Session Information
31 SES 02 C, Building Competence via Translanguaging
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper discusses the development and use of a translanguaging pedagogy in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes with young learners (kindergarten and elementary school level) in the context of the officially bilingual Province of Friesland, the Netherlands (with Dutch and the regional minority language Frisian). Traditional teaching of EFL sees immersion as the most adequate method for teaching, which leads to a pedagogy of language separation. With the increase of multilingual pupils in European schools and new insights from research claiming that language skills are transferable across languages, varieties and registers (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; Cummins, 2008; Duarte & Gogolin, 2013) the use of the language separation approach is being questioned. This is also the case in the province of Friesland where the settingis a typical case of a region still in the process of consolidating the position of a regional minority language in education, while at the same time dealing with increasing migration-induced diversity (Duarte & Günther-van der Meij, 2018a).
In this paper, first, a holistic model for multilingualism in education (Duarte, 2017; Duarte & Günther-van der Meij, 2018b) and its relation to teaching EFL is presented. The model places pedagogical practices along a continuum, oscillating between the acknowledgement of languages and their full use in education. Then examples of multilingual activities for EFL - combining a translanguaging approach with five plurilingual approaches: language awareness, language comparison, receptive multilingualism, CLIL and immersion methodologies, will be discussed. The examples are drawn from two research projects set in the Province of Friesland that focus on a holistic approach of multilingualism in primary education, including all languages pupils have at their disposal. Exemplary transcripts from English classrooms will also be presented and discussed in which we focus on the role of translanguaging in interaction, distinguishing three types of functions: symbolic, scaffolding and epistemological.
Method
For the current paper a total of 20 hours of videographic observations were recorded in three project schools. These were used in order to analyse plurilingual interaction following a conversation analysis methodology (Heritage & Clayman, 2010). Recordings were made during the implementation of the holistic model for multilingualism in education used in both research projects. We explore here excerpts of classroom interaction of EFL classes in which a holistic multilingual perspective has been applied and focus on the different function of translanguaging in and for the learning of EFL in EFL settings. The four selected excerpts were chosen according to the following criteria: a) they show different types of interaction patterns; b) they illustrate the teaching of English in both language and content-subjects; c) they include different types of languages (national, foreign, migrant and regional minority). The four selected excerpts will be discussed in terms of 1) what approaches they use from the holistic model for multilingualism in education and 2) the function of translanguaging.
Expected Outcomes
The projects and the activities were perceived as very positive by the participating schools. Some shortcomings were that the activities focused mostly on oral skills. In the next phase of the projects (that are currently still in their developmental phase) we aim to focus on that more, when new schools get involved. We could however identify two relevant trends in the context of early EFL teaching from a plurilingual perspective; namely: (a) the realization that English is not the only language to be favored in the practices and curricula but that it can easily co-exist with different languages; (2) the active promotion of plurilingualism in mainstream English education by stepping away with the chronological addition of separate languages. We believe that the holistic model for plurilingualism in education and the different translanguaging functions, focusing on EFL classes, are very well transferable to other contexts than the Province of Friesland. Firstly, relating and incorporating other languages in the EFL classroom can enhance content and language learning and this is not only applicable for the Province of Friesland. Even more so, the societal and education challenge of catering for needs of migrant, minority and majority pupils in relation to their language development and scholastic achievement is a worldwide phenomenon. Secondly, we believe that the holistic approach is transferable to other contexts as it steps away from isolating and separating several plurilingual approaches and combines all in a more fluid and more natural learning approach (Cenoz & Gorter, 2013). For this to succeed, adequate teacher professionalization for EFL classes is needed, using official translanguaging within different plurilingual approaches. We also need to exchange best practices across national and regional settings. This way we will learn whether translanguaging within the context of EFL teaching in primary education can really be successful.
References
Cenoz, J. & Gorter, D. (2013). Towards a plurilingual approach in English language teaching: softening the boundaries between languages. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 591–599. Cenoz, J. & Gorter, D. (Eds.) (2015). Multilingual Education. Between Language Learning and Translanguaging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. (2008). Teaching for transfer: Challenging the two solitudes assumptions in bilingual education. In N. H. Hornberger (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 1528–1538). New York: Springer. Duarte, J. (2017). Project proposal 3M project (Meer Kansen Met Meertaligheid). Leeuwarden: NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. Duarte, J., & Gogolin, I. (2013). Linguistic superdiversity in educational institutions. In J. Duarte & I. Gogolin (Eds.), Linguistic superdiversity in urban areas. Research approaches (pp. 1–24). Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Duarte, J., & Günther-van der Meij, M.T. (2018a). Drietalige basisscholen in Friesland: een gouden greep in tijden van toenemende diversiteit? In O. Agirdag & E.-R. Kambel (Eds.), Meertaligheid en onderwijs: Nederlands plus (pp. 90–102). Amsterdam: Boom. Duarte, J., & Günther-van der Meij, M.T. (2018b). A holistic model for multilingualism in education. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages Special Issue, 5(2), 24–43. Heritage, J., & Clayman, S. (2010). Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities and Institutions. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.