Translanguaging and embodied teaching and learning: lessons from a multilingual karate club in London

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of embodied repertories in teaching and learning in a multi-ethnic karate club in East London and its implications for language teaching and learning. We do so through the lens of translanguaging and apply the concept of translanguaging space where diverse semiotic systems are integrated and orchestrated. Through a close examination of how teaching and learning takes place in the karate club, we argue that embodied repertories are central to interactions and pedagogy. The coach manages and instructs the class through orchestration of embodied repertories and verbal instructions. Learning Japanese karate terms becomes part of embodied performance, repeated, copied and polished along with drilling of physical moves, whilst the other available linguistic repertories, Polish and English, become languages of discipline, explanation, elaboration or reinforcement. Such translanguaging practices serve the purpose of the karate club envisaged by the coach and become an effective way of communication amongst the participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The notion of translanguaging, in particular, the idea of orchestration, helps to highlight the multiplexity of resources in embodied teaching and learning and overcomes the monolingual and the lingual biases. ARTICLE HISTORY

Language skills in Greek-English bilingual children attending Greek supplementary schools in England

“…During the last few years, there have been qualitative studies including various Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Bulgarian, Urdu, Polish, Ukrainian, Greek supplementary schools or establishments in the UK and around the world, focusing on classroom practices such as translanguaging, (e.g. Creese and Blackledge 2010;Faltzi 2011;García and Wei 2014;Hua, Wei, and Jankowicz-Pytel 2020;Liu and Fang 2020), on teacher, parent and pupil identities and perspectives towards supplementary education (e.g. Androulakis et al 2018;Archer, Francis, and Mau 2009;Creese et al 2006;Gkaintartzi, Chatzidaki, and Tsokalidou 2014;Karatsareas 2018;Kirsch 2019;Liao and Larke 2008;Panagiotopoulou, Rosen, and García 2016;Sook Lee and Oxelson 2006;Strand 2007), on language provisions and pedagogy (e.g.…”

Classroom Strategies through Translanguaging for Multilingualism Students

“…The translanguaging approach to human social interaction as intersection of multiple linguistic and semiotic systems enables us to look more closely at the role of embodies repertories. Embodied repertories constitute an important dimension of semiotic practices, contributing to meaning-making and at the same time, intersecting with other semiotic repertories (Zhu, Li, & Jankowicz-Pytel, 2019).…”

Rejecting abyssal thinking in the language and education of racialized bilinguals: A manifesto

“…Translanguaging also leads us to include in the study of language the role of meaning-making resources long considered outside of language -as simply para-linguistic or pragmatic. How bilinguals deploy the sights, the sounds, the objects, and instruments at their disposal is important in our conception of language (Li, 2018;Li & Lin, 2019;Zhu et al, 2019).…”