Translanguaging In Classrooms Research Articles

Translanguaging Practices and Perception of Tertiary Lecturers and Learners in Thailand: A Case Study at Buriram Rajabhat University

Translanguaging refers to the practice of utilizing several languages and various forms of communication to create knowledge and encourage the use of multiple modes of language education. This study aims to investigate the tertiary lecturers’ and students’ translanguaging practice and their perception of using classroom translanguaging. The sample consisted of 30 lecturers and 60 students from the English Program, Business English Program. Education English, and other programs, Buriram Rajabhat University, Thailand. They were selected using the purposive sampling method.The tools were a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview. The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed using the frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The interview was analyzed utilizing qualitative content analysis. According to the assessments of three experts, the research instruments obtained an IOC score of 0.67. The findings from the first objective indicated that the lecturers had a positive attitude towards the use of translanguaging in their teaching, as shown by the average score of 4.12. In addition, the students expressed their support for the incorporation of translanguaging in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, as indicated by the overall average score of 4.22. The results from the second objective indicated that the lecturers strongly supported the notion of integrating translanguaging in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course, with the mean score of 4.13, Similarly, all of the students reached a consensus to incorporate translanguaging in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, with the average score of 4.22. In addition, the analysis of the interview responses revealed that both the lecturers and students held similar perspectives on the use of translanguaging in the EFL classroom. The findings of this study will offer a thorough foundation for formulating a future plan and strategy on English language instructions in the specific context of Thailand.

Transpositioning in English medium instruction classroom discourse: insights from a translanguaging perspective

The concept of ‘transpositioning’ is an emerging notion in the field of Applied Linguistics, influenced by positioning theory and liquid modernity. Transpositioning involves individuals breaking away from their predefined roles and adopting different perspectives through translanguaging. However, there is currently a lack of research exploring how multilingual classroom teachers can transcend their positions using translanguaging to achieve their specific communication goals in multilingual classrooms. This study is the first study that investigates how an English-Medium-Instruction teacher undergoes transpositioning by adopting different positionings to construct an imaginary scenario and engaging in co-learning with students. The study employs Multimodal Conversation Analysis to analyse the classroom interaction data, and the findings are triangulated with video-stimulated-recall-interview data, which is analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The paper argues that transpositioning is a fundamental aspect of the teacher’s classroom translanguaging competence. This competence involves not only the strategic utilization of multilingual and multimodal resources to construct new knowledge and achieve specific pedagogical goals, but also requires the teacher to selectively draw from his repertoire and modify his identity positions in response to the evolving dynamics of classroom interaction.

Indonesian university students’ practices and perspectives on translanguaging

Despite the growing research on translanguaging, additional research is still needed, especially in the students’ actual practice of translanguaging in Indonesian university classrooms and its inherent emotional state. Addressing this gap, our study aims to explore university students’ practices and perspectives towards translanguaging in classroom presentations with students’ state of emotion during presentations. This qualitative case study was chosen to have an in-depth analysis of an issue under investigation. Data were collected via Zoom video recording and semi-structured interviews. Garcia and Li Wei’s (2014) theory of translanguaging is used as an umbrella to analyze data, followed by our use of Li Wei's (2011) moment analysis and Baker's (2011) pedagogical function of translanguaging to strengthen the analysis. This study revealed that translanguaging is mostly appreciated by respondents as it can diminish language anxiety with one student’s criticism on the potential overuse of translanguaging. Translanguaging, as reported, also helped respondents with better comprehension, growing confidence, and enhanced equity. The pedagogical implication of this study is that Indonesian university EFL teachers could develop a more flexible syllabus, enabling university students to use English with the possibility of translanguage when needed. However, translanguaging should be used with caution.

