped their personal and professional trajectories could advance our understandings of the medium- and long-term outcomes when college students, here in their dual role as preservice language teachers, become involved in bottom-up language planning and direct political action. However, equally important in our results-driven academic culture is that we entertain the idea that some of the impact collective transformative action has may not materialize for a long time or may not be easily traceable.

7. Leveraging Transformative Action in Language (Teacher) Education

First things first: there is no singular effective or morally superior way to pursue social justice within the power dynamics that originate or are reinforced by language and language policies. A good strategy to avoid digging ourselves into holes of paradigmatic purity and infinite critical gesturing is to create opportunities for students and future language teachers to experiment with personally meaningful, reflective, hands-on interventions. In the project presented here, which took methodological inspiration from Freirian critical pedagogy, the class came to grapple with friction-filled issues such as elite multilingualism [ 80, 81] and the limits of a politics of representation [ 82, 83]. Ideally, the preservice language teachers would further develop their encounters with these and other topics surrounding social justice, language advocacy, and grassroots policymaking at several stages in their academic program through a diversity of conceptual vocabularies, perspectives, and activist engagement. The multilingual guerrilla translations funneled a disciplinary paradigm shift (the multilingual turn) and a defining concern in critical language studies (the empowerment of marginalized speakers and communities) into a simple, accessible message for a public audience. Translating academic knowledge into the public sphere is a skill, if not a craft, that, while implicitly expected, has not been afforded structured attention in applied linguistics. This skill, however, is necessary to set in motion the forces of transformative change, whether in our schools, in the streets, or at the legislature.

Likewise, students and educators who have been involved in language advocacy and activism will have stories to share about relational solidarity, about failed and successful tactics and strategies to confront and potentially subvert marginalization and erasure perpetuated by language [ 84, 85]. Such testimonies, such life experiences, when told forward in our classrooms and communities, have the potential to amplify calls for collective action. The story of the multilingual guerrilla collective traveled across different public spaces and virtual platforms, eventually becoming woven into a new story about change, language policies, and Indigenous futures at the university. Examining these dynamics promises valuable insights into the material processes and impact levels of activist engagement with language policies [ 86]. Critics may caution that the multilingual ideological lens adopted for this project has its own shortcomings, for instance in the incomplete role the Indigenous language was afforded. Meanwhile, the fact that the language guerrillas paused to reflect on this issue and weighed it with the responsibilities they formulated for themselves and their communities, should not go unnoticed. Limited by the constraints of time and language resources, the intervention could have been dismissed in favor of a more comprehensive representation of community languages and/or by handing off responsibilities to someone else, to another group. Instead, the multilingual guerrilla signage created a material reference for others to pursue change at the university. Rather than aiming for an epistemologically coherent praxis and ideal outcomes, this account reminds us it is the footprints and stepping stones that language activism leaves behind which become part of the windy road that we travel towards social transformation.

8. Concluding Note

In his poem Obvious Song, from which I quoted at the beginning of this article, Freire reminds us revolutions have a great deal in common with stewardship for a garden. Sometimes, a trowel is needed to loosen a dense soil before new seeds can be planted. Some seeds may never sprout, while others grow too quick and collapse, as they lack the robust physique of a healthy plant. Gardeners are driven by risk and hope; they work to see the transformation from seed to plant. Importantly, gardeners know there is no harvest without rain.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the principles of the Nuremberg Code, the Belmont Report, the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Hawaiʻi.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the author upon reasonable request.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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Häusler AH. Language Guerrillas: Signing Multilingualism into Action. Education Sciences. 2021; 11(10):607. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100607

Chicago/Turabian Style

Häusler, Angela H. 2021. "Language Guerrillas: Signing Multilingualism into Action" Education Sciences 11, no. 10: 607. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100607

Häusler, A. H. (2021). Language Guerrillas: Signing Multilingualism into Action. Education Sciences, 11(10), 607. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100607

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Language Guerrillas: Signing Multilingualism into Action

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This article opens an analytical window into the creation of multilingual guerrilla translations by participants in a preservice language teacher program at a public university in the United States.

