"Translanguaging" as a socially just pedagogy

Abstract

South African higher education relies primarily on English as the medium of education. This is a result of the colonial history of the country, yet it disadvantages a large section of South African students who undertake their education in a language that is not their first language. It also reproduces the monolingual norm and anglonormativity. This can be read as a social justice issue, since students are impacted negatively by discrimination through language. Indeed, recent protest movements, particularly Rhodes Must Fall, have highlighted language as a critical issue in the "decolonisation" of the university curriculum. This article presents translanguaging pedagogy as a way to address this issue; it analyses the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies in an introductory course at the University of Cape Town in 2015 and 2016. Through an analysis of lecturer reflections, classroom practice and assessments, it highlights how translanguaging pedagogies can empower students who are disempowered by English monolingualism and it demonstrates how students respond positively to these pedagogies. The article makes the argument that multilingual pedagogies are a necessary response to the current crisis in South African higher education.

Leveraging Language: Preliminary evidence from a language-based intervention at the University of Cape Town

“…However, as Hurst and Mona (2017) argue, implementing such interventions in isolation is unlikely to have the desired level of impact that such pedagogies have the power to create. Therefore, we argue that the success of language-based interventions in South Africa must arise through sustained commitment across higher education institutions to widely adopt, as a point of leverage, teaching and learning practices that employ language as a powerful tool, and an undoubtedly indispensable medium for knowledge and information.…”

“…Moreover, not all students arrive at university with the same proficiency in English, due to unequal access to English in their schooling. This can result in lower confidence, participation and academic success (Hurst and Mona, 2017).…”

“…Hurst and Mona are lecturers on this course and offer reflections on these pedagogic approaches. The authors find that even though English remains the main language of the lecture theatre, students participate more freely in a translingual style of learning, since they become empowered when their linguistic resources are legitimised and valued, and they feel they can take ownership of the space they are in (Hurst and Mona, 2017).…”

“…This has implications for the importance of tertiary education as a means to escape poverty traps (Keswell and Poswell, 2004). However, South Africa's tertiary institutions are at a crossroads: student progress and retention are a major source of concern (Scott, et al, 2007;Heugh, 2013;Kapp and Bangeni, 2017), and important decisions need to be made regarding cultivating and improving inclusivity, and addressing skewed power dynamics (Kapp, 1998;Hurst and Mona, 2017). South Africa's linguistic diversity is recognised with all eleven official languages being constitutionally equal (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996: ch1, s6); however, at UCT, along with many other historically-white universities, English remains the dominant medium of instruction and examination (Nudelman, 2015).…”

Language Education: Implementing Multilingualism Ideas from the Russian North Culture Perspective

“…It is open for additions, innovations and non-standard learning models. Ideas of multilingual and polycultural environment offer a richer palette of values to acquire, reflection and personal growth [3,4,9,11,14,17].…”