Realising participatory communication in third-sector organisations working with refugee and migrant groups in Glasgow

This research will investigate communicative practices at a linguistically diverse refugee-support organisation in Glasgow, one of the main UK areas accommodating people seeking asylum. The study emerges from sociolinguistic research indicating that people communicate by fluidly drawing on all their meaning-making resources, a practice known as "translanguaging". Education research shows that enabling bilingual/multilingual students to draw on their full linguistic repertoires can be transformative, enabling greater participation and language learning. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify ways in which the benefits of translanguaging can be realised in the context of
support services accessed by linguistic minorities (speakers of languages other than English). It will investigate how communication occurs between linguistically diverse participants at an organisation, and how the organisation responds to linguistic difference in ways that affect people's participation in services. The research will thereby address key debates within sociolinguistics on the effects of translanguaging, which are frequently described in emancipatory terms but depend on the participants and settings under investigation. For this reason, a linguistic ethnography will be conducted to allow for close, data-driven analysis of communication. Findings from the research will
inform understanding of how complex communicative repertoires are used in linguistically diverse settings. Furthermore, the findings will have the potential to improve the accessibility of services for refugees and other migrants, indicating ways that translanguaging can enable speakers of other languages to more fully participate and bring their expertise to the co-production and leadership of services.