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Translanguaging in EFL with students transitioning to secondary school : Towards a best practice

Källkvist, Marie LU orcid ; Gyllstad, Henrik LU ; Sandlund, Erica and Sundqvist, Pia (2023) p.64-65
Abstract

Abstract (Swedish)
In secondary-school English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms worldwide, English tends to be used alongside the society or community majority language (Brevik & Rindal 2020; Tsagari & Diakou 2015; Üstünel 2016), and research reveals greater participation and positive attitudes among students when translanguaging is permitted (Ebe 2016; Kleyn 2016; Saxena 2009; Ollerhead 2019; Seltzer & Collins 2016). In Sweden, research in EFL in school years 8-9 (age 14-16) suggests that a translanguaging approach to vocabulary teaching and learning is superior to a monolingual approach (Gyllstad et al. 2022; Källkvist et al. 2022). The present study focuses on year 7 (age 12-13), which normally marks the transition from primary to... (More)
In secondary-school English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms worldwide, English tends to be used alongside the society or community majority language (Brevik & Rindal 2020; Tsagari & Diakou 2015; Üstünel 2016), and research reveals greater participation and positive attitudes among students when translanguaging is permitted (Ebe 2016; Kleyn 2016; Saxena 2009; Ollerhead 2019; Seltzer & Collins 2016). In Sweden, research in EFL in school years 8-9 (age 14-16) suggests that a translanguaging approach to vocabulary teaching and learning is superior to a monolingual approach (Gyllstad et al. 2022; Källkvist et al. 2022). The present study focuses on year 7 (age 12-13), which normally marks the transition from primary to secondary school, where pupils are expected to communicate monolingually in standardized, national tests. We document classroom translanguaging practices and associated beliefs among four experienced EFL teachers, aiming to understand what ‘best practice’ (beprövad erfarenhet), which is a policy concept (Skolverket 2020), for year 7 may be. Drawing on ethnography of language policy (Hornberger & Johnson 2007), we conducted linguistic ethnography (classroom observation, linguistic landscape analysis, policy-document analysis and interviews), addressing three questions: To what extent and for what purposes did experienced EFL teachers translanguage?; By what means did the same teachers encourage students to use English?; What beliefs underpinned the same teachers’ practices? Inductive content analysis (Bryman 2016) revealed that all four teachers aimed for English to be the classroom language, but practices meant to encourage students to speak in English as well as some translanguaging practices differed. For example, teachers sometimes responded differently when students used Swedish (the language of schooling), and full translanguaging, i.e. using students’ entire linguistic repertoires, was encouraged in a small group only. We end by reflecting on a best practice for year 7 based on the documented practices, teachers’ beliefs and on multilingualism research in psycholinguistics (Grosjean 2008). (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
keywords
translanguaging, EFL, English, Swedish, multilingualism, secondary school
pages
64 - 65
project
Multilingual Spaces? Language Practices in English Classrooms
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
88c464d1-a10e-4726-884b-eb52ca2a4e9d
alternative location
https://www.du.se/contentassets/3ad6880dc28a4b9a89349da88c0ca8b1/book-of-abstracts-tim2023.pdf#page=64
date added to LUP
2023-08-02 10:14:30
date last changed
2023-08-18 09:58:42
@misc{88c464d1-a10e-4726-884b-eb52ca2a4e9d,
  abstract     = {{<br/>}},
  author       = {{Källkvist, Marie and Gyllstad, Henrik and Sandlund, Erica and Sundqvist, Pia}},
  keywords     = {{translanguaging; EFL; English; Swedish; multilingualism; secondary school}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{64--65}},
  title        = {{Translanguaging in EFL with students transitioning to secondary school : Towards a best practice}},
  url          = {{https://www.du.se/contentassets/3ad6880dc28a4b9a89349da88c0ca8b1/book-of-abstracts-tim2023.pdf#page=64}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}