Transgressive translanguaging: theorizing the corriente

ABSTRACT Translanguaging in classrooms opens spaces for multilingual students to engage in learning across the full range of their linguistic repertoire. We argue that one result of translanguaging pedagogy is that it can transform the talk-for-learning in the classroom and create a corriente or flow of ideas that is more free and less constrained than traditional classroom interactional patterns. However, what has been lacking in the translanguaging literature to date is an examination of if, when, and how teacher-student translanguaging actually does disrupt the traditional interactional structures of classrooms in ways that enhance student meaning-making. This article theorizes the translanguaging corriente at the discourse level using moment analysis to analyze data from two video datasets of elementary-grade lessons with emergent bilingual students in Texas and México with two extended excerpts illustrating the creative and critical potential of the translanguaging corriente. Pedagogical practices facilitating the corriente are also identified.

Translanguaging in EFL Classroom at A Private University in South Sulawesi

This research aims to investigate translanguaging in an EFL classroom. Several researchers have researched translanguaging (1) Sahib (2019), (2) Saputra (2014), (3) Rabbidge (2019), Yuvayapan (2019), Aoyama (2020), and Rasmin & Nur (2023). Nevertheless, in south Sulawesi, especially Palopo still not enough. Hence, this research tries to see the practice of translanguaging in EFL classrooms. This research focused on exploring the reasons lecturers conduct translanguaging, the way lecturers conduct translanguaging in EFL classrooms, and the lecturers’ and students’ perceptions toward translanguaging. The participants of this research were two English lecturers and fifteen students in the fourth-semester English education department at Cokroaminoto Palopo University. This research applied a qualitative method, the instruments were classroom observation and interview. The result of the observation and interview was transcribed and analyzed based on the research focus. The findings of this research were the reasons lecturers conducted translanguaging the first to make their English teaching in the classroom effective and the second to make the students understand the teaching and learning material well. The way lecturers conduct translanguaging is based on the situation of the students. If the students do not understand what the lecturers explain in English, they will use translanguaging in the classroom to make the teaching and learning process run smoothly. The lecturers express a positive perception toward translanguaging which is reflected through ten positive comments about the use of translanguaging in the EFL classroom. The students also give a positive perception of the five questions that have been asked. The students can feel the benefit of the use of translanguaging in the EFL classroom.

Translingual caring and translingual aggression: (Re)centering criticality in the research and practice of translanguaging pedagogy

AbstractOver the last decade, translanguaging pedagogy has gained much traction in language education and has been taken up in a wide range of educational settings. Studies on translanguaging pedagogy, however, have largely focused on its affordances; research on its challenges remains limited. This classroom discourse study examines both the affordances and challenges of translanguaging pedagogy by analyzing the functions of translanguaging practices in one US superdiverse, multilingual secondary science classroom. Taking up the lens of criticality and superdiversity, we view classrooms as power‐laden spaces and translanguaging as a social practice shaped by and shaping social norms and ideologies. Through discourse analyses of classroom interactions and interview data, we identified seven functions of classroom translanguaging practices. Our analysis shows that translanguaging offered students translingual support for accessing meaning and instruction and allowed the teacher to build relationships with students through translingual caring and translingual critical love. Students also engaged in translanguaging for translingual bonding and creating translingual safe houses. However, translanguaging was also used for translingual exclusion and translingual aggression. Our analysis sheds light on the complexity of translanguaging pedagogy. We call for (re)centering criticality in the research and practice of translanguaging pedagogy and developing students’ critical language awareness in translanguaging classrooms.

CLASSROOM TRANSLANGUAGING AS A LEARNING STRATEGY: THAI SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

In Thai schools today, English language teaching has evolved from a traditional to an interactive approach. Translanguaging pedagogical practices are becoming more prevalent in Thai schools. There have been extensive debates among teachers and educators in Thai secondary schools regarding translanguaging pedagogy. As a result, little empirical research has been conducted on how Thai students perceive this issue. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining Thai secondary school EFL students' perceptions on the use of classroom translanguaging as a teaching/learning strategy. Data was collected from 36 Thai EFL students via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data were analyzed using quantitative descriptive data analysis, and the qualitative data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results showed that in Thai (EMI) classrooms it is difficult to ignore the learners' L1 (Thai) when learning a foreign language, and students had overall positive perceptions of classroom translanguaging. Limitations and implications are also highlighted.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0071/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Translanguaging and Educational Inequality in the Global South: Stance-taking amongst Brazilian Teachers of English