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Project Show & Tell Preparation  （ACTIVISM）

# data[].attributes.body
Description
In today’s lesson, we shared presentations about the current stage of our activism projects. I wanted to see whether my idea of creating a language space would be clear. I was a bit hesitant because I wasn’t sure if my concept was strong enough.

Evaluation & Analysis
I enjoyed explaining my project because it helped me organise my ideas. Raina suggested adding pictures so people could draw if they can’t write clearly. I found this fascinating, as it would make the space more inclusive. Overall, I think it went well because I received helpful feedback.

Outcome
I learned that using visuals can help people express themselves more easily. Now I see my project can be richer if I include different ways of communication. Next time, I will design tools for both writing and drawing. To achieve a better result, I need to prepare other art work examples to show this idea.

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Two Possible Locations for My Activist Artwork:

1. Linear Gallery
This space is open to all students and teachers. It is used for exhibitions and interactive displays. It fits artworks that need public attention and wide interaction. This location supports my message because more people can see it and join the conversation.

2. Graphic Design Studio
This space is mainly used by graphic design students. It is good for design feedback and discussion. It fits works that need a professional environment. But fewer people will see the work, so it is not the best for spreading an activist message.

Best Location: Linear Gallery

I choose Linear Gallery as the best place to show my activist work. It has walls and platforms that are good for both display and writing. Many people pass by and can stop to join the work. I will collect real messages from people who felt silenced. Visitors can read these messages, use translation tools to understand them, and write in their own language. They can also add things they wanted to say but couldn’t. This space helps people see how meaning is built—or sometimes lost.

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Today we did a great group presentation. Our topic was about “Director Fang” a 50-year-old Chinese rural woman who is also a stand-up comedian. I think everyone in our group did very well. Yiwen did the most research. Yuuka and I gave a good speech, and I created a very nice poster. Jenny explained her part with simple but clear language.

At first I found it a bit difficult, as the topic was more emotional than I expected. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, because I had to balance humour and respect in the poster. The outcome was quite good. I’m very pleased with the results because our group worked well together and our presentation was clear.

However, looking back, I think my poster had too many sentences. It didn’t look as professional as I wanted. Next time, I will try to replace some sentences with clear keywords to make it easier to read.

What I learned is that humour can be a powerful way to talk about difficult issues. Now I can see that I need to think more carefully about design and text balance in a poster. If I had given myself more time, I could have edited the poster more.

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Description & Feelings

Today I was working on my activism project, where I explored language barriers. I focused on how international students—including myself—sometimes struggle to express complex ideas clearly in English during language classes. I felt that this topic was very real and relevant to my own experience. It also made me think about how this issue affects others, such as immigrants, deaf students, and dialect speakers. Because the idea came from my life, it didn’t feel as difficult as my last project. But as I went deeper in my research, more complex questions started to appear, and that made me feel a bit stuck.

Evaluation & Analysis

I found it really fascinating because the topic connects to my own identity and daily life. I enjoyed researching case studies, especially discovering the work of Xu Bing and the artist named Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. They both explore language struggles from different angles—Xu Bing uses invented writing systems, and Cha deals with silence, fragmentation, and memory. I think I did quite well in this part. However, some of the later research became tricky because the topic of language rights in multilingual universities involves a lot of deep thinking. I had to slow down and think carefully, which was not easy. Still, I believe the outcome was quite successful, especially in helping me understand how art and activism can work together.

Outcome & Action Plan

What I discovered is that language is not only a tool but also a barrier that shapes who can speak and be heard. Looking back, I now realise that language rights are a form of human rights. In the future, I hope to interview friends with similar experiences to make the project more personal and relatable. I would also like to find student groups or school policies that address this issue. Next time, I will try to go deeper earlier and manage my research time more carefully. To make the outcome look more professional, I also need to improve how I present my visual ideas.

