Multilingualism and multimodality in communication with refugees: Experiences of local service providers and language teachers in European countries

A new book chapter based on REBUILD project results has been published entitle: Multilingualism and Multimodality in Communication with Refugees. Experiences of Local Service Providers and Language Teachers in European Countries. The book is entitled “Multilingualism, translation and language teaching” and has been published on 04/05/2021, by Tirant Lo Blanch.

The referred book chapter offers an overview of multilingual and multimodal strategies adopted to facilitate communication between refugees and LSPs in three European countries, namely Greece, Italy, and Spain.

The results of three intertwined research actions carried out in the framework of the Rebuild project, namely 53 interviews with social workers, two classroom observations, and a focus group with language teachers, have shed light on the current challenges in the context of communication with refugees, as well as ways in which to overcome them. Such challenges derive mainly from the high degree of heterogeneity among refugees (in terms of native languages spoken, culture of origin, education, or literacy levels) and the shortage of resources on the part of most entities devoted to integration, the latter repeatedly requesting to implement ICT tools to support more beneficiaries, reach wider audiences, and accelerate some of their internal processes.