Translanguaging for Doing Gender in English-Medium Liberal Studies Classrooms: Toward Critical CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in Plurilingual Settings

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Translanguaging and Criticality in Multilingual Classrooms and Communities (Table 1)

Abstract

There has been fruitful research on plurilingual pedagogy for language attainment in content and language integrated learning (CLIL). However, little is known about how to help students contest structures of domination in CLIL. This study thus explores the construction of gender in Hong Kong Grade 11 English-medium Liberal Studies lessons, which aim to enhance critical thinking on social issues and L2 English literacy skills. It is found that gender was (re)constructed by conflicting multilingual and multimodal discourses in the formal curriculum, school lesson materials, and classroom interaction. It reveals that teachers can facilitate critical CLIL by creating a translanguaging and trans-registering space utilizing students’ familiar L1 everyday discourses and multimodal practices and enabling encounters of different voices in the classroom.

Author

• Yiqi Liu, The Education University of Hong Kong