AbstractTranslanguaging has gained prominence as a pedagogical orientation that promises to promote the rights of minoritized migrant students by valuing pre-existing multilingualisms and identities. However, the effects of classroom translanguaging on teacher and student outlooks and relations of inequality are far from universal. In this paper we consider translanguaging in English language teaching in Brazil, a context in which multilingualism is often tied to social and racial closure. We show how English teachers position themselves and students in relation to translanguaging, drawing on analysis of stance-taking in online discussions. We find limited support for a transformative role played by current translingual practices, despite contributions to the establishment of affective bonds with students. We then examine a polemic over localized usages of English that casts light on how teachers do position themselves critically and opens up space for the development of critical language awareness. We argue that teacher outlooks are shaped by the changing status of English in the global south, and by unequal patterns of access to English in public, private, and commercial education settings.

Facilitating learners’ participation through classroom translanguaging: comparing a translanguaging classroom and a monolingual classroom in Chinese language teaching

Abstract Translanguaging practices in Chinese as a second language (CSL) classrooms have been a heated topic in recent years, despite the longstanding Chinese-monolingual ideology. Against this backdrop, we have explored the functions of translanguaging practices in CSL classroom and the interplay of translanguaging and learners’ participation, by comparing the language practices of a translanguaging-oriented classroom and a Chinese-monolingual classroom. We found the functions of classroom translanguaging include meaning-negotiation, peer-assisting, efficiency-increasing and communication encouraging. The findings also reveal that although multilingual practices can also be found in the Chinese-monolingual classroom, they are characterized by a norm-conforming pattern, in contrast to the norm-breaking pattern in the translanguaging-oriented classroom, and the latter can empower students and motivate them to become engaged in Chinese learning. Moreover, multilingual practices deliberately adopted by teachers can be regarded as pedagogical translanguaging and facilitate learner engagement only when there exists no discrepancy between their pedagogical ideology (i.e. advocating translanguaging) and practices. Based on our findings, we advocate a reflection and adjustments to the current monolingual policy in CSL classroom.

Beyond Named Languages: A Step Too Far?

Multilingual education is an urgent and pressing concern in the Indian educational scenario. While the National Education Policy (2020) acknowledges multilingualism as a resource in educational contexts and reiterates earlier policies calling for mother tongue-based education in elementary classrooms, it does not provide guidance in terms of how to productively accommodate multiple languages in the classroom. Multilingual education will be much stronger if it is based on a strong understanding of multilinguality—the idea that the human mind is fundamentally multilingual in nature. A new, but substantial paradigm of scholarship addressing multilinguality is that of ‘translanguaging’, which views named languages as socio-political constructs and argues that multilinguals have a unified linguistic repertoire that they flexibly, creatively and adaptively draw upon. Accepting the grounding assumptions of translanguaging would has important implications for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in educational spaces. In this article, we describe and critique the translanguaging perspective, even while acknowledging its positive contributions. We point out, especially its failure to provide guidance in terms of how to productively accommodate translanguaging in classrooms.

Students' Attitude Towards Translanguaging Practice in Indonesian EFL Classes

The multilingual world demands educational stakeholders to adjust by embracing multilingual pedagogies. Translanguaging is deemed a prominent language practice to be implemented in educational settings, especially in the EFL class. However, the practice still obtains criticisms. Many scholars point out challenges in implementing classroom translanguaging. Therefore, studying attitudes, specifically students' attitudes, becomes significant at this point because it helps to reveal how students' feelings and thoughts of translanguaging practice are based on their learning experience. Further, their attitudes can be considered in the classroom decision making whether to translanguage or not to translanguage. The present study will generally continue what previous scholars have done but in a new context and methodology. This study investigated students' attitudes towards student- and teacher-directed translanguaging in Indonesian EFL classrooms. The participants were 40 grade VIII students from two EFL classes of a private boarding school located in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The data was collected using online questionnaires consisting of close-ended and mainly open-ended questions. The result showed that most students expressed negative feelings toward students-directed translanguaging. Meanwhile, teacher-directed translanguaging was more acceptable indicated by most students who had positive feelings towards their teachers' translanguaging. Students' arguments and comments were also interesting to be noticed. These findings shed light on a multilingual pedagogical practice and further research, which we would like to discuss further within this article.

