Translanguaging in an English First Additional Language context in the further education and training phase
Abstract
English is used as a medium of teaching and learning in most South African public schools although most of these learners are English First Additional Language (EFAL) speakers. To counter this anxiety, translanguaging as a multilingual intervention becomes handy. Translanguaging is about engaging in multilingual discourse practices; it is an approach to bilingualism that is centred not on languages, as has been often the case but on the practices of bilinguals that are readily observable. This study aimed at exploring how grade 11 EFAL learners feel/behave when the teacher orders them to abandon their home languages the moment they enter the classroom and how to promote one’s home language in the classroom.This qualitative study involved 12 grade 11 EFAL learners, equally divided into two interview focus groups. These EFAL learners were purposively selected from one education district in South Africa. The findings indicate that learning involves building on what the learner knows, so that the learner brings it to the current situation, restructures it and creates new knowledge. Also, more knowledge is needed about how to prepare teachers to best serve multilingual learner populations, including how to incorporate new understandings of translanguaging into instruction and assessment practices.
Downloads
References
Potgieter, A., Anthonissen, C.; Kaschula, R. (Ed.) (2017). Language-in-education policies – Managing the Multilingualism of learners in the 21st century. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication: A South African Perspective, 131–156.
DoE. Language in education policy (1997). Pretoria: Department of Education.
Cenoz, J., Gorter, D.; Cenoz, J., Gorter, D. (Eds.) (2015). Towards a holistic approach in the study of multilingual education. Multilingual education: between language learning and translanguaging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–15. doi: http://doi.org/10.1017/9781009024655.002
Garcıa, O., Lin, A.; Garcıa, O., Lin, A., May, S. (Eds.) (2017). Extending understandings of bilingual and multilingual education. Bilingual education. Encyclopedia of language and education. Berlin: Springer, 1–20. doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02258-1_1
Lewis, G., Jones, B., Baker, C. (2012). Translanguaging: origins and development from school to street and beyond. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18 (7), 641–654. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.718488
Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Halliday, M. A. K.; Martin, J., Veel, R. (Eds.) (1998). Things and relations. Regrammaticising experience as technical knowledge. Reading science. Critical and functional perspective on discourses of science. London: Routledge, 185–235.
Williams, C. (2002). Extending bilingualism in the education system. Education and Lifelong Learning Committee (ELL Report No. 06–2). National Assembly of Wales.
Creese, A., Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94 (1), 103–115. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00986.x
Wei, L. (2011). Moment Analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (5), 1222–1235. doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035
Otheguy, R., García, O., Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6 (3), 281–307. doi: http://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014
Makoni, S., Pennycook, A. (2005). Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 2 (3), 137–156. doi: http://doi.org/10.1207/s15427595cils0203_1
Schissel, J. L., De Korne, H., López-Gopar, M. (2018). Grappling with translanguaging for teaching and assessment in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts: teacher perspectives from Oaxaca, Mexico. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24 (3), 340–356. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1463965
Hammarberg, K., Kirkman, M., de Lacey, S. (2016). Qualitative research methods: when to use them and how to judge them. Human Reproduction, 31 (3), 498–501. doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dev334
Salazar, M. (2013). A humanizing pedagogy. Reinventing the principles and practice of education as a journey toward liberation. Review of Research in Education, 37 (1), 121–148. doi: http://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x12464032
Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review, 2 (2011), 1–28. doi: http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110239331.1
Di Laurea, T. (2020). Translanguaging for linguistic and cultural pluralism: a study in the context of immigration. Corso di Laurea Magistrale. Universitàdegli Studi di Padova, 126.
Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Oxford: Wiley.
García, O., Li, W. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vallejo, C., Dooly, M. (2019). Plurilingualism and translanguaging: emergent approaches and shared concerns. Introduction to the special issue. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23 (1), 1–16. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1600469
Wei, L. (2017). Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language. Applied Linguistics, 39 (1), 9–30. doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039
Johnson, G. O., Susana, I., Seltzer, K. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia: Caslon Inc, 196.
