How a Secondary EFL Classroom Can Be a Translanguaging Space

• In Event: Cultivating Bi/multilingual Learners' Full Range of Knowledge(s) and Skill(s): The Promise of Translanguaging Spaces

Abstract

In this superdiverse, multimodal and multilingual world (Bloomaert, 2013), language users, inclusive of English language learners in EFL contexts, could be considered to traverse between different linguistic and semiotic repertoires as seen in the changing views on language uses, i.e., translanguaging (García & Li Wei, 2014). However, instead of integrating the fluid nature of translanguaging into English teaching (Turnbull, 2016), language separation and monoglossic ideology dominate English teaching in many EFL contexts (Escobar, 2019), including South Korean EFL where word-to-word grammar translation dominates.

This case study (Stake, 1995), as part of a bigger case study project, explores how South Korean EFL middle school students and I as their English teacher were engaged with translanguaging to make meanings in afterschool book club discussions and subsequent writing activities by using a wordless picture book Flotsam, which is about the imagination and exploration of the mystery of the deep ocean. The case study project was based on the weekly after school book club that I organized and managed in 2016 as an in-service English teacher in South Korea. Book club members were not penalized for non-standardized usage of English sentences or Korean ways of using English (Konglish). The 15 book club members, who were eighth and ninth grade South Korean students, gathered every Monday after school, discussed the weekly assigned readings of children’s and young adult literature written in English and wrote their final thoughts while using the language they wanted to use (English, Korean, or intermixing English and Korean) for both discussions and writing. I also tried to model translanguaging by moving between or intermixing Korean and English when facilitating the discussions.

This presentation will particularly share how three ninth-grade focal students made meanings via translanguaging while discussing on and individually writing about the visual images of the picturebook with the help of the teacher-researcher’s facilitation. The particular weekly book club discussions regarding this picture book took place for 6 weeks (one meeting per week) from August 22nd to September 26th of 2016, which were audio-recorded. The gathered data included transcripts of the book club discussions (N=6), participants’ written responses (N=18, 3 students x 6 weeks), and observation notes. Using the theory of translanguaging as a theoretical framework, themes found based on primary coding and pattern coding (Miles et al., 2019) of the data include 1) co-creation of meanings and refined ideas by intermingling peers’ and teachers’ knowledge and meaning-making resources in English and Korean, 2) moving between different semiotic modes to generate meanings in developing English for speaking and writing.

This study showed the promising aspects of translanguaging pedagogy in EFL. In the translanguaging space created for and through book club activities, the secondary EFL emergent bilinguals did not have to feel ashamed of using Korean, which instead proffered them rich linguistic repertoires to think and write. Moreover, they were able to learn that foreign language learning did not have to be print-centric and word-to-word translation with a sole focus on target language acquisition, which still dominates the South Korean secondary EFL curriculum.

Author

• Eun Young Yeom, University of Georgia - Athens