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Description
Last week, I studied the topic of activism. I watched the PCA video provided by the school, as well as another video about activism shown during class. While listening, I focused on the content and took notes using visuals and keywords. I noticed that this stage video was more academic and challenging, with a faster speaking speed. The in-class video was also difficult, although the teacher played some parts again at a slower pace.

Feelings
I listened and watched very carefully because I was afraid I might miss important information. However, I felt a bit anxious because my note-taking speed was slower than the video speed.

Evaluation & Analysis
I can well summarise the message and the purpose of the activism. However, when the speaker talked too fast or used unfamiliar words, it was hard for me to follow. The difficulty came from trying to understand language and content at the same time. My vocabulary is still limited, so I often had to guess word meanings from the context. But the images in the videos helped me understand better.

Conclusion & Action Plan

I learned that visual support can really help improve my listening comprehension. Next week, I will preview vocabulary related to the topic before listening. I will also try to practice writing faster notes in video content after class to improve both listening and writing speed.

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From today’s class, I learned that digital activism uses the internet to raise awareness about important issues. It's like social media campaigns. Even if people are far apart, they can ignore the geographical distance and keep in touch online.

Slacktivism means when people only show support online—like liking or sharing posts—but do not take real actions in the physical world.

I think it’s powerful because it helped solve a real problem for many people, such as pushed the government to take action.

I believe digital activism can create real change. When used well, it can spread messages quickly, connect people across the world.

In my own activist project, I could also design an interactive space where people can leave messages in different languages, helping to give a voice to those who feel silenced.

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African Artist Spotlight Series: The Evocative Universe of zanele muholi (2023) At: https://momaa.org/african-artist-spotlight-series-the-evocative-universe-of-zanele-muholi/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 27/07/2025).

Antonia Darder. (2024) Cultural hegemony, language, and the politics of forgetting: Interrogating Restrictive Language Policies. At: https://www.rizoma-freireano.org/articles-1616/cultural-hegemony-language-and-the-politics-of-forgetting-interrogating-restrictive-language-policies-antonia-darder-loyola-marymount-university?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 30/07/2025).

Angouri, J., Polezzi, L. and Wilson, R. (2019) 'Language has become a tool for social exclusion' In: The Conversation 21/02/2019 At: http://theconversation.com/language-has-become-a-tool-for-social-exclusion-112028 (Accessed 30/07/2025).

Chawla, N. A. (2023) Indian trans women bridge social gaps with public art projects. At: https://translash.org/articles/indian-trans-women-bridge-social-gaps-with-public-art-projects/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 22/07/2025).

Corine,P., Eve,L. (2025) Inclusion in a multilingual higher education environment: a foreign student perspective. At: https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ijsp/article/pubid/IJSP-14-3/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 30/07/2025b).

Durr, P. (s.d.) Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq. At: https://deaf-art.org/profiles/rubbena-aurangzeb-tariq/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 22/07/2025).

Eira Rojas (s.d.) At: https://www.eirarojas.com/xu-bings-dialogue-with-chinas-cultural-history?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 27/07/2025).

Häusler, A. H. (2021) 'Language guerrillas: Signing multilingualism into action' In: Education sciences 11 (10) p.607. At: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education

Rose,G., Austin,K. (2021) Outer Eyes, Inner Worlds: Race, Gender, Trauma & Surveillance. At: https://pressbooks.claremont.edu/soc189gspring21group1/chapter/4-analyzing-theresa-hak-kyung-chas-dictee/ (Accessed 27/07/2025d).

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Written submission template – Activism (Project Step 1)

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Theresa Hak Kyung Cha – Dictee

The book explores topics like language, silence, immigration, and female experience.

It is written in a mix of Korean, French, and English, and breaks the usual structure of a story. Cha uses pieces of history, her mother’s life to show how language and identity are broken and rebuilt.

It is very difficult and confusing to read, it shows how someone can still express their identity even when their language is “not enough” or not fully understood.

