(Re)Theorizing Translanguaging Beyond Scaffolding: Analyzing Content and Language Integrated Learning Pedagogical Practices in a Science Class in Hong Kong

• In Event: 43.067 - (Re)Theorizing Translanguaging From Non-Anglo Contexts/Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
While translanguaging research have been gaining currency worldwide (e.g. Williams, 1994; Garcia & Li, 2014; Author 4, 2017a), some scholars argue that conceptualizing translanguaging mainly as scaffolding for developing L2 English risks reproducing language hierarchies (Author 4, 2017b; Author 4, et al., forthcoming). This paper attempts to address this issue in postcolonial contexts such as Hong Kong where such concerns are particularly pressing: As compared to Anglo contexts where translanguaging is usually advocated for immigrant children who have heterogenous minoritized L1s which are not used extensively in the larger society, students who can potentially benefit from translanguaging in Hong Kong are majority students who usually share an L1 (spoken Cantonese/written Chinese) and have developed a good foundation in L1 oracy and literacy as meaning-making resources in daily lives.
Perspectives
To address this issue, this paper draws on Bakhtin’s dialogic theory (Bakhtin, 1981; Bailey, 2007), Thibault’s distributed view of language (DVL) and concepts of first-order languaging and second-order language (Thibault, 2011; Li, 2017; Author 4, et al., forthcoming), and heuristic curriculum genres such as the Multimodalities-Entextualization-Cycle which proposes iterative shifting between using different kinds of linguistic and multimodal resources (Author 4, 2015, 2016).
Methods and Data Sources
An empirical study elucidating the translanguaging practices of a science teacher trying out CLIL (Content-and-Language-Integrated-Learning) methods in a Grade 10 biology class in Hong Kong will be presented. Data include classroom videos analyzed through fine-grained multimodal analysis (Heap, 1985; Kress et al., 2001), researcher field notes and interview narratives of the teacher and students.
Results
Our analysis shows that as the teacher tries out pedagogical suggestions from the Multimodalities-Entextualization-Cycle, a wide range of meaning-making resources are tactfully intertwined/entangled with equal importance (e.g. L1/L2 everyday/academic register features and multimodalities like visuals, actions, artefacts) such that traditional boundaries and hierarchies privileging L2 (English) over L1/local languages and academic registers over everyday registers are transcended, and students’ communicative and cultural repertoires are transformed and expanded. An interesting evidence is found in the interview report from many students that when they were writing about the scientific topic in academic English in their tests/assignments, the rich semiotics experienced through translanguaging/trans-semiotizing in the lessons co-existed vividly in their minds as crucial tools mediating their thinking, as a result of the teacher’s use of L1 everyday wordings, style of talking and analogy along with multimodalities connecting students’ everyday world to the scientific world, simultaneously inter-illuminating the complex scientific phenomena through using resources in their holistic, shared, expanding repertoires.
Scholarly Significance
This paper argues for further theorizing translanguaging, going beyond conceptualizing it mainly as scaffolding for developing L2. Rather, we present empirical evidence to show that all semiotic resources (e.g. L1, L2, multimodalities) are always co-existing with equal importance and are indispensable for expanding students’ communicative, semantic and cultural repertoires in spiral cycles without an end point (i.e. not just to master L2). Using heuristic curriculum genres like the Multimodalities-Entextualization-Cycle (Author 4, 2015, 2016) will also offer a promising direction for future researching and innovating with translanguaging pedagogies in different contexts.

Authors

• Yanming (Amy) WU, University of Hong Kong

• Angel Mei Yi Lin, Simon Fraser University

• Wenli Tsou, National Cheng Kung University