Translanguaging

[Admin]

I find the concept of translanguaging fascinating, and an equitable way of showing respect towards heritage languages while at the same time teaching English. However, it seems to be quite controversial still. Some questions:

1. Is translanguaging recommended and possible in ELT contexts in which international students study English in the US or UK (for example) in institutions where there is an "English only" policy for classrooms?

2. How can one effectively apply translanguaging to a classroom of mixed L1s (as opposed to all Spanish-speaking for instance)? I understand learning key phrases is a recommendation, but what exactly is a 'key phrase' from lesson to lesson, day to day? It seems challenging to learn key phrases in 7-8 different languages for the great number of lessons taught if you are a monolingual English teacher.

3. Can/should traslanguaging be used in academic English contexts?

[sameerco1971]

I think it is difficult for the teacher to translate for the students in their own language especially if they are mixed classes. I tried translating to monolingual classes but in very rare cases.

[Kunlong Jin]

A typical thing happened in a bilingual classroom is that teachers are using code-switching between 2 or more languages to make sense. Indeed, most of time, we will see teachers and students use body languages and gestures (i.e., non-verbal communication) to exchange meanings. Taken together, it is quite common to see a person, either teacher or student, to use his/her whole linguistic repertoire to facilitate the speech flow and make their words understood.

[tarveen20]

From the text: 'When a teacher makes an effort to use their students’ first language, it encourages the students to try to use English in turn.'
In my experience, when the teacher tries to use or uses their learners' first language, learners take advantage of the fact and insist on using this with each other, and the teacher, all the time. They know that the teacher understands them when they use their MT, and so they feel less motivation/ compulsion to use English.
Also,in the Indian context,it is usual to see that learners' spoken errors in English come from the translation that they undertake from their MT. These become fossilized over time, e.g, 'What is your good name?' comes from 'aapka shubh naam kya hai', 'shubh' meaning auspicious, here it is a polite form of address.

[Daniel Palmer]

I've found over the course of teaching English to many different nationalities, that students will often translate idioms directly from their first language. Sometimes idiomatic expressions are similar enough to only require a minimum of negotiation of meaning within the class, but other times the idiom seemed almost nonsensical! This worked each way between me (a native English speaker) and my students, and between themselves.

[abdisyam]

To my understanding, translanguaging happens when the speakers master the same number of languages that they can switch from one code to another to convey meaning more effectively. I think it is common in multilingual communities, but I think it is hard to translanguaging if I mention a word from a language that my listener does not know. In my opinion, applying translanguaging in ELT classroom of mix L1s seems challenging if not impossible.

[Nidhi Lakhisarani]

May 11, 2020 20:20:00 GMT Admin said:

I find the concept of translanguaging fascinating, and an equitable way of showing respect towards heritage languages while at the same time teaching English. However, it seems to be quite controversial still. Some questions:

1. Is translanguaging recommended and possible in ELT contexts in which international students study English in the US or UK (for example) in institutions where there is an "English only" policy for classrooms?

2. How can one effectively apply translanguaging to a classroom of mixed L1s (as opposed to all Spanish-speaking for instance)? I understand learning key phrases is a recommendation, but what exactly is a 'key phrase' from lesson to lesson, day to day? It seems challenging to learn key phrases in 7-8 different languages for the great number of lessons taught if you are a monolingual English teacher.

3. Can/should traslanguaging be used in academic English contexts?

I think I can answer one of your questions with an example. I am a teacher from India. Most people here are multilingual. It is very common for us to conduct classes of English in more than one language. In fact, we tend to use more of expressions of other languages in order to make them understand. Sometimes, we also translate things for them and that works! For instance, I teach in Ahmedabad which is a city in the state of Gujarat. I make sure I have elements of Hindi (national language) and Gujarati (regional language) along with English (target language) so that they can understand better.

[Tom Le Seelleur Lisburn, NI]

My classes are a mixed nationality group of learners in an ESOL FE college who want to progress with their English for a variety of reasons. Half the class are Syrian refugees and the other half a mixture of European and South Americans. I try to use a few phrases in their language to show I have both a cultural interest as well as a linguistic one. This concept of using different languages (Translanguage) to communicate has been going on for hundreds of years and not a new idea. I only speak English with a little passive knowledge of Spanish and Arabic. As my students are learning in Northern Ireland their motivation is to interact with English speakers and less with other nationalities because their want to join mainstream vocational classes where the vast majority (if not all) of the students on the course are native speakers of English. However, Northern Irish English is quite different in many ways to mainland English so students are aware that they need to hear regional accents and dialects of English to help them in life, work, society and communities. I have no further questions that haven't been asked by other students.

