Translation Of Cultural Language for the inclusion of migrants

For several years now, the inclusion of migrant people has become a priority across the European Union. Authorities recognize that besides first emergency care, livelihood care, labor support, and language education, cultural education plays a crucial role in the fight against the marginalization of migrant people and their effective social inclusion within the host society. In fact, cultural education has assumed a starring role in EU policies. In a report about Immigration in Spain (2019), the Spanish Economic and Social Council counted cultural integration as a basic goal for the national migrant integration strategy. Based on this awareness, we identified a need to offer migrant communities education on cultural elements specific to the hosting countries and regions while addressing their language knowledge. The subsequent needs identified were the creation of teaching materials, and the support of professionals (language teachers, cultural and linguistic mediators, social workers, educators, NGO operators) in teaching culture. ‘TOCL – Translation Of Cultural Language for the inclusion of migrants’ suggests a solution that lies in making host countries’ culture accessible to migrants through language teaching.

The implementation of the TOCL project was driven by the vision of making culture accessible to migrant people in order to facilitate their inclusion and participation in the local community and delve into the hosting culture. Through the innovative 'Translating Culture' (TC) approach, TOCL has sought to improve cultural education for migrants, making it more accessible and engaging. The project aimed to empower professionals working with migrant communities by providing them with a methodology, training and materials, thereby enhancing their capacity to deliver effective cultural education. TOCL has focused on developing a robust training methodology and practical translated materials in multiple languages to support professionals in their educational endeavors. By utilizing diverse cultural materials such as literature, song lyrics, and recipes, the project has achieved to create enriching cultural education experiences that complement existing language classes and facilitate migrants' integration into the local community.

The activities implemented in the project focused on equipping professionals with training paths and practical educational tools so as to make cultural education feasible and effective. The first activity was a research effort to map and understand the current state of cultural teaching in the consortium countries. This research was used to identify foundational elements for the creation of the Translating Culture (TC) methodology. This methodology was delivered in the form of training for teachers and professionals working with migrant people. They contributed to testing the methodology by implementing it in their language courses during piloting activities. Finally, the TC methodology has been integrated into an interactive platform designed to serve as a training environment that both teachers and students can use to assess the cultural knowledge of the students. This interactive platform also gives teachers access to a repository of cultural materials that they can use in their classes to explain and illustrate key cultural concepts.

The key results and outputs of our project are the following: The “Exploring Translating Culture” report, which presents and compares the national findings in each of the consortium countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia) about the existing programs and materials in terms of culture teaching, the cultural aspects to be approached, and the current needs professionals identify. The abstract of this report has been translated to Spanish, Italian, Greek and Slovenian. The "Translating Culture" (TOCL) Methodology developed an innovative approach to use translation concepts as a way to teach culture, and to use written materials within language courses, extracting cultural references tailored to specific national backgrounds. The Methodology is available in English, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Slovenian. An e-learning platform (https://tocl.eu/#platform), which includes the Training Culture Methodology, a repository of cultural materials from all the consortium countries, and a variety of interactive cultural tests, from which learners can assess their progress. This platform has a section for each of the partnership countries, and we are open to develop sections on other countries if we see opportunities.