Rose Gelfand and Austin Kim. (2021) Outer Eyes, Inner Worlds: Race, Gender, Trauma & Surveillance. At: https://pressbooks.claremont.edu/soc189gspring21group1/chapter/4-analyzing-theresa-hak-kyung-chas-dictee/ (Accessed 27/07/2025d).

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Outer Eyes, Inner Worlds: Race, Gender, Trauma & Surveillance

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Analyzing Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee – Outer Eyes, Inner Worlds: Race, Gender, Trauma & Surveillance

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Multiplicities of Self and the Negotiation of Personhood Cha introduces Dictee through a sequence of western canonical figures while interjecting letters of homeland as a…

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Xu Bing – A Book from the Sky

Xu Bing’s Book from the Sky uses thousands of hand-carved characters that resemble Chinese but carry no meaning. These fake characters are printed on books, scrolls, and displayed across galleries, making the work look readable yet impossible to understand.

Xu’s work can inspire designs that express the silence or invisibility some students feel when their language isn’t understood.

Eira Rojas (s.d.) At: https://www.eirarojas.com/xu-bings-dialogue-with-chinas-cultural-history?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 27/07/2025).

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Xu Bing’s Dialogue with China’s Cultural History — Eira Rojas

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I currently live in Miami after spending a year abroad in London. New to the contemporary art market, I have combined my personal passion for art with professional expertise in sales. My career includes sales experience in diverse markets including fashion, corporate credit cards and financial services in New York City and Miami. As a team manager, I led with enthusiasm and commitment to creating authentic brand experiences for clients.

Recently, I brought these skills to my internships at Wilkinson gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA), contributing to marketing and communications projects. Adept at the behind-the-scenes work of conceptualizing and carrying out compelling, forward-facing marketing campaigns, experienced in back office management in entrepreneurial settings, and also a natural at engaging clientele, exceeding their expectations of VIP costumer service, I believe I am a unique asset to an art gallery, auction house or arts organization.

In July 2014, I completed an MA in Art History at Courtauld Institute of Art in London, graduating with Distinction. I graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Art History from Florida International University, and summa cum laude with a BA in Political Science from the University of Miami. I am fluent in Spanish and speak intermediate French.

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Zanele Muholi - Black LGBTQ Group

Zanele Muholi is a South African visual activist and photographer. Their work mainly focuses on Black identity, gender, and visibility.

Muholi uses photography and self-portraits to show the lives of Black LGBTQ people in South Africa.

Muholi supports “visual activism.” I understand this as using art to help people who were forgotten or erased in history to speak for themselves.

African Artist Spotlight Series: The Evocative Universe of zanele muholi (2023) At: https://momaa.org/african-artist-spotlight-series-the-evocative-universe-of-zanele-muholi/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 27/07/2025).

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MoMAA | Affordable Art Gallery & Lifestyle

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African Artist Spotlight Series: The Evocative Universe of Zanele Muholi

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African Artist Spotlight Series: The Evocative Universe of Zanele Muholi Uncover the deeply personal and political artwork

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01.

Philippart | Inclusion in a multilingual higher education environment: a foreign student perspective | International Journal of Social Pedagogy

Currency:
This article was wrote in March 2025. It is very new and talks about today’s university life.

Relevance:
It is about language problems in multilingual universities. It is useful for students, especially international or immigrant students.

Authority:
The writers are researchers from the University of Luxembourg. The article is published in a peer-reviewed journal (International Journal of Social Pedagogy).

Accuracy:
The article uses data from a real student survey.

Purpose:
The goal is to help universities understand students' feelings about language. It is not written to sell anything.

Students said that teachers are very important. They want teachers to support them with language and emotions. The article says universities should help all students feel safe and included.

02.

Cultural hegemony, language, and the politics of forgetting: Interrogating Restrictive Language Policies • Antonia Darder, Loyola Marymount University

Currency
The article was published around 2014–2015. It is not very recent, but the ideas are still important today, especially in education and immigrant studies.

