Creative (Multilingual) Placemaking in the Classroom: Enhancing Plurilingual Children's Language Awareness and Belonging

This study investigates the implications of engaging plurilingual children in creative multilingual placemaking practices on their language awareness and sense of belonging. Children participated in carefully designed class activities, engaging in tasks focused on reflecting on their own identities, the community's, and the neighbourhood's, alongside continuous research conversations. This process led to children creating multilingual placemaking design initiatives to propose changes in their schoolscape to make their school linguistically more inclusive. Through these activities, children reported that (1) they became more aware of the presence of different languages and cultures around them and (2) they became more aware of the power of language(s) in creating belonging; they argued that (3) this allowed them to acknowledge the fluidity of meanings between their L1 and L2; and they explained that (4) the project supported them in cultivating curiosity about languages and language learning. Overall, the findings suggest that creating a space for children to analyze the geographical, sociological, and linguistic aspects of their environment would impact their learning, social awareness, critical thinking, and transdisciplinary knowledge. Cette & eacute;tude porte sur les pratiques d'appropriation cr & eacute;ative de l'espace chez les enfants plurilingues, et & agrave; leurs retomb & eacute;es sur leur conscience linguistique et leur sentiment d'appartenance. Les enfants ont pris part & agrave; des activit & eacute;s en classe soigneusement planifi & eacute;es, qui visaient & agrave; les amener & agrave; r & eacute;fl & eacute;chir & agrave; leurs identit & eacute;s, et & agrave; celles de leur communaut & eacute; et de leur quartier, et ils ont particip & eacute; & agrave; des conversations continues ax & eacute;es sur le projet de recherche. Ils ont ainsi cr & eacute;& eacute; diverses initiatives d'appropriation multilingue de l'espace, proposant des changements & agrave; leur environnement scolaire pour le rendre plus inclusif sur le plan linguistique. Au fil de ces activit & eacute;s, les enfants se sont dit 1) plus conscients de la pr & eacute;sence de diff & eacute;rentes langues et cultures autour d'eux et 2) plus conscients du pouvoir de la langue pour la cr & eacute;ation d'un sentiment d'appartenance; ils ont dit que 3) cela leur permettait de comprendre la fluidit & eacute; du sens entre leur L1 et leur L2, et que 4) le projet les avait amen & eacute;s & agrave; cultiver leur curiosit & eacute; par rapport aux langues et & agrave; l'apprentissage d'une langue. Dans l'ensemble, l'& eacute;tude porte & agrave; croire que la cr & eacute;ation d'un espace permettant aux enfants d'analyser les aspects g & eacute;ographiques, sociologiques et linguistiques de leur environnement aurait des retomb & eacute;es sur leur apprentissage, leur conscience sociale, leur pens & eacute;e critique et leurs connaissances transdisciplinaires.