Translanguaging as Collaborative Pedagogy: Affordances of Translanguaging for Scaffolding Collaborative Learning in the Multilingual Classroom

• In Event: 67.035 - Multimodality in Bilingual Learners' Practices

Abstract

This session presents findings from a case study of two Grade 5 classrooms in a multilingual elementary school in Malaysia where three languages are used during learning. Bringing together sociocultural theory and translanguaging, this study applies sociocultural discourse analysis to study the affordances of translanguaging for supporting collaborative learning among multilingual learners. Analysis of students’ collaborative interactions, classroom observations, field notes, and student artefacts revealed that translanguaging enabled learners to scaffold each other linguistically, conceptually, affectively, and socially. Translanguaging also provided important multimodal and sociocultural affordances by allowing learners to draw on multiple semiotic resources and their shared sociocultural knowledge during their collaborative dialogues. This session discusses the pedagogical implications of this research for developing a student-led collaborative learning pedagogy.

Author

• Shakina Rajendram, University of Toronto