Relevance
The article is highly relevant. It discusses how schools or governments can make people forget their language and culture through language rules.

Authority
The author, Antonia Darder, is a respected professor at Loyola Marymount University.

Accuracy
The article gives examples from real schools and education systems. It uses theories and past research to support the ideas.

Purpose
The article wants people to think about justice, language, and identity in schools.

03.

Language has become a tool for social exclusion

Currency
Published in 2019, the article is a few years old.

Relevance
The piece discusses how language can be used to exclude people—especially immigrants and non‑native speakers.

Authority
The authors are professors at recognized universities, and The Conversation is a respected platform where academics share expert insight.

Accuracy
The article uses real examples and academic viewpoints to show how language rules can exclude minorities.

Purpose
The aim is to raise awareness of language equity and inclusion in society.

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International Journal of Social Pedagogy

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Inclusion in a multilingual higher education environment: a foreign student perspective

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The issue of migrant integration has been a focus of debate by the Council of Europe for many decades. In this context, knowledge of the local language(s) is increasingly recognised as a condition for the acquisition of rights in the host country. It is also a key determinant of academic success and access to higher education. At the University of Luxembourg, several study programmes require simultaneous proficiency in one, two, three or even four languages, and while this policy may have its benefits, it can also represent a challenge, especially for foreign students. In this article, we use selected survey results to examine foreign students’ perceptions of the multilingual higher education environment at the University of Luxembourg. The results show that multilingual educational policies can represent a risk for the inclusion of some foreign students. However, the findings also reveal that the process of inclusion really begins with teachers. Language teachers in particular are perceived by foreign students as resource people from whom they primarily expect linguistic, emotional and motivational support. The survey also shows that foreign students pay particular attention to teaching methods – including those designed around digital technologies, which are often well received – as well as the professional skills and attitudes of teaching staff, and that this in turn enables them to decide whether they can develop a relationship of trust and collaboration with their teacher.

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“This article opens an analytical window into the creation of multilingual guerrilla translations by participants in a preservice language teacher program at a public university in the United States. As an intervention responding to the prevalence of English monolingual signage on this highly diverse university campus, the college students invited a public audience into a joint critical interrogation of implicit institutional language policies, as their signage offered a necessarily incomplete and intentionally makeshift alternative to the official English displays.”

👉

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph?
The main idea is that students in a language teacher program created multilingual signage as an act of activism to challenge English-only language policies in their university.

2. Which sentence is the topic sentence?
“This article opens an analytical window into the creation of multilingual guerrilla translations by participants in a preservice language teacher program at a public university in the United States.”

3. Do all the other sentences support the topic sentence?
Yes. The rest of the paragraph explains why and how the students created the signage and main idea.

👉

1. What transition/linking words are used?

“As an intervention…”

“…as their signage offered…”

2. Do the ideas flow clearly from one to the next? Explain briefly.
Yes. The paragraph flows from the introduction of the project to its purpose and then to the outcome. Clear logical relationships help readers understand the purpose of students and teachers doing this.

👉

1. What is one thing this writer did well?
The writer clear logical relationships help readers understand the purpose of students and teachers doing this.

2. What is one thing you can try in your next piece of writing?
I can try using academic linking words like “as an intervention” or “in response to…” to make my ideas more logically connected.

Häusler, A. H. (2021) 'Language guerrillas: Signing multilingualism into action' In: Education sciences 11 (10) p.607. At: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education

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Will is for things we decide now.

Going to is more for things we already plan before.

eg.

I’m tired, I will sleep. / I‘ll help you.

It’s going to rain. / Are you going to the cinema tomorrow night?

Sometimes I say “I’m going to help you” , but it’s better to say “I will help you.” But sometimes I can't tell whether the subject has a strong sense of "planning" or not.

