Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told: On language, making, and multilingual storytelling
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In an increasingly diverse world, the ability to honour and celebrate linguistic variety has never been more important. That’s precisely the aim of Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told — a project I lead at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the Maker{Futures} team. This project invites schools and libraries to reimagine storytelling through the lens of multilingualism and creative, maker-centred engagement, and holds exciting opportunities for heritage language education. A fresh take on storytelling: Language meets making At the heart of Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told is the belief that storytelling doesn't need to be confined to a single language or traditional format, and that children should be encouraged to bring their home/heritage languages into public spaces. The project brings multilingual families into libraries and schools, empowering them to tell stories using all their languages — t hrough playful, hands-on making and digital, sto...