Translanguaging in mainstream education: a sociocultural approach

Abstract

Due to the monolingual self-understanding of European nation-states, migration-induced multilingualism and the language mixing practices it triggers are not usually acknowledged as resources for learning within mainstream classrooms. The term translanguaging has recently been put forward as both a way of describing the flexible ways in which bilinguals draw upon their multiple languages to enhance their communicative potential and a pedagogical approach in which teachers and pupils use these practices for learning. However, little research has been conducted in how the translanguaging approach can be used in mainstream education to enhance knowledge. This study draws on videographic data recorded in 59 10th grade (15-year-olds) subject-matter classes in 4 secondary schools. Applying sociocultural discourse analysis to peerpeer interaction and therefore considering how learners scaffold one another as they participate in collaborative talk and in the coconstruction of knowledge, results describe several functions of translanguaging for 'exploratory talk' leading to content-matter learning. Multilingual adolescents in naturalistic settings thus use their multilingualism to cognitively engage with content-based tasks and produce high-order speech acts embedded in complex talk. ARTICLE HISTORY

Translanguaging in the context of mainstream multilingual education

“…Empirical research has focused on analysing classroom interaction by zooming in on the ways translanguaging is used for constructing meaning, acquiring knowledge and negotiating power in diverse classrooms. An array of studies has underlined the advantages of a translanguaging pedagogy at different levels of school performance and for both migrant and minority languages: for example, as a means of balancing the powerrelations among languages in the classroom (2017, p. 117), in protecting and promoting minority languages (Cenoz, 2017), for raising participant confidence and motivation (Creese & Blackledge, 2010), as a maximiser of learning literacy skills (Hornberger & Link, 2012), for empowerment and language learning (Latisha & Young, 2017) and for higher cognitive engagement in content-matter learning (Duarte, 2016).…”

“…This sequence is an example of the use of two languages in joint-construction of both content-and language-related knowledge (Duarte, 2016) through the alternation of languages by two distinct native speakers. Following an iterative analysis of the data and a discussion of the video footage with the involved teachers, it was determined that translanguaging plays a role here at two different levels.…”

“…Yet, in many recent programmes framed within a MLE perspective, one common feature is the active inclusion of pupils' family languages as a resource in instruction. In terms of including pupils' languages in instruction, the term translanguaging has been put forward not only to describe multilingual practices that include 'the full range of linguistic performances of multilingual language users' (Wei, 2011(Wei, , p. 1224, but also to propose a pedagogical approach in which such practices are systematically used in education (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015;Duarte, 2016;García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). Still, and although an increasing body of literature points towards a growth in implementation, translanguaging approaches are still not widely spread in European mainstream education and face several implementation challenges (Ticheloven, 2016).…”

Multilingual pedagogies in practice

“…In approaches such as these teachers do not need to share the same languages as their students (Sierens & Van Avermaet, 2014, p. 218), but rather facilitate students to interact, think and create using their full multilingual repertoires. This also allows students of different proficiencies in home language to engage with multilingual learning (Duarte, 2019).…”

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

“…It was no coincidence that at the end of the last century, they began using the sociocultural approach actively in language education. The approach makes it possible to fully reveal a person's capabilities through the focus of languages, culture and communication interconnected by the idea of values, relationships and interactions [5,8,13,14,19,20]. The sociocultural principles such as promoting tolerant treatment for people of other languages and cultures, teaching respectful attitude to learners' own culture and encouraging their interest in learning other peoples' culture are being developed in language education.…”