Multilingual competencies: Discursive practices in a multilingual classroom

• In Event: Highlighted session: Multilingual teaching in schools and in homes

Proposal

Abstract
Historically teachers have been the keepers of language purism in classrooms for excellence in school languages. However, research is continuously showing that multilingual speakers do not consider the linguistic boundaries but rather use their multiple communicative repertoires as an integrated system to maximize the communicative potential. Through ethnographic research methods, this paper reports on the discursive practices of a Kenyan rural fourth grade classroom during English language arts and science lessons. The findings indicate the importance of multilingual literacies in literacy learning among multilingual children. I argue that restrictive language policies that push for fixity in the globalizing times disconnect learners from their daily realities. I call for reconstruction of multilingual pedagogy in order to capitalize on the strength of the learners, teachers and linguistic communities, through heteroglossic multilingual education that embraces students’ languages and language varieties in language learning and literacy development.
Key words: Multilingualism, literacies, discourses, heteroglossia






The Discursive Practices in a Multilingual Classroom
Multilingualism is a phenomenon manifested today in educational settings all over the world (Blackledge & Creese, 2010; Garcia, 2009; Grosjean, 2010; Wright, 2000). It was ideologically obscured in Europe during the 17th and the 18th centuries through the rationalization process of one-nation, one-language campaigns that led to suppression of certain languages and enactment of language standardization movements in the 19th and 20th centuries (Adams, 2003; Adams, et al. 2002; Franceschini, 2011). Standardization movements shaped language and literacy research and embraced monolingual ideology as a norm, rather than as a social ideological and political construct. In 1884 the division of Africa by the European powers resulted in English, French, or Portuguese as the languages of instruction (LOI) in African countries. Monolingual views of literacy pervade literacy research in Africa despite the inherent linguistic and cultural diversity. The monolingual orientations to literacy research and education have led to substantial educational challenges throughout the world for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Multilingual literacies remain largely understudied or studied through monolingual lens, thus, leading to misunderstandings of multilingual learning; such as viewing bilinguals as “two monolinguals in one” (Grojean, 2010); this perpetuates a narrow definition of literacy that is predominantly informed by a monolingual ideology. The paucity of in-depth research studies on multilingual literacies and resources contrast with the current world trends in which multilingualism is the norm in schools. Currently, there is little research on multilingualism and multilingual resources in Kenyan elementary schools and how they are appropriated in classrooms. In this research, therefore, I attempt to answer the following questions:
(a) How are the children’s linguistic repertoires utilized in a rural classroom?
(b) How do the use of linguistic resources include or exclude students’ participation in knowledge construction?
These questions were answered through data collected from a Kenyan rural fourth grade classroom. Kenyan rural classroom was a rich source of data for this research study within the broader concept of a rich linguistic heritage.
Objectives
The first objective of this study is to show agentive ways in which students and teachers bridge the gap between institutional and authoritative monolingualism and their lived realities of everyday classroom practices. The second objective is to discuss and advance the dialogue about how multilingualism in classrooms affect knowledge construction and acquisition, and how it impacts structurally and socially the languages in contact. In Kenya, the pervasiveness of multiple languages has been a pretext for adoption of exclusionary, monolingual language policies requiring use of English only, to the detriment of democratization of knowledge acquisition and indigenous knowledge production (Bokamba, 2011; Kiramba, 2015). The paucity of in-depth research studies on multilingual literacies and resources contrast with the current world trends in which multilingualism is the norm in schools.
Significance of the Study
The contributions of this study are threefold. First, the examination of multilingual language practices in Kenya has the potential to inform language policies in other multilingual classroom settings. The insights gleaned from the research may provide new ways on how to help students that speak a myriad of languages in local schools. Multilingual nations may realize the need to balance referenda that limit bilingual education to develop multilingual students who can meet the challenges of globalism and the need for multilingual citizens.
Second, this study creates a greater awareness of the relation between LOI and tensions of literacy access in multilingual settings. This work may inspire similar research in areas with stable multilingualism and may provide information to policy makers on adopting policies that acknowledge multiple languages as resources for learning.
Third, through interrogation of the complexities of multilingual communicative practices in the classroom, we gain insight into the translanguaging practices, which is not extensively studied in classroom discourse. This insight reveals, at the micro level, the engagements and negotiations among students and students and the teacher. Through close examination of the interplay among students, teacher and administrators’ perspectives and expectations, macro issues of culture, ideologies, authority and other constraints in literacy learning that needs to be addressed.
Theoretical Perspectives
To investigate classroom discourses in the classroom, I employed sociocultural (Vygotsky 1978; Bakthin 1981) theoretical perspectives of literacy. The sociocultural perspectives are important for understanding sociocultural contexts and influences that shape communicative practices in the classroom.
Methodology
I used qualitative approach in this study. Qualitative approach highlights the use of natural settings, interpretation of reality grounded in the empirical world, construction of meaning through interaction with participants, and descriptive analysis of data (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). The study took place in a primary school in Kenya selected on the basis of its rural setting. I used case study methods because I have no control of participants’ behavior. Case study is the study of particularity and complexity of a single case (Stake, 1995). The participants for this study are 28 fourth grade children and four teachers who were selected purposively (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). Fourth grade was chosen because it is the transitioning year from mother tongue to English-only instruction, and student by this stage have stable multilingualism. The data sources included field notes from daily classroom observations, audio recordings of classroom discourse, open-ended interviews, and documents. The collected data are analyzed at five stages following “framework analysis” (Miles & Huberman, 2002) that “involves a systematic process of sifting, charting and sorting material according to key issues and themes” (p. 310).
Findings
The findings of this study show that multilinguals use multiple semiotic resources to negotiate meaning and to meet their communicative needs. Second, restrictive language policies that push for fixity in the globalizing times silence and disconnect learners from their daily realities, and could be detrimental in their learning process. The rural marginalized children are excluded from knowledge production, and, thus, continued educational and economic inequities in the nation.

Author

• Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, University of Nebraska Lincoln