García, O., Kleyn, T.; García, O., Tatyana, K. (Eds.) (2016). Translanguaging theory in education. Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. New York: Routledge, 9–33.
Seltzer, K. (2019). Reconceptualizing “Home” and “School” Language: Taking a Critical Translingual Approach in the English Classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 53 (4), 986–1007. doi: http://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.530
Canagarajah, S. (2012). Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. London: Routledge. doi: http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203073889
Shohamy, E. (2011). Assessing Multilingual Competencies: Adopting Construct Valid Assessment Policies. The Modern Language Journal, 95 (3), 418–429. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01210.x
Shohamy, E. (2006). Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. New York: Routledge. doi: http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203387962
Manyak, P. (2008). What’s your news? Portraits of rich language and literacy activity for English language learners. The Reading Teacher, 61 (6), 450–458. doi: http://doi.org/10.1598/rt.61.6.2
Dolzhykova, O. (2014). Teaching English through storytelling to young learners. University of Oslo.
Flores, N., Aneja, G. (2017). Why Needs Hiding? Translingual (Re)Orientations in TESOL Teacher Education. Research in the Teaching of English, 51 (4), 441–463.
Aukerman, M. (2007). A Culpable CALP: Rethinking the Conversational/Academic Language Proficiency Distinction in Early Literacy Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 60 (7), 626–635. doi: http://doi.org/10.1598/rt.60.7.3
Allard, E. C. (2017). Re-examining teacher translanguaging: An ecological perspective. Bilingual Research Journal, 40 (2), 116–130. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2017.1306597
Hyslop-Margison, E. J., Strobel, J. (2007). Constructivism and education: misunderstandings and pedagogical implications. The Teacher Educator, 43 (1), 72–86. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/08878730701728945
Zano, K. (2020). Reading Comprehension Strategies of the EFAL Learners in the FET Phase: Teacher Perspectives.” eBangi Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 17 (7), 1–12.
Zano, K. (2020). For Children Without the Language of Feedback: Multilingualism in Promoting Peer and Teacher Feedback. Gender &Behaviour, 18 (2), 15541–15550.
Zano, K. (2020). High School English Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions Related To Multilingualism In A Classroom: A Case Study. Ponte Journal, 76 (5/1), 116–131. doi: http://doi.org/10.21506/j.ponte.2020.5.9
Zano, K. (2020). We Speak English in Sesotho: Multilingualism at Centre Stage in an English First Additional Language Classroom. Ponte Journal, 76 (8/1), 113–135. doi: http://doi.org/10.21506/j.ponte.2020.8.9
Zinn, D., Rodgers, C. (2012). A humanising pedagogy: Getting beneath the rhetoric. Perspectives in Education, 30 (4), 76–87.
Childs, M. (2016). Reflecting on Translanguaging in Multilingual Classrooms: Harnessing the Power of Poetry and Photography. Educational Research for Social Change, 5 (1), 22–40. doi: http://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2016/v5i1a2
García, O.; Celic, C., Seltzer, K. (Eds.) (2012). Theorizing translanguaging for educators. In Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators. New York: The City University of New York, 1–6.
Wei, L., Wu, C. J. (2009). Polite Chinese children revisited: Creativity and the use of codeswitching in the Chinese complementary school classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12 (2), 193–211. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802153210
Copyright (c) 2022 Kufakunesu Zano
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Our journal abides by the Creative Commons CC BY copyright rights and permissions for open access journals.
Authors, who are published in this journal, agree to the following conditions:
1. The authors reserve the right to authorship of the work and pass the first publication right of this work to the journal under the terms of a Creative Commons CC BY, which allows others to freely distribute the published research with the obligatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
2. The authors have the right to conclude separate supplement agreements that relate to non-exclusive work distribution in the form in which it has been published by the journal (for example, to upload the work to the online storage of the journal or publish it as part of a monograph), provided that the reference to the first publication of the work in this journal is included.
