Mandarin/English dual language immersion teachers’ understanding of translanguaging pedagogy

Abstract

Translanguaging pedagogy has gained wide recognition in the field of education as an effective approach to educate emerging bilinguals. This study examines how bilingual teachers understand and adopt this approach in Mandarin/English dual language immersion programs. Four elementary school teachers employed at three different Mandarin/English dual language immersion programs in California were interviewed in-depth about their perspectives on the use of translanguaging pedagogy and their translanguaging stance in their instruction. Guided by the constructs in the Translanguaging Allocation Policy model (Sánchez et al., 2018), the analysis revealed that teachers held an incomplete understanding of translanguaging pedagogy, largely due to a lack of understanding of the theoretical basis upon which translanguaging practices are built in varying teaching contexts. Thus, the teachers mostly resorted to translations as one of their main translanguaging pedagogical practices and saw it as a means to bridge understanding across two languages. In order to support the accessibility of translanguaging pedagogy to a broader range of practitioners, recommendations for professional development and teacher training as well as suggestions for the Translanguaging Allocation Policy model (Sánchez et al., 2018) are provided.