Abstract
ABSTRACTThe 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.
Highlights
As Block (2014) pointed out, whilst applied linguistics research has made very significant progress in overcoming the monolingual bias in the last two decades, there remains what he calls a lingual bias: ‘the tendency to conceive of communicative practices exclusively in terms of the linguistic, the linguistic is often complemented with a consideration of pragmatics, interculturalism, and learning strategies’ (56)
We hope to have shown in this article how a translanguaging space is created in the multi-ethnic and multilingual karate club in East London through meaningful orchestration of multiple semiotic repertoires including body movement, rhythm, gesture, eye contact, head movement, pointing, in addition to linguistic ones
We have seen that the ‘lingual bias’ is reversed: verbal utterances are employed to cue and complement body movement and become part of embodied repertories
Summary
As Block (2014) pointed out, whilst applied linguistics research has made very significant progress in overcoming the monolingual bias in the last two decades, there remains what he calls a lingual bias: ‘the tendency to conceive of communicative practices exclusively in terms of the linguistic (morphological, syntax, phonology, lexis), the linguistic is often complemented with a consideration of pragmatics, interculturalism, and learning strategies’ (56). We will focus on the role of embodied repertories in teaching and learning, and take a translanguaging approach that challenges the conventional notions of language. We will discuss the role of embodied repertories in social interaction and explore how they work with other semiotic resources including conventional linguistic codes. Belhiah (2013) showed how gestures can be used as a resource for achieving mutual understanding and displaying alignment and intersubjectivity in second language learning situations These studies help to revisit the notions of agency, affordances, participation and creativity and to re-examine the dynamics and complexity of interactions in teaching and learning. We aim in the present study to focus on the role of embodied repertories in teaching and learning in the London karate club and to explore its implications for language teaching and learning in general. SK first kneels down with hands on the floor and pushes up SK stands up SK runs towards the opponent SK kicks into the opponent’s open hands several times
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