Translanguaging in an academic writing class: Implications for a dialogic pedagogy (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
Literacy challenges among the majority of African-language speaking students learning through the medium of English impact on unequal throughput in South African higher education. To address this social injustice issue, academic literacy practitioners have a critical role to play in the inclusion of linguistic diversity in higher education. This requires that the curriculum be revised in such a way that classroom activities and assessments give recognition to students’ African languages. In this paper, we outline how translanguaging as a teaching and learning approach promises to develop literacy in both the students’ African languages and English. The paper describes a summary skills development teaching approach and its accompanying activities which enable the students to move between isiZulu and English. The summary writing activities are followed by a guided reflection note from students on their perceptions and experiences of the new communicative approach that has been introdu...
Ethno-linguistically diverse South African students' writing
Per Linguam, 2019
One of the major challenges for designers of academic literacy programmes is to accommodate culturally and linguistically diverse student groups. This longitudinal study was conducted with pre-service teachers at Stellenbosch University to determine their understanding of the importance of good writing and ways in which they can use translanguaging to assist them in their writing. This study has also been viewed against the backdrop of multilingualism in South Africa, with the notion of socio-cognitive processes and its influence on the students' ability to write. The aim of this study was to explore what students regard as good writing and to identify the kinds of strategies that multilingual students use when they write extended texts. When pondering on the holistic view of the findings, this study endorses the use of home languages in the educational practice of academic writing, but with particular caveats. The findings reveal that academic writing entails more than mere grammatical correctness on a surface level, but also involves taking cognisance of the second language learners' background and way of implementing mental structures derived from their home language.
Using Intercultural Rhetoric to Examine Translingual Practices in Graduate Students’ L2 Writing
Journal of Second Language Writing, 2019
This pilot study applies the three tenets of intercultural rhetoric (i.e., texts must be studied in context; culture is complex and dynamic; written discourse encounters necessitate negotiation and accommodation) to an investigation of the translingual practices of four postgraduate level second language (L2) writers of English. By using stimulated recall to probe the participants' awareness and use of L1 and L2 academic conventions in the writing process, we were able to identify the negotiation strategies they employed and to understand the linguistic or cultural factors that influenced those choices. Our findings revealed that participants' translingual negotiations varied, depending on their level of proficiency in English, field of study, and experience writing 2 academically in both their L1 and L2. Participants also tended to frame discussions of their academic writing in terms of both large, national cultures and small, disciplinary or classroom-based ones. Finally, this study illustrates how inquiries that highlight the social contexts and complexities of cross-cultural comparisons can be useful in operationalizing translingual concepts and developing evidence-based pedagogy for L2 writing.
Using intercultural rhetoric to examine translingual practices of postgraduate L2 writers of English
Journal of Second Language Writing
This pilot study applies the three tenets of intercultural rhetoric (i.e., texts must be studied in context; culture is complex and dynamic; written discourse encounters necessitate negotiation and accommodation) to an investigation of the translingual practices of four postgraduate level second language (L2) writers of English. By using stimulated recall to probe the participants' awareness and use of L1 and L2 academic conventions in the writing process, we were able to identify the negotiation strategies they employed and to understand the linguistic or cultural factors that influenced those choices. Our findings revealed that participants' translingual negotiations varied, depending on their level of proficiency in English, field of study, and experience writing 2 academically in both their L1 and L2. Participants also tended to frame discussions of their academic writing in terms of both large, national cultures and small, disciplinary or classroom-based ones. Finally, this study illustrates how inquiries that highlight the social contexts and complexities of cross-cultural comparisons can be useful in operationalizing translingual concepts and developing evidence-based pedagogy for L2 writing.
Translanguaging pedagogy in selected English First Additional Language writing classrooms
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2020
Research shows that English language proficiency remains a barrier to learning among second language learners in South Africa. This article foregrounds the utility of translanguaging practices in teaching writing to English First Additional Language, Further Education and Training (FET) learners in South Africa. Five secondary schools in the Pinetown District participated in the study. Qualitative methodologies were adopted, using classroom observations of English writing lessons in the five schools. Guided by sociocultural theory, the study highlights the extent to and ways in which translanguaging is useful in enhancing learning of writing in this context. The findings suggest that bilingual teachers creatively employed translanguaging practices for pedagogical and pastoral purposes. In situations where the integration of isiZulu and English better explained writing concepts, translanguaging was found to enhance learners' cognition of the writing concepts and to stimulate active participation in the learning of writing. The findings also suggest that translanguaging is a useful learning resource in multilingual contexts where the use of English only is an obstacle to effective learning. Finally, translanguaging recognises values and respects languages that bilingual learners bring to the school from home, and this restores learners' identity.