[evarojo]

I think that anything that can help the learner to improve their linguistic competence is an asset. Using the learner's first language can boost their confidence on what they are learning in a way that you make them, and their first language, feel valued. There is no harm in switching from one language to another to help them comprehend better. I have done it in my bilingual English lessons to Spanish students, in which the policy is English only. If it is bilingual here you go, switching from one language to another in any kind of situation. I have colleagues who teach grammar in English and I just do not see the point, they will fid hard to understand grammatical terms in Spanish, so even harder in English.

[Amaryllis]

I agree with the description in the interview with Ofelia García that translanguaging can be understood as code-switching when observed from the outside, but when experienced from inside the mind of the bilingual/multilingual speaker, it involves moving beyond languages and including personal mental concepts to create meaning.

I think this concept is especially interesting where ELF and young children are concerned, as many countries are now introducing English at primary/pre- school, and competence in L1 is crucial for learning other languages. Does anyone teach English for Young Learners? Are children being encouraged to develop competence in their L1 before and not after English?

[Amaryllis]

May 11, 2020 20:20:00 GMT Admin said:

3. Can/should traslanguaging be used in academic English contexts?

Even in an academic context, I find that students perform better once they feel that their language and culture are valuable assets to the class. I have found that students are better prepared for EAP if they write narrative and reflective accounts (in English) of experiences involving their language and culture and then share them with their classmates. The psychological and social benefits are enormous and then their English language performance improves too. So while using English as the medium of instruction, I think that we can still allow students to move beyond languages in this way. Not sure if what I’m trying to say makes any sense …?

[Amaryllis]

May 26, 2020 15:09:56 GMT tarveen20 said:

From the text: 'When a teacher makes an effort to use their students’ first language, it encourages the students to try to use English in turn.'
In my experience, when the teacher tries to use or uses their learners' first language, learners take advantage of the fact and insist on using this with each other, and the teacher, all the time. They know that the teacher understands them when they use their MT, and so they feel less motivation/ compulsion to use English.
Also,in the Indian context,it is usual to see that learners' spoken errors in English come from the translation that they undertake from their MT. These become fossilized over time, e.g, 'What is your good name?' comes from 'aapka shubh naam kya hai', 'shubh' meaning auspicious, here it is a polite form of address.

I agree that using words from the students’ L1 sometimes makes them feel that it’s easier to communicate with the teacher in their L1 rather than in English. And in a mixed language group, it places a huge responsibility on the teacher to learn expressions from each language. What may be more useful is asking students to share how they would say something in their language or react to something in their culture, so that we build a cross-cultural awareness in class without making this the role of the teacher and without reducing the amount of time spent interacting in English. Not sure if this makes any sense either?

[tony]

In some cases students may feel discouraged to speak English as soon as they realise that their teacher of English can not only understand but also speak their mother tongue, thus asking a pretty reasonable question: 'if we can freely communicate using our L1, why bother learning English then?'. For that reason, I sympathise with the English-only classroom concept, according to which teachers minimise their interactions with the students in languages other than English.

[Ulla]

I find the concept of translanguaging very interesting. In my particular context (Austria), the home languages of learners from non-German speaking backgrounds (e.g. Bosnian, Turkish, Romanian...) generally don't play a role in school. There is a persistent view that these languages only get in the way of learning German (the language of instruction) properly. In my experience, it is rare for teachers to see their students' ability to speak languages other than German and the languages they study at school as positive. I therefore really like the idea of applying translanguaging strategies in the English classroom to redress this a bit. If a teacher shows interest in the students' home language, this may boost the students' confidence and help them to see themselves as multilinguals, not 'defective' German speakers. However, if the teacher does not speak the language in question, are there also linguistic benefits? If I encourage a student to tell the class the Albanian equivalent of an English phrase, but I don't speak Albanian, I obviously can't verify if the Albanian phrase is correct. Are there still positive effects on the language learning process?

[miabae]

I can't think of a consistent use of translanguaging in my every day classes. We have an English-only-whenever-possible policy. However, tranglanguaging can be used effectively in special projects and extra workshops for students of English.