Welcoming Languages: Including a Refugee Language in Scottish Education

“欢迎语言：苏格兰教育中的难民语言”项目（以下简称：欢迎语言）探讨了将难民语言纳入苏格兰教育的可能性，作为实现“融合为双向过程”承诺的具体方式，这是新苏格兰难民融合战略的核心（苏格兰政府，2018年）。欢迎语言项目探讨了作为AHRC-GCRF资助的研究项目“语言的影响”的结果而出现的不可预见的影响途径。跨境合作，设计，开发和推广“在线巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语课程”（以下简称：OPAC），该课程于2018年完成。OPAC项目的主要成果是通过格拉斯哥大学（教育学院）和加沙伊斯兰大学（阿拉伯语中心）之间的合作，为初学者共同设计和共同开发了巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语在线课程。根据现有的最新数字，该课程吸引了30多名学习者参加OAfP课程，并导致阿拉伯语中心其他课程的学习者人数增加。欢迎语言项目以这些活动为基础，将通过为苏格兰小学教育工作者（教师、校长、秘书人员、课堂助理）提供免费的在线阿拉伯语课程，吸引苏格兰的新用户社区参与，这些课程是根据这一背景的具体需要量身定制的。通过向教育工作者教授阿拉伯语-苏格兰最多难民使用的语言-欢迎语言项目扩大了最初的OPAC项目的好处，并努力实现重大的社会、文化和政策影响。它将导致政策建议，如何在苏格兰教育中使用的语言可以扩大到包括难民所说的语言，使用阿拉伯语作为“概念证明”。欢迎语言项目所解决的问题是，苏格兰政策强调融合是一个双向过程，而难民和移民仍然被要求进行单向的语言工作，他们被期望学习英语，而接收社会却没有相应的调整。难民带来的语言，如阿拉伯语，在苏格兰语言教育中没有地位，由于缺乏官方承认，难民的“语言资本”仍然被低估，在很大程度上被忽视。“欢迎语言”项目加强了OPAC项目的影响，重点是实现以下目标：将阿拉伯语作为一种难民语言纳入苏格兰教育，以此作为一种双向融合进程。它力求实现这一目标，首先将教育作为融合的一个重要方面，并追求以下目标：㈠使《开放式保护计划》适应苏格兰教育工作者的需要; ㈡向苏格兰的12名教育工作者在线教授阿拉伯语; ㈢在苏格兰教育中引入阿拉伯语;以及（iv）关于在苏格兰教育中引入难民语言的可能性和方法的政策指导方针草案。

The project 'Welcoming Languages: Refugee Languages in Scottish Education' (henceforth: Welcoming Languages) explores the potential for inclusion of a refugee language in Scottish education, as a concrete way to enact the promise of "integration as a two-way process" that is at the core of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy (Scottish Government, 2018). The Welcoming Languages project explores unforeseen pathways to impact that emerged as the result of the AHRC-GCRF funded research project: 'The Impact of language. Collaborating across borders to the design, development and promotion of an Online Palestinian Arabic Course' (henceforth: OPAC) which was completed in 2018. The main output of the OPAC project was the Online Arabic from Palestine (OAfP) language course for beginners, co-designed and co-developed through a collaboration between the University of Glasgow (School of Education) and the Islamic University of Gaza (Arabic Center). According to the latest available figures, the course has attracted over 30 learners taking the OAfP course and has led to an increase in the number of learners also for other courses available at the Arabic Center. The Welcoming Languages project builds on the activities and will engage new user communities in Scotland though free online Arabic lessons to Scottish primary educators (teachers, head-teachers, secretarial staff, classroom assistants) tailored to the specific needs of this context. By teaching educators Arabic - the language spoken by the largest number of refugees in Scotland - the Welcoming Languages projects widens the benefits of the original OPAC project and works to achieve significant social, cultural and policy impact. It will lead to policy recommendations on ways in which the languages spoken in Scottish education can be expanded to include languages spoken by refugees, using Arabic as 'proof of concept'. The problem the Welcoming Languages project addresses is that of a disconnect between the emphasis on integration as a two-way process in Scottish policy and the one-way linguistic work that is still asked of refugees and migrants, who are expected to learn English with no equivalent adjustments on the part of the receiving society. The languages refugees bring with them, such as Arabic, do not have a place in Scottish language education and, lacking official recognition, refugees' 'linguistic capital' remains undervalued and largely disregarded. The Welcoming Languages project enhances the impact of the OPAC project by focussing on the following aim: to include Arabic as a refugee language in Scottish education as a way to enact integration as a two-way process. It seeks to achieve this aim starting from education as a crucial context of integration and by pursuing the following objectives: (i) adapt the OAfP to the needs of Scottish educators; (ii) Teach Arabic online to 12 educators in Scotland; (iii) Introduce Arabic in the Scottish educational context; and (iv) draft policy guidelines on the potential of, and approaches to, the introduction of a refugee language in Scottish education.