From Natural Translanguaging to Planned Translanguaging: Developing Classroom Translanguaging as Pedagogy in a Private University in China

Despite a large body of literature on English learning using translanguaging, such research on the role of translanguaging on English reading among Chinese private university students is minimal. The present study presented a need for teachers in an English medium instruction context to mitigate language deficiencies where the students are not able to perform in an English-only classroom. The research examined when and how translanguaging emerges in Chinese private university students’ English reading practice. Ethnographic research methods were implemented over a six-month period. Twenty-eight students and their teacher participated in this study. Data were collected through classroom observations, open-ended interviews. Translanguaging as theoretical framework and nexus analysis as analytical framework were employed to examine the real reading practice of private university students and their trajectories of the shift from natural translanguaging to planned translanguaging. The findings indicated that: a) reading using translanguaging rather than English medium instruction is typical in teaching and reading practices among private university students in China; b) although Chinese private university students as a community of low English proficiency appreciated the pedagogical translanguaging, they still needed time, space, and planned translanguaging to reconcile the tension between translanguaging and English medium instruction.

From Natural Translanguaging to Planned Translanguaging: Developing Classroom Translanguaging as Pedagogy in a Private University in China

From Natural Translanguaging to Planned Translanguaging: Developing Classroom Translanguaging as Pedagogy in a Private University in China

Translanguaging as Norm: Rejecting Narrow and Restrictive Notions of Reading

AbstractIn this article, we bring different fields into conversation as a way of expanding understandings about the teaching of reading, centering the communicative practices of multilingual children. Instead of seeking to remedy children whose communicative practices and norms do not align with “academic language,” we traverse fields to show how seemingly innocuous concepts and related undertakings may harm young multilingual children by sponsoring pathological paradigms that frame their ways of communicating as inferior and/or wrong. Challenging the monoglossic gaze that upholds and reifies monolingual ideologies, we consider how teachers might rethink longstanding albeit narrow, restrictive, and exclusionary conceptualizations of language and literacy, moving toward reconceptualizing languages and literacies plurally, expansively, and inclusively. After doing so, we discuss the power and possibility of translanguaging‐‐conceptually and empirically. We conclude by offering resources that can help foster, cultivate, and sustain translanguaging in classrooms and (pre)schools.

Namibian Teachers’ Beliefs about Medium of Instruction and Language Education Policy Implementation

The medium of instruction is a crucial issue in language education policy in multilingual post-colonial countries such as Namibia. Teachers occupy a central role in language policy implementation, and their beliefs affect it. It is therefore important to study their beliefs about language education policy and its implementation. This article explores Namibian teachers’ beliefs in this regard in two government primary schools by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis shows that the teachers believe the current language policy is problematic and its implementation challenging. The majority see multilingual education as a good option, though the findings of the questionnaire and the interview data are somewhat at odds. Introducing multilingual pedagogy education in teacher training and legitimising translanguaging in classrooms would enhance learner-centred approaches in Namibian schools.

Translanguaging challenges in multilingual classrooms: scholar, teacher and student perspectives

ABSTRACT The challenging task of establishing meaningful translanguaging in multilingual classrooms necessitates negotiation between different stakeholders. Such negotiation requires investigation of the contexts and ways in which translanguaging may be implemented as a suitable teaching strategy. The aim of the current study was to elicit practical and pedagogical issues of translanguaging in the classroom via interviews with three different groups of stakeholders: language education researchers, teachers, and multilingual learners. We visited four differently composed multilingual high schools from which concrete examples were recalled in semi-structured interviews on the topic of translanguaging with the selected stakeholders. Adopting an iterative study design, interviewees were presented with daily life examples from the school visits as well as statements from other stakeholder interviews. Their statements and reactions to the statements of others were recorded, qualitatively analysed and categorised. Overall, seven distinct pedagogical challenges concerning a translanguaging pedagogy emerged from the interview analysis: (1) Side effects; (2) Goal formulation; (3) Learning the language of schooling; (4) English and other semiotic resources; (5) Affective functions; (6) Effort; and (7) Confusion. These palpable pedagogic issues may be helpful in understanding how translanguaging in multilingual contexts can be implemented, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Exploring the role of translanguaging in linguistic ideological and attitudinal reconfigurations in the Spanish classroom for heritage speakers