👉 3 Predictions for Final Week:

1. I think everyone will feel a bit nervous, when they start presentation.

2. I think the room will be very quiet when people start presenting.

3. Everyone will learn something new from each other’s topics.

👉 3 Intentions for the Rest of the Project:

1. I’m going to write my project step 1 in this week.

2. I'm going to discuss with my teacher about the reference artists for my project.

3. I’m going to make my Padlet more beautiful with images and layout.

👉 3 Offers to Help My Classmates:

1. I will help if you want to do a practice run for your talk.

2. I will give you some advice for your Padlet, such as you can use simple and clear titles.

3. I will share some words and phrases that I think are useful.

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 Banksy’s Sirens of the Lambs - Paragraph 2

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 Banksy’s Sirens of the Lambs - Paragraph 2

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Banksy employed sound, movement, and strong visual contrast in his mobile installation that aim is deliver a powerful critique of how the food industry treats animals. He put many stuffed toy animals (like pigs, sheep, and cows) into a truck that emitted disturbing and sorrowful animal sounds, make people feel uncomfortable and afraid. Banksy wanted to show that animals are often invisible in our food system. In supermarkets, they are just "products". But before that, they were real, living creatures. According to Cronin (2023), Banksy’s work makes people think about their own role in the food system. This is a kind of public art activism. It uses art in public place to send a strong message and also help people reflect on animal rights and their daily choices.

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Who was Sam Cooke?
Sam Cooke was a famous Black American singer. He was known as the “King of Soul”. He made soul, gospel, and pop music.

His songs were emotional and had strong messages. The song talks about hope and change for Black people. It became a powerful song during the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1964, Sam Cooke was shot and killed in a hotel. His death was sudden and many people felt sad and shocked.（Cantwell, 2015）

What was the Civil Rights Movement in the USA?

It was a movement where Black Americans fought for equal rights and freedom from racism.

They wanted to stop segregation, get equal education, jobs, and the right to vote. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. It was a new law that said people must be treated equally, no matter their race. (Wikipedia contributors, 2025)

Feeling

I really like this song. The melody is beautiful, and I can feel real emotions in his voice. It makes me feel the struggle, the passion, and also sadness of the time.

For me, the message is: don’t give up. He isn't going to take it lying down — he will fight until the end. That gives people hope and power.

This song was very important in the Civil Rights Movement because it helped people stay strong and feel united. Even today, the message is still important, because racism and unfair treatment still exist.

I also heard from Otonia about a protest song called “Tomo yo” that connected to the Japanese youth movement. It’s about factional struggle. Although they failed, their spirit still continues, just like Sam Cooke’s message.

Cantwell, D. (2015) 'The unlikely story of “A Change Is Gonna Come”' In: New Yorker (New York, N.Y.: 1925) 17/03/2015 At: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-unlikely-story-of-a-change-is-gonna-come (Accessed 24/07/2025).

Wikipedia contributors (2025) History of civil rights in the United States. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_civil_rights_in_the_United_States&oldid=1297027879

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a change is gonna come，sam cooke，《a change is gonna come》下载，《a change is gonna come》歌词，《a change is

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歌曲名《A Change Is Gonna Come》，由 Sam Cooke 演唱，收录于《Keep Movin' On》专辑中。《A Change Is Gonna Come》下载，《A Change Is Gonna Come》在线试听，更多相关歌曲推荐尽在网易云音乐

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 ‘How can art be active?’-Guerrilla Girls

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 ‘How can art be active?’-Guerrilla Girls

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The Guerrilla Girls aim to expose and challenge gender and racial inequality in the art world.

They focus on the serious underrepresentation of women and minority artists in major museums, galleries, and exhibitions. For example, the members wear gorilla masks and use the names of historical female artists as aliases.

This symbolizes the "conscience" of the art world, shifts attention to the issue instead of personal identity, and also protects their privacy while keeping a sense of mystery as a group.

