Translanguaging mediating reading in a multilingual South African township primary classroom

Maseko, Khumbuzile; Mkhize, Dumisile

doi:10.1080/14790718.2019.1669608

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…It is also viewed as a process of meaning making, where learners are allowed to make use of their languages to construct meaning of their world (Baker, 2011;Mazak & Herbas-Donoso, 2015). It is further considered as a systematic approach that counters the socially and politically defined boundaries of the names and labels of languages (Otheguy, Garcia & Reid, 2015, Wei, 2017, and regards the knowledge of more than one language as a resource from which learners can benefit (Garcia & Lin, 2016;Maseko & Mkhize, 2019;Wei & Lin, 2019). Several concepts, including Ubuntu translanguaging (Makalela, 2016), emerged from translanguaging to represent ways in which people use languages.…”

Section: Translanguagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubuntu translanguaging as a systematic approach to language teaching in multilingual classrooms in South Africa

Sefotho

2022

JLT

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The Language in Education Policy recognises the linguistically super-diverse nature of learners in South African schools and provides allowance to use more than one language in teaching and learning within the framework of promoting multilingualism. This policy adopted an additive approach and encouraged school governing bodies to establish how they will promote multilingualism through the use of more than one language. However, it seems there is lack of systematic approaches on how schools should promote multilingualism. This study, therefore, looked at how Ubuntu translanguaging can be applied as a systematic approach in schools to promote multilingualism. This small-scale exploratory qualitative study made use of semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to explore how teachers incorporated and understood the Policy in promoting multilingualism. It was found that teachers used more than one language to enhance learning, though they believed this was not allowed and that they were required/expected to use only one language for learning and teaching at a time. The study concludes that there is a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the Policy and recommends that the policy be unpacked and clarified for teachers. It further recommends the Ubuntu translanguaging pedagogy to be accepted as a systematic approach to promote multilingualism.

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Section: Translanguagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubuntu translanguaging as a systematic approach to language teaching in multilingual classrooms in South Africa

Sefotho

2022

JLT

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“…Wagner (2021, p. 188), in describing the five MLTs in his study, who were 'recruited through emails and postings targeting multilingual teachers', reports that 'the participants all spoke English and one or more other languages, including Spanish, Russian, or Korean, and reported various levels of non-English language use in the classroom'. The study is insightful, like the others in the review, yet, similar to how the MLT is presented in the study by Maseko and Mkhize (2021), one learns little about the participants themselves, despite there being only five of them. In Lorenz et al (2021), which is one of the few studies to have observed MLTs implementing multilingual teaching practices, the three participants are described as 'fluent in English and Norwegian' and having 'varying levels of proficiencies in other languages, namely Arabic, Thai, Swedish, Danish, German, French, and Spanish'.…”

Section: Conceptualising Mltsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…In quantitative studies with large participant samples, providing some of these data might prove difficult, though most of the reviewed studies where this occurred had only a handful of participants. For example, Maseko and Mkhize (2021), in discussing their MLT and student participants, simply observe that ‘all the participants, including the teacher, spoke several African languages’ and that they were ‘highly multilingual’. The study focuses on the teacher's use of translanguaging with students, though given how opaquely the MLT is presented, the reader might be mistaken for thinking that the teacher participant represents little more than an embodiment of instructional strategies (translanguaging in this case).…”

Section: Fidelity In Researching Multilingual Language Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fidelity to participants when researching multilingual language teachers: A systematic review

Calafato

2022

Review of Education

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The research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two decades, with more and more studies published every year on the need for teachers to validate the whole linguistic repertoire of their students and help them draw on their multilingualism as a resource. What has, conversely, not been accorded sufficient attention by researchers is the multilingualism of the teachers tasked with realising this. This oversight, as it were, raises ethical issues for researchers that go beyond macro ethical considerations like the need to ensure participant anonymity, their protection from harm, and data confidentiality. Education is itself a complex, ethical enterprise, where engagement with teachers and students requires greater faithfulness, exactitude, and respect on the part of researchers. The need for such engagement, from an ethical standpoint, has been magnified as governments globally implement multilingual initiatives in schools and universities that encourage teachers to harness the growing linguistic and cultural diversity that surrounds them (and of which they are a part). Based on a systematic review of 59 published works between 2016 and 2021, this article discusses the importance of adopting a fidelity‐to‐participants approach when researching multilingual language teachers. Such an approach has been missing from most studies, yet it would benefit researchers and their participants, as well as policymakers and educators in several ways.

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“…In this study, the linguistic identities that the Grade 8 learners brought into the History classroom to make sense of their writing task were not affirmed either in practice or during my interviews with the participants. Maseko and Mkhize (2021, p. 455) explain that this monolingual orientation in South African township schools is a postcolonial practice that seeks to perpetuate the “‘one‐nation, one language’ ideology” at the expense of allowing learners to use linguistic resources for meaningful academic engagement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implementation of English across the curriculum: An exploratory study of how South African educators teach writing in History lessons

Mpofu

2023

TESOL Journal

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In 2013, as a strategy to enhance academic performance, the South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) published several English Across the Curriculum (EAC) manuals to guide in‐service teachers who did not have prior knowledge of how to integrate the teaching of content subjects with language learning. The DBE introduced the EAC strategy as a mandatory tool for strengthening the use of English as a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) to address language as a barrier factor to academic success both in primary and high schools. However, in 2017, the DBE published a report showing that most content teachers were not using the EAC strategy. In view of the alarmingly poor academic performance in mostly public schools, the question in many people's minds has always been whether content teachers are using the EAC strategy. To understand this phenomenon, I conducted a qualitative study focused on four purposively selected Grade 8 Social Science educators teaching History (Grade 8 is an entry level to South African secondary schools). I collected data using non‐participant classroom observations and semi‐structured interviews, while inductive thematic analysis was used as an approach to analyse the data. The findings indicate that to teach writing in History, the participants used strategy‐focused instruction which includes vocabulary development and clustering activities as well as writing frames that encompass sentences and paragraphs. Importantly, the research adds to our knowledge of teaching of English to speakers of other languages in multilingual contexts when mandated by governments to change without appropriate support. The study highlights how this situation leads to deeper reflection where educators must encounter professional conflict and dilemmas to bring coherence to their teaching knowledge and experience.

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Translanguaging mediating reading in a multilingual South African township primary classroom

Cited by 12 publications

References 32 publications

Ubuntu translanguaging as a systematic approach to language teaching in multilingual classrooms in South Africa

Ubuntu translanguaging as a systematic approach to language teaching in multilingual classrooms in South Africa

Fidelity to participants when researching multilingual language teachers: A systematic review

The implementation of English across the curriculum: An exploratory study of how South African educators teach writing in History lessons

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