Euralex 2026: directions in lexicography in the global south: multilingual resources (pt 2)

In my last post, I gave a bit of background to the ASHDRA awards and explained that in my Euralex session, Directions in lexicography in the Global South, I identified three trends to emerge from the research proposals we've received since the awards started in 2019. In this post, I'll talk a bit about the first and most widespread of those.

In some Global South countries, scores or even hundreds of languages are spoken, forming complex and often multi-layered linguistic patchworks. Let me jump straight in with an illustration from an ASHDRA project.

As in many ASHDRA projects, Agus wanted to target children in an under-developed area, in this case in West Borneo, who speak a local, minority language at home (Ketapang). They also use a more widely spoken regional language (Pontianak) and once they start school are taught largely through the medium of the country's official national language, Bahasa Indonesia. Then, they start to learn English … through the medium of their third language (L3). Coming from a largely monolingual background, just the idea of that blows my mind!

We see again and again in ASHDRA proposals how children from such communities who are often already at a social and economic disadvantage, then face this further linguistic disadvantage. In some contexts, this is compounded by the fact that schoolteachers may come from outside the community and may not share the children's home language.

In recent years, there's been a growing acknowledgement that using learners' L1 in the English language classroom, sometimes known as 'translanguaging', aids learning. In some countries, such as in India, this practice has become part of national curriculum guidelines. However, in many contexts, there is little training for teachers on how to implement such an approach and few resources to support them.

This is where the development of multilingual dictionary-style resources comes in, bringing together the learners' home language, for which there may be no existing references resources, as well as sometimes an L2 or even an L3, plus English.

In common with most ASHDRA projects, Agus wasn't aiming to create a full, comprehensive dictionary. Instead, his research was an exploratory project, creating and trialling a pilot resource. He used photographs from the linguistic landscape around the area, such as signs outside shops or food stalls, as the basis for a series of dictionary-style entries with translations of a key word into all four languages, along with example sentences and other information. These were then piloted in a school.

The reactions from both students and teachers were very positive, with students excited about being able to bring their home language into their English class and engaged by the images that connected what they were learning to their local environment and experiences. While limited in scope, the materials crucially provided an opportunity for teachers to introduce the concept of 'translanguaging' to their classroom.

The challenges: 

While the theme of such multilingual lexicographic resources aimed at bridging the gap between minority local languages and English has come out strongly among ASHDRA proposals, a number of challenges have emerged from those projects which have been completed.

Oral traditions: In some projects, the issue has emerged that some local languages are largely or entirely part of an oral tradition. This raises challenges for how or whether to include written forms of L1 vocabulary in a resource. Should words be transcribed in another script? Is this practical, useful or culturally appropriate? Images can be helpful in conveying many ideas but can be limited and potentially ambiguous. Audio recordings can be potentially useful but depend on relevant technology being accessible and affordable for the users.

Accessibility: I mentioned in my introductory post that the category of inclusive resources is wider than it first appears among ASHDRA applications and this is exactly what I meant. Accessibility and inclusion become key factors for resources aimed at many low-resource contexts, whether that’s to do with adapting to oral language traditions or other practical considerations. In her project targeted at South African schoolchildren, for instance, Lorna Morris developed a digital resource, but was aware that in many of her target areas, internet connections were expensive or patchy, so the resource needed to be preloaded onto devices, and what’s more, those devices needed to be battery operated to cope with frequent power outages.

Training: The need for training and support to use any new resource has also come up in several projects. In one Indian-based project, the research team introduced multilingual glossaries to teachers who seemed enthusiastic about how they could use the L1 translations in class. However, in observing actual lessons, researchers noticed that the teachers only highlighted and read out the English translations and examples, perhaps out of habit. So, although the L1 equivalents were available for the learners on the page, they weren't encouraged to actively engage with them or to actively use their home language in the class.

The number of proposals we’ve received for research into these kinds of contexts seems to indicate a clear demand for resources to plug these gaps. However, from the research projects ASHDRA’s already been involved with, we’ve seen that the answers aren’t always as straightforward as they might seem. Attention to the specifics of the local context, needs, restrictions, culture and expectations are all vital. That means a thorough and often flexible and creative approach to research, working closely with students, teachers and communities, as well as plenty of training and support.

 

If you'd like to read more about any of the completed ASHDRA projects, there are full research reports plus single-page summaries of each project available to download from the Hornby Trust website - just scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the completed projects.