They use large posters placed in streets, exhibitions, and public spaces, combined with eye-catching text and statistics. Their work is humorous but sharp, revealing unfairness in institutions. It also encourages the public to think and talk about gender, race, and power. This helps art institutions and society reflect on themselves and make changes.

One example is the poster Do women have to be naked...?, which shows that there are many more naked women in the Met Museum than artworks by women artists.

They also compare the number of female nudes to the number of artworks by women to show gender bias in exhibitions.

Coley,G (2025) Guerrilla Girls: “Making Trouble” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. At: https://bmoreart.com/2025/07/guerrilla-girls-making-trouble-at-the-national-museum-of-women-in-the-arts.html?utm_source (Accessed 22/07/2025).

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" Multilingualism, the Right to Expression and the Voices of the Silent "

AI helped me focus my topic on the issue of expression rights faced by marginalized groups in terms of language and identity.

By combining Belonging & Identity, Resource Access Gap, and Refugee & Diaspora, I decided to explore the mental and social situation of students who are in a “marginal” position.

I started to think:

Language oppression = cultural identity oppression.
Language is not only a tool for communication, but also a key part of self-identity and cultural belonging. When someone’s language is ignored or rejected, it often means their culture is being pushed aside or marginalized.

Language marginalization among students:
For example, do international students, immigrant students, deaf/mute students, or students who speak local dialects have the same right to speak and be heard in school? Is their voice noticed?

So, I would like to use this topic for my activism project:
👉 Topic summary: Language marginalization and expression rights – focusing on cultural identity and the right to be heard among student groups.

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I think activism is a very powerful and creative topic. Like protest art, music, posters, social media, and even fashion. But I didn’t know art could be so important in activism before.

At the same time, I feel this topic is a bit difficult for me. I don’t have much experience with activism. In my country, some topics are sensitive, and people don’t talk about them openly. It was during the process of making my portfolio that I began to understand it. I learned about different global issues — like climate change, refugee rights, or gender equality.

In web, I saw Refugee Nation flag that is an orange and black flag made by artists.
It stands for life jackets and people escaping by sea. It was made for the Refugee Olympic Team. The goal is to make more people care about refugees who have no country.

These artworks really moved me — they are full of emotion, and sometimes even more powerful than words. Studying this topic makes me feel more connected to the world.

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Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq

She is a Deaf artist and art therapist. She is also a British Pakistani Muslim woman. Her identity is very unique — she calls herself “a minority within a minority.” She uses visual art to talk about Deaf culture, identity, and the experience of being ignored in a hearing world.

Rubbena believes that language is not just for speaking, but also for connecting with culture. Through her work, she helps people understand how important it is to respect different ways of communication. Her art gives a voice to those who are often not heard.

My project also focuses on “the voices of the silent” and the right to express. Her work inspires me to think about how to use images to speak for those who are not heard by the mainstream language system, and give space for marginalized people to express themselves.

Durr, P. (s.d.) Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq. At: https://deaf-art.org/profiles/rubbena-aurangzeb-tariq/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 22/07/2025).

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Artist Website Rubbena is a London-based artist and facilitator whose work concerns culture, deaf identity and, as a deaf woman of Pakistani heritage, the multi-faceted nature of being a ‘minority within a minority’
Through painting and installations, she creates visual representations

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Aravani Art Project is a public art group from India.

It was started to support and give voice to the transgender community, especially trans women. They paint large murals in public places to show their culture, identity, and stories. These colorful artworks help people understand the transgender community better and reduce social fear and hate. The project uses art as a powerful tool to make invisible people visible and heard in society.

Their work inspires me to think about how visual art can help share messages from marginalized groups in a strong and creative way.

Chawla, N. A. (2023) Indian trans women bridge social gaps with public art projects. At: https://translash.org/articles/indian-trans-women-bridge-social-gaps-with-public-art-projects/?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 22/07/2025).

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Indian Trans Women Bridge Gaps with Public Art

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Discover how Indian trans women create acceptance through public art, sparking meaningful dialogue between cis and trans communities.