Abstract
The effects of technological advancements, globalization and social progress has enabled researchers and teachers to rediscover and innovate methods of English Language Teaching (ELT) to English as a Second Language (ESL) learners worldwide where more non-native speakers of English who identified as bilinguals or multilinguals enroll in English language classes to develop essential skills for international communication. Yet, teachers in ESL education stand by standardized and classic ELT methodology to teach all types of learners with strong emphasis on English-only use in the classroom in hopes of producing competent users of the English language. This long standing point of view has continually ignored bilingual and multilingual learners’ potentials of learning a target language (L2) more effectively by accessing all linguistic resources from their first language (L1) or other familiar languages as a unified system through the practice of translanguaging. Therefore, this systematic literature review paper intends to explore the extent of current researches on translanguaging as an ESL pedagogy or ELT then highlight the potentials, considerations and trends of teaching and learning ESL with translingualism. A total 14 empirical journal articles related to the teaching practice were analysed to find out patterns in relevant research aims or purposes, research settings, research participants’ education and multilingual backgrounds, research designs and data analysis used and considerations for ESL translanguaging pedagogy. This paper serves as a guide for ESL educators and researchers on the current use of translanguaging for developing ESL skills productively as well as recommendations for future research.
Highlights
English has become a necessary language to enable communication amongst people across the globe for transactional and interactional activities including scholarly pursuits, leisure, personal or professional development and establishing international relations to name a few
Implications and Conclusion In this systematic literature review, 14 empirical published and peer-reviewed research articles were identified and analysed for recent information on translanguaging pedagogy in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom within five years from 2017-2020 according to the research questions formulated for this research paper
Known research aims on translanguaging for ESL teaching and learning were mainly on learners’ and teachers’ views of the pedagogical practice followed by functions, effects and factors influencing translanguaging use of mentioned groups
Summary
English has become a necessary language to enable communication amongst people across the globe for transactional and interactional activities including scholarly pursuits, leisure, personal or professional development and establishing international relations to name a few. Teachers have continually practiced standard and classic English language teaching (ELT) methodology in the ESL classroom to teach the target language by immersing learners in an English-only environment with minimal interference or use of their first language (L1) and in turn have them acquire adequate language skills (Matamoros-González et al, 2017). This stance of advocating the use of purely English in ESL education while placing learners’ use of first language as second-rate has been long standing with practitioners and students skeptical of the effectiveness of utilizing L1 when learning English. A review by Hu (2020) about existing studies of translanguaging in ESL classes concluded the practice benefits ESL pedagogy by efficiently delivering classroom instructions, clarifying linguistic content and enabling a sympathetic learning environment
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