The cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive affordances of translanguaging

Abstract

Abstract The translanguaging turn in language education offers a new perspective on multilingualism by positing that multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire rather than two or more autonomous language systems (García, O. & L. Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave MacMillan). When learners engage in translanguaging, they draw on all the features from their repertoire in a flexible and integrated way (Otheguy, R., O. García & W Reid. 2015. Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3). 281–307. DOI:10.1515/applirev-2015-0014). While much of the current literature on language teaching advocates teachers’ use of pedagogical translanguaging, less research has focused on the pedagogical affordances of student-led translanguaging, especially in contexts with dominant monolingual norms. This paper presents the results of a case study exploring the affordances of translanguaging in two multilingual Grade 5 English language classrooms in Malaysia where English-only policies and practices were enforced by the teachers, but where translanguaging was used agentively by learners during their peer-to-peer interactions. The primary data sources for this six-month-long study included 100 30–90 min-long video recordings of 55 learners working together in small groups on various collaborative language learning activities, and member-checking interviews with the learners. The study was grounded in sociocultural theory and translanguaging, and employed a methodology of sociocultural discourse analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that in both classrooms, learners resisted the English-only policies and practices by using translanguaging widely and strategically throughout their collaborative peer-to-peer interactions. The use of translanguaging fulfilled 100 important cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive functions that supported their individual and collective learning. The results of this study provide us with a view of translanguaging as collaborative and agentive, socioculturally situated and culturally responsive, and a resource for learning as well as a process of learning. The study makes recommendations for a language learning pedagogy that creates opportunities for learners to move language policies from the ground up through their collaborative use of translanguaging.