Glossary

• Code-switching is a not a rare and strange linguistic phenomenon. On the contrary, it is common within bilingual communities (but more common in informal exchanges such as communication between families and friends).

• Code-switching is not a sign of disorder in bilingual communities and it is not connected with inadequate linguistic skills but it has many communicative functions.

• Billinguals do not code-switch out of “pure laziness” and code-switching is never an incomprehensible mixture of languages-not for bilinguals themselves!

The society, the public, a social group

It is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage. A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists such as the business community; the community of scholars http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/community

A community is a social unit of any size that shares common values. Although embodied or face-to-face communities are usually small, larger or more extended communities such as a national community, international community and virtual community are also studied http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

Complementary schools are schools that function after everyday schools and often teach the language of origin of the students attending it….

Critical pedagogy questions and interrogates the complex relationship between teaching and learning, as well as between teachers and learners. In this context, it relates to how students can be empowered by having their identities, languages and cultures recognised in their learning. Their multilingual stories become validated and valued across a range of contexts and educators and learners explore alternative modes of teaching, learning and imagining.

GIROUX, H. A. 2013. On Critical Pedagogy, New York and London, Bloomsbury Academic.