ABSTRACT The present study explores how translanguaging serves as vehicle to (help) re-configure linguistic attitudinal and ideological structures in a university Spanish course for heritage speakers. Specifically, it focuses on the links between exposure to (and engagement in) classroom translanguaging and the participants’ challenging of traditional monoglossic ideologies governing folk imaginary regarding language purity, standard, and appropriate academic discourse. Three class meetings worth of classroom ethnographic observations (among 17 students), and eight semi-structured individual interviews were transcribed and analysed via directed qualitative analysis. Departing from four predetermined categories (i.e. language attitudes, language ideologies, belief change, and translanguaging instances) the linguistic attitudinal and ideological dynamics among the participants were investigated. Results are weaved into a narrative which evolves around three main categories: (1) language attitudes and ideologies prior to entering the classroom, (2) attitudinal and ideological changes and their link to translanguaging, and (3) considerations about translanguaging in academic settings and academic discourse. Findings unveil a double-action whereby translanguaging creates a sociolinguistic frame that challenges widely held linguistic attitudes and ideologies about the nature of flexible linguistic practices, as it stimulates their normalization and inclusion in a context that has traditionally been closed to such practices.

The role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn: Driving philosophical and conceptual renewal in language education

The multilingual turn refers to a recent series of shifts in the core philosophical underpinnings in traditional foreign and second language classroom practice. These changes promote the normalization of processes and practices characteristic of bi- /multilingual speakers. This, in turn, has stimulated new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom. The goal of this article is twofold: first to chart the central developments that have led to the emergence of the multilingual turn thus far, and second to provide an account of how classroom translanguaging is fundamental to present and future developments. We present the conceptual framework undergirding the multilingual turn, before providing an overview of traditional tenets of foreign and second language education. We then examine translanguaging and its implications for language education, and end with a presentation of strategies that may facilitate the implementation of the multilingual turn in the additional language classroom.

Celebrating the rich resources represented by African multilingualism and multiculturalism in education: discussant paper

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the contributions to this special issue in the context of the African Renaissance and the subsequent need to re-define educational development from a multilingual, multicultural and pan-African perspective. Each contribution offers a different angle to the discussion: a critique of Arabization in Morocco, with questions about whether a new medium of instruction policy will prioritize people’s own languages or French; an analysis of urban attitudes in Angola toward a new education policy providing for six mother tongues to be used in lower primary; a description of the challenges for stakeholders in the Seychelles to recognize that Seselwa, a creole, can be an acceptable medium of instruction; and an assessment of the opportunities and limitations in South Africa of classroom trans-languaging between African languages and English. A stronger voice needs to emerge on behalf of African languages and ways of knowing.

Translanguaging in Schools: Subiendo y Bajando, Bajando y Subiendo as Afterword

ABSTRACTTranslanguaging pedagogies are considered here as mechanisms that work against the normalizing ideology of monolingual and monoglossic school language. In so doing, we consider how this restrictive view of school language and of language education policy has served to minoritize bilingual students and act as an instrument to exert “coloniality of power.” We start by describing the translanguaging theory that supports the translanguaging pedagogies to educate bilingual minoritized youth that this special issue highlights. We then focus on how translanguaging pedagogies liberate the students’ multilingualism and heteroglossic practices. Keeping with the title here of “subiendo y bajando, bajando y subiendo,” we consider the restrictions that are imposed by rigid language policies, as teachers who enact translanguaging pedagogies negotiate them. We also reflect on the potential and contestations of translanguaging in classrooms, both bilingual and not. We end by thinking about the work that still remains to be done.