Beyond Monolingual Practices in Multilingual Writing Context: The role of Multilingual Practices in Sociocultural Dialoguing, 2022
There is limited research exploring the acquisition of composition as a sociocultural practice in multilingual discourse. This study offers a different perspective of composition acquisition, focusing on composition as a sociocultural activity that is facilitated by multilingual discourse. It aimed at exploring how multilingual practices in sociocultural dialoguing may affect learners' acquisition of writing abilities. It draws on audio recorded and written excerpts data collected in 3rd grade (16-yearolds) composition class, and works with sociocultural discourse analysis to analyze peer-peer dialoguing and therefore explore how multilingual practices scaffold learners as they participate in composing. The results showed that multilingual practices based on sociocultural dialoguing played an important role in students' composition development. When students dialogue in response to composition issues, they bring in their sociocultural knowledge, identities, and experiences that may affect and enrich their composition. Theoretical and pedagogical implications for multilingualism and composition research are discussed.
Beliefs of Students About Their Translanguaging Practices in a South African University
English Scholarship Beyond Borders, 2021
With the demise of apartheid following the advent of democracy in 1994, English language domination continues unabated in South African mainstream schools and institutions of higher learning. Consequently, the English language hegemony became a deficit to most students from less-affluent backgrounds who were required to learn the English language as the first additional. This situation follows as researchers agree that students learning English as First Additional Language (EFAL) battle with conceptualisation and struggle to classify added information at universities in South Africa. To help maximise the learners' and the teachers' linguistic resources in problem-solving and knowledge construction, this study explores the beliefs of students about their translanguaging practices during pre-writing at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. The central question was: What are the students' beliefs about their translanguaging practices in a South African university? This case study focused on five thirdyear students from the Bachelor of Education Undergraduate Class. The participants range in age 18 to 35. The researcher is an insider, presenting English Methodology to these students. The study was conducted through the students' pre-writing process with the Gibbons Curriculum Cycle aid to collect data. Translatability theory as a theoretical framework informed the study. The study revealed that when translanguaging is adopted, it accommodates cultural and linguistic practices negotiation. It is informed by plurality to reflect a broad diversity of global settings, whilst accommodating successful communication, including in our language classrooms.
Nonformal speech is often considered primary discourse and can be casually picked up in everyday conversational English. Formal English is considered secondary discourse and is usually learned through some form of apprenticeship in particular contexts. One would expect that after 12 years of instruction in English, students should at least be able to distinguish between conversational and formal English and would have enough proficiency in English to hold a sustained discussion. However, this is not always the case, particularly when reduced learner–teacher interaction occurs in English as a second language (ESL) contexts. Using a sample of a selected group of students, this enquiry mainly aimed to explore the English discourse skills some students from isiXhosa language homes and communities brought to the university as well as the English proficiency they demonstrated at the 2nd-year level. With a particular focus on a selected group of 2nd-year students, I set out to explore the spoken and written English proficiency of the students as well as the strategies they adopted to improve their proficiency. The conclusions and strategies for remedial action are thereafter discussed.
International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, 2014
The social interactions surrounding the act of composing have often been theorized as microcosms of teaching, as sites where the effects of talk are intensified, and where dialogic discourse, or internal speech made explicit, promotes learning. Although the importance of the voice and agency are recognized, and their influence often implicitly acknowledged, research on the speaking–writing connection has yet to incorporate a translingual approach that gives attention to agency and voice. This study attempts to address voice and agency in a two‐part discussion between a bilingual teacher and her Taiwanese undergraduate during a writing lab in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class. Discursive strategies for asserting agency and giving it voice are employed to create a shared dialogic context for reviewing, evaluating, and revising a written draft. A translingual approach to understanding the problem of dialogic context for supporting literacy practices creates both obstacles an...
Historically, some languages and discourses which were initially localised subsequently became regionally or even globally dominant. Currently, English is the dominant global language in all domains, including the academic. Thus academics and scholars from non-English backgrounds are at a disadvantage: they have to adhere to academic literacy conventions in a language in which they may not be completely proficient. This article discusses findings from a study of challenges experienced by a group of postgraduate students from Rwanda whose main languages are Kinyarwanda and French, but whose studies and research at a South African university were in English. Data were collected through questionnaires administered to 21 students and through interviews with four of these students and with three lecturers/research supervisors. Assignment tasks and lecturers' feedback on assignments and research work were also analysed. The findings suggest that, besides the challenges of studying and researching through the medium of English, these students' previous academic 'ways with words' differ from those expected by their lecturers and research supervisors. This article offers a critical discussion of these differences and