Translanguaging in Brazilian bilingual education: analyzing oral practices in fifth graders' interactions

Maryvone Morais; Lilian Hübner; Anamaria Welp

doi:10.5007/2175-8026.2023.e94548

Authors

Maryvone Cunha de Morais Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7537-9858
Lilian Cristine Hübner Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7876-2211
Anamaria Welp Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9015-4761

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2023.e94548

Keywords:

bilingual education, interaction, oral production, repertoire, translanguaging

Abstract

Drawing on Translanguaging theory, which views language as a holistic repertoire, this study examines how students’ translanguaging practices (TP) are manifested and for what purposes. The participants were seven fifth-grade peers in a bilingual school in Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese - English). Their TP were recorded during an oral task based on a wordless, short video stimulus. The data were qualitatively analyzed and coded. Results indicate that TP occurred spontaneously and for specific purposes. The most frequent TP use included gestures, task management, meaning negotiation, lexical creativity, syntactic translanguaging, peer correction, and form negotiation. Findings suggest that translanguaging pedagogy is valuable in bilingual contexts where minority languages are developed because it enables students to communicate freely and critically in a fluid and dynamic environment.

Author Biographies

Maryvone Cunha de Morais, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul

Maryvone Cunha de Morais holds a Master's degree in Languages from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS (2020-2022), a specialist in Bilingual Education (Ivoti Institute - 2019), and a Bachelor's degree in Languages and English from the State University of Ceará - UECE (2013). She is currently an English teacher at the Municipal Department of Education in Dois Irmãos/RS and she is also an English teacher in two private schools in Dois Irmãos and Ivoti. Her main areas of interest are language teaching, bilingual education, and translingualism.

Lilian Cristine Hübner, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul

LILIAN CRISTINE HÜBNER is an adjoined professor at the Humanities School in the Letras undergraduate and graduate courses (Linguistics) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). She is a CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) researcher, and coordinates the Group of Studies on Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (GENP) (CNPq/PUCRS). She holds a Master’s degree in Language Acquisition from UFRGS and a Doctoral degree in Letras - English and Linguistics from UFSC. She is a founder member of RCpE (Rede da Ciência para a Educação). Her main research areas are language and cognition in bi/multilingualism, in healthy and cognitively impaired aging (including Alzheimer’s disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment), as well as in cerebrovascular lesions, using structural and functional neuroimaging methods. Her main research approaches include reading, and semantic and discourse processing. He has developed instruments and batteries for language and other cognitive constructs assessment in healthy and clinical groups of varying ages.

Anamaria Welp, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

Anamaria Welp holds a master’s and a PhD in Languages and Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. She is an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and works at the English Language Teaching Program. She is a permanent professor at the Graduate Program in Language Studies, in the line of research in Applied Linguistics. She held a postdoctoral internship at the Universidad de Málaga, by Fundación Carolina, and at the City University of New York, by the Fulbright Commission. Her main research interests are in the areas of teacher education, literacy, task design for additional language teaching, language policy, internationalization and bilingual education. She was an advisor professor of the English-Portuguese Languages subproject of the Pedagogical Residency Program at UFRGS, from 2020 to 2022. She is editor-in-chief of Bem Legal Journal.

References

Alegría De La Colina, A., & Del Pilar García Mayo, M. (2009). Oral interaction in task-based EFL learning: The use of the L1 as a cognitive tool. IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 47(3–4), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2009.014

Axelrod, Y., & Cole, M. W. (2018). ‘The pumpkins are coming…vienen las calabazas…that sounds funny’: Translanguaging practices of young emergent bilinguals. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(1), 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798418754938

Baker, B., & Hope, A. (2019). Incorporating translanguaging in language assessment: The case of a test for university professors. Language Assessment Quarterly, No Pagination Specified-No Pagination Specified. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2019.1671392

Barbour, C., & Lickorish Quinn, K. (2020). Los pájaros are feliz and are dreaming about gwiazdy: facilitating translingual creative writing in the primary classroom. English in Education, 54(1), 6–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2019.1703553

Bengochea, Alain, & Gort, Mileidis. 2020. Translanguaging for varying discourse functions in sociodramatic play: an exploratory multiple case study of young emergent bilinguals. International Journal Of Bilingual Education And Bilingualism. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1799319

Cano, J., & Ruiz, N. T. (2020). “Wait! I don’t get it! Can we translate?”: Explicit collaborative translation to support emergent bilinguals’ reading comprehension in the intermediate grades. Bilingual Research Journal, 43(2), 157–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2020.1738286

Cenoz, J. (2017). Translanguaging in School Contexts: International Perspectives. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 16(4), 193–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2017.1327816

Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2021). Pedagogical Translanguaging Jasone Cenoz and Durk Gorter (Vol. 4407). PUC do Rio Grande do Sul.

Coady, M. R., Makalela, L., & Lopez, M. P. S. (2019). Metaliteracy and writing among 4th grade multilingual students in South Africa. International Journal of Multilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2019.1631829

Cohen, C., Bauer, E., & Minniear, J. (2021). Exploring how language exposure shapes oral narrative skills in French-English emergent bilingual first graders. Linguistics and Education, 63, 100905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2021.100905

Dicamilla, F. J., & Antón, M. (2012). Functions of L1 in the collaborative interaction of beginning and advanced second language learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (United Kingdom), 22(2), 160–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2011.00302.x

García, O. (2019). Translanguaging: a coda to the code? Classroom Discourse, 10(3–4), 369–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2019.1638277

García, O., Flores, N., Seltzer, K., Wei, L., Otheguy, R., & Rosa, J. (2021). Rejecting abyssal thinking in the language and education of racialized bilinguals: A manifesto. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 18(3), 203-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2021.1935957

García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A. (2018). Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Learners. 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-8077-5885-4 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8077-7676-6 (e-book).

