Category: ESOL

The CIALL-supported Island Voices presence at NATECLA 2025 has paid immediate dividends, in the form of a new Farsi version of the “Multilingual Memories: Birmingham 1984” film looking back 40 years at the Industrial Language Training Service.

Evidently it struck a chord with conference participant Parnaz Pourshakibaee, who showed immediate interest in the theme, and responded with enthusiasm to the invitation to make a new version in her own language.

She also provided a full transcript of her voiceover narration, so enabling us to create another first – a Farsi Clilstore unit, incorporating full text with the video embedded so you can listen and read at the same time!

Wordlinked Clilstore transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12522

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Currently affiliated with South and City College Birmingham, Parnaz teaches across multiple levels and begins a new role in September as an Assessor and Trainer of Foundation Studies at the same institution. With a background in TESOL and TEFL, and experience in translation and bilingual communication while working with Médecins Sans Frontières between 2010 and 2013, she values multilingualism and the importance of learners’ mother languages in effective cross-cultural communication and language learning.

Parnaz writes:

“My introduction to the CIALL project commenced with my attendance at the NATECLA conference 2025, where I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Sardul Dhesi and Harmesh Manghra. Through their kind introduction, I became acquainted with the CIALL project and their colleague Gordon Wells, who encouraged me to translate the introductory clip of ‘Multilingual Memories, Birmingham 1984’ into Farsi.

These multilingual colleagues shared their language memories, reflecting on and exploring how their mother tongue, alongside formal English, has shaped their identity and teaching practice, and why the preservation of heritage languages is so important. Their reflections on multilingualism and their nuanced understanding of students from diverse linguistic backgrounds resonated deeply with me, given my commitment as an EFL/ESL teacher and my experience as a bilingual Farsi-English speaker. Consequently, I was inspired to want to share these insights with the Persian-speaking community.

Through my small contribution in translating and narrating the film in Farsi, I reflected more than ever on the role of other languages in a multicultural society.

I believe that the ‘Island Voices’ project is more than merely an educational resource; it represents an environment in which multilingualism is celebrated as a valuable asset. The ‘Extensions’ section, and particularly the Birmingham film for an English urban context, illustrates how linguistic and cultural diversity is an integral part of life throughout the country, with valuable support from the tireless and ongoing efforts of linguists and other dedicated organizations.”

For our part, we’re very grateful for Parnaz’s informed and skilful engagement with our multilingual mission, and the addition of yet another language to our Other Tongues portfolio. We now have the Birmingham film in 15 different languages, with 8 female voices and 7 male. And we’re always interested in new contributions!