Mediating epistemic access through everyday language resources in an English language classroom

Mkhize, Dumisile

doi:10.2989/16073614.2016.1250355

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…It has been established that leveraging multilingual resources mediates student participation and enables the kind of self-authoring around lived realities that connects the classroom to the world and fosters learning (Kiramba 2016(Kiramba , 2017bVygotsky 2012). Mkhize (2016a) demonstrated how inclusion of students' everyday discursive practices enabled epistemic access and supported complex learner identities in a South African rural classroom. Relatedly, Kioko, Ndungu, Njoroge, and Mutiga (2014) have called for more inclusion of MT success stories in educational discourse in order to dispel prejudicial attitudes about African languages.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Language ideologies and epistemic exclusion

Kiramba

2018

Language and Education

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Research in educational linguistics is now challenging the efficacy of monolingual approaches that often dominate educational practices in multilingual settings. In most African nations where multilingualism is the norm, there remains a persistent reluctance by educational stakeholders (principals, teachers, parents, and students) to embrace multilingualism in education or to reposition local languages as resources in classrooms. This article draws on qualitative data from a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya to interrogate the articulated ideologies and their effects on communicative practices as voiced by the participants and by observing actual classroom practices. Bourdieu's notions of habitus, legitimate language, and symbolic power serve as analytic lenses for enhancing our understanding of the power of language ideologies. From the data, "monoglossia" emerged as the key operating ideology, with time-on-task pedagogical practice helping to consolidate these monoglossic practices. The most visible effect of this ideology was silencing student engagement in the classroom. I argue that an awareness of these articulated ideologies and their observable effects on students' learning and language-use behaviors is important for challenging the subordination of home languages and the epistemic exclusion of the children who speak marginalized languages. Ideological awareness may open spaces for alternative and inclusive educational approaches.

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Section: Conclusion and Recommendationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, Mkhize (2016aMkhize ( , 2016b, studying bilingual fourth-grade children in South Africa, demonstrate how non-school language practices are not inherently poor but rather provide an asset that students can build on to understand their worlds.…”

Section: Monoglossic Ideology: Legitimate Vs Illegitimate Languages mentioning

confidence: 99%

Language ideologies and epistemic exclusion

Kiramba

2018

Language and Education

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“…Taking the above into consideration, it seems that the most workable model for South African education would be MTBBE as originally advocated by Alexander (2005). The model could also acknowledge the multilingual repertoires of learners as reported by Makalela (2015, 2016), Sefotho and Makalela (2017), Mkhize (2016) and Probyn (2015). This is a promising move towards a relevant pedagogy for African learners as such strategies appear to allow for deeper learning on the part of African language students.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Makalela argues that multilingual learners are already involved in linguistic contrasts as their languages co-exist in their mental lexicon so making these explicit is natural. Findings from other studies show the benefits of translanguaging, especially social benefits and identity affirmation (Makalela, 2015; Guzula, McKinney, & Tyler, 2016; Mkhize, 2016); epistemological access (Heugh, 2015; Probyn, 2015) and cognitive facilitation through cross-lingual reading in cognate languages (Sefotho & Makalela, 2017). Many of these studies, however, are small scale with criterion variables not necessarily controlled or assessed.…”

Section: Language Learning and Teachingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

Wildsmith-Cromarty

Balfour

2019

Lang. Teach.

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South Africa's history of segregation and the privileging of English and Afrikaans as the only languages of teaching and learning beyond primary schooling, make the post-apartheid period a complex one, especially in light of the Constitutional commitment to multilingualism in the 11 official languages. Research on literacy and language teaching contextualises the impact of curriculum and language policy initiatives aimed at improving learner performance. We review research concerning the transition from the study of first additional language (FAL) as subject, to the use of FAL as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Also considered are major studies on learner performance nationally and South Africa's comparability globally. The impact of home language (HL) literacy development on performance in English as the LoLT links to research on language development in teacher education programmes, and shows connections between the capacity of teachers to develop languages for literacy and LoLT and learner success. Research on the development of early childhood literacy in the HL demonstrates the positive impact on literacy development in the LoLT.

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“…Due to the interethnic conflicts between Greek–Cypriots and Turkish–Cypriots in the 1960s and 1970s, Turkish is viewed in Cyprus as the language of “the enemy.” The authors argued that students’ reluctance to use Turkish in the formal spaces of the classrooms can be attributable to the ideological, essentialized notions of language and national belonging. Research also shows that monolingual ideologies impact teachers and parents’ perception of translanguaging (Mkhize, 2016; Rajendram, 2021). Teaching practices that only allow translanguaging to be used in “nonofficial business” in the classroom can also constitute what Jaspers (2015) called “excluding inclusivity,” because it excludes translanguaging from the official business of teaching and learning, which works “to socialize pupils into the predominant sociolinguistic hierarchy that creates their own disfluency and problematization” (p. 127).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translingual caring and translingual aggression: (Re)centering criticality in the research and practice of translanguaging pedagogy

Qin,

Llosa

2023

The Modern Language Journal

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Over the last decade, translanguaging pedagogy has gained much traction in language education and has been taken up in a wide range of educational settings. Studies on translanguaging pedagogy, however, have largely focused on its affordances; research on its challenges remains limited. This classroom discourse study examines both the affordances and challenges of translanguaging pedagogy by analyzing the functions of translanguaging practices in one US superdiverse, multilingual secondary science classroom. Taking up the lens of criticality and superdiversity, we view classrooms as power‐laden spaces and translanguaging as a social practice shaped by and shaping social norms and ideologies. Through discourse analyses of classroom interactions and interview data, we identified seven functions of classroom translanguaging practices. Our analysis shows that translanguaging offered students translingual support for accessing meaning and instruction and allowed the teacher to build relationships with students through translingual caring and translingual critical love. Students also engaged in translanguaging for translingual bonding and creating translingual safe houses. However, translanguaging was also used for translingual exclusion and translingual aggression. Our analysis sheds light on the complexity of translanguaging pedagogy. We call for (re)centering criticality in the research and practice of translanguaging pedagogy and developing students’ critical language awareness in translanguaging classrooms.

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Mediating epistemic access through everyday language resources in an English language classroom

Cited by 14 publications

References 18 publications

Language ideologies and epistemic exclusion

Language ideologies and epistemic exclusion

Language learning and teaching in South African primary schools

Translingual caring and translingual aggression: (Re)centering criticality in the research and practice of translanguaging pedagogy

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