García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A. (2019). Translanguaging and literacies. Reading Research Quarterly, No Pagination Specified-No Pagination Specified. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.286

García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. In Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765

Hidalgo, M. Á., & Lázaro-Ibarrola, A. (2020). Task repetition and collaborative writing by efl children: Beyond caf measures. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 10(3), 501–522. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2020.10.3.5

Lau, S. M. C., Tian, Z., & Lin, A. M. (2021). Critical literacy and additional language learning: An expansive view of translanguaging for change-enhancing possibilities. In The handbook of critical literacies (pp. 381-390). Routledge.

Lee, C., & García, G. E. (2020). Unpacking the oral translanguaging practices of Korean-American first graders. Bilingual Research Journal, 43(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2019.1703844

Lin, A. M. (2019). Theories of trans/languaging and trans-semiotizing: Implications for content-based education classrooms. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(1), 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1515175

Lin, A. M., & He, P. (2017). Translanguaging as dynamic activity flows in CLIL classrooms. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 16(4), 228-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2017.1328283

Lucena, M. I. P., & Cardoso, A. C. (2018). Translinguagem como recurso pedagógico: uma discussão etnográfica sobre práticas de linguagem em uma escola bilíngue. Calidoscópio, 16(1), 143–151. https://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/calidoscopio/article/view/cld.2018.161.13

Martin-Beltrán, M., Montoya-Ávila, A., García, A. A., Peercy, M. M., & Silverman, R. (2019). ‘Time for una pregunta’: understanding Spanish use and interlocutor response among young English learners in cross-age peer interactions while reading and discussing text. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1515176

Maseko, K., & Mkhize, D. N. (2019). Translanguaging mediating reading in a multilingual South African township primary classroom. International Journal of Multilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2019.1669608

Milozo, G. N., & Gattolin, S. R. B. (2019). “Eles començam sanguear”: translinguagem como prática criativa e de construção de conhecimento em Português Língua Estrangeira. Pensares em Revista, (15). https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2022.2143089

Mora, R. A., Tian, Z., Harman, R. (2022). Translanguaging and multimodality as flow, agency, and a new sense of advocacy in and from the Global South. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 17(4), 271-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2022.2143089

Morais, M. C., Hübner, L. C., & Welp, A. (2023). Translanguaging in Brazilian bilingual education: analyzing attitudes and perceptions of translanguaging practices in fifth-grade students and their teachers. Revista do Gelne, Revista do GELNE, v. 25, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.21680/1517-7874.2023v25n1ID29882

Noguerón-Liu, S. (2020). Expanding the Knowledge Base in Literacy Instruction and Assessment: Biliteracy and Translanguaging Perspectives From Families, Communities, and Classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S307–S318. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.354

Noguerón-Liu, S., Shimek, C. H., & Bahlmann Bollinger, C. (2020). ‘Dime De Que Se Trató/Tell me what it was about’: Exploring emergent bilinguals’ linguistic resources in reading assessments with parent participation. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(2), 411–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798418770708

Orcasitas-Vicandi, M. (2019). Lexical crosslinguistic influence in Basque-Spanish bilinguals’ English (L3) writing. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 0(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1701979

Ossa Parra, M., & Proctor, C. P. (2021). Translanguaging to Understand Language. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3011

Plakans, L., Liao, J.-T., & Wang, F. (n.d.). Integrated Assessment Research: Writing-into-Reading. In Language Teaching (Vol. 51, Issue 3, pp. 430–434).

Poza, L. E. (2018). The language of ciencia: Translanguaging and learning in a bilingual science classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2015.1125849

Rafi, Abu Saleh M., & Morgan, Anne-Marie. 2022. Linguistic ecology of Bangladeshi higher education: A translanguaging perspective. Teaching in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2045579

Seltzer, K., & García, O. (2018). Topic Brief: Translanguaging and Dual Language Bilingual Education Classrooms. CUNY-NYSIEB topic brief. p. 1- 11. The framework forthis brief was adaptedfrom the article Reframing language allocation policy in dual language bilingual education by Sánchez, M. T., García, O., & Solorza, C. (2017).

Wang, D. (2019). Translanguaging in Chinese foreign language classrooms: students and teachers’ attitudes and practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1231773

Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039

Wei, L., & García, O. (2022). Not a first language but one repertoire: Translanguaging as a decolonizing project. RELC Journal, 53(2), 313-324. https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882221092841

Welp, A., & García, O. (2022). A pedagogia translíngue e a elaboração de tarefas na formação integral do educando brasileiro. Ilha Do Desterro A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, 75(1). https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2022.e82165

Wu, Y., & Lin, A. M. (2019). Translanguaging and trans-semiotising in a CLIL biology class in Hong Kong: Whole-body sense-making in the flow of knowledge co-making. Classroom Discourse, 10(3-4), 252-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2019.1629322