An Investigation of Translanguaging as Language Policy in Chinese Higher Education (76073)
Session Chair: Chandra Mohan Vasudeva Panicker
Saturday, 25 November 2023 10:50
Session: Session 1
Room: Room F (Live Stream)
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
In recent years, translanguaging has begun to gain momentum in English language classrooms in China to challenge the traditionally dominant monolingual approach. Previous studies acknowledged the great pedagogical potential of translanguaging in language learning (e.g., Mazak et al., 2017; Cenoz & Santos, 2020). However, influenced by the monolingual ideology, teachers’ attitudes towards translanguaging remain ambiguous. To this end, this qualitative study aims to recognise the role of translanguaging as policy with Bonacina-Pugh’s (2012) tripartite model of language policy as "text","discourse", and "practice" by analysing related documents and interviewing four in-service teachers. Specifically, the research addresses three research questions: 1) the governmental and scholastic plan or policy of the use of language(s) in classrooms; 2) teachers’ beliefs and ideologies on translanguaging; and 3) classroom practices of translanguaging. The study suggests that there is no explicit language policy for classroom practices at "text" level, giving teachers and students autonomy for language practices; English-only policy is highly evaluated, yet a translanguaging space is allowed in the classroom for students to better express themselves at "discourse" level; and translanguaging is employed for different purposes but mainly to facilitate students’ comprehension and to strengthen communication at "practice" level. Translanguaging as pedagogy can be employed in future language education because of its affordances. Moreover, it highlights the pivotal role translanguaging played in raising teachers’ awareness of challenging the view of English-only being the best practice and helping language learning more effectively.
Authors:
Summer Wang, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Andrew Yu, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
About the Presenter(s)
Ms Summer Wang is a University Postgraduate Student at University of Edinburgh in United Kingdom
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