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Translanguaging in the EYL classroom as a metadiscursive practice: Preparing

prospective teachers

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Zein, S. (2018). Translanguaging as a metadiscursive practice in the EYL classroom: Preparing prospective
teachers. In S. Zein, & R. Stroupe. (Eds.). English language teacher preparation in Asia: Policy, research and
practice (pp. 47-62). New York: Routledge.

3 Translanguaging in the
EYL classroom as a
metadiscursive practice Subhan ZeinTranslanguaging in the EYL classroom

Preparing prospective teachers

Subhan Zein

Introduction
Classroom discourse analysis, according to Rymes (2016), is a study that exam-
ines different components of classroom talk and any context within and beyond
the classroom affecting what is being said and how it is construed.Young learn-
ers learning English and their teachers construct their realities in the classroom
context using language, including symbolic behaviour, in the construction of
meanings. The roles of language as well as the social conditions in which the
language is used are crucial in shaping and defining the classroom realities.
One of the most prevalent social conditions of language classrooms is mul-
tilingualism. Indeed multilingualism has become the norm for most people
globally, as they shift between two or more languages as a matter of course in
their daily lives (Canagarajah, 2013). This holds true in the context of English
for Young Learners (EYL) worldwide where the use of English in the class-
room alongside another language such as Korean (Heo, 2016), Indonesian (Zein,
2013), Japanese (Butler, 2005) and Spanish (Escudero, Cruz and Loyo, 2012) is
an everyday reality. However, our understanding of EYL teachers’ classroom dis-
course is still limited to their speech modification (Zein, In Press), the use of first
language (L1) among English native-speaking teachers (Copland and Yonetsugi,
2016) and samples of L1 use by local teachers (Zein, 2016a, 2016b). We do not
know how different language resources are used as part of teachers’ classroom
discourse. We also still know too little as to how language resources are valued
as contributing to meaning-making in language learning in the multilingual
classroom in a process best known as translanguaging. Translanguaging, a pro-
cess referring to a language communicative function of receiving input in one
language and producing output in another language, allowing bilingual learners
to use their home language and develop positive experiences at school (Baker,
2011; García, 2009), is indeed underexplored in the multilingual EYL classroom.
It is highly necessary to understand translanguaging in the context of multi-
lingual EYL classrooms worldwide, especially because the use of English only
is very much likely to create discomfort (Macaro and Lee, 2013) and demotiva-
tion (Djigunovic, 2012) rather than creating the opposite effects. This motiva-
tion is fitting to the Asian context, especially the ASEAN Plus Three Forum
48  Subhan Zein
that is actually the most linguistically diverse region in the world. There are
approximately 2500 world languages found in the ten East and South East
Asian countries that are member states of the ASEAN Plus Three (Ethnologue,
2017a, 2017b). Using Indonesia, the second-most linguistically diverse country
in the world and home to 707 living languages (Ethnologue, 2017c), as the
research context, this chapter examines the practice of translanguaging among
EYL teachers. The chapter draws recommendations to help the preparation of
EYL teachers in Asia to tackle the increasing demands resulting from the eve-
ryday reality that multilingualism is.

Translanguaging in the EYL classroom

The ideology of monolingualism is fully entrenched in education contexts
around the world in spite of the multilingual realities of language classrooms.
These multilingual realities reflect the increasingly vague boundaries between
nation states, ethnicities and languages in this 21st century, resulting in some
sort of linguistic and identity complexities. Current research has frequently
questioned the validity of language frontiers in classroom interactions, sug-
gesting that translanguaging can be a practical strategy to advance multilingual
pedagogy of linguistically diverse students (García, 2009, 2011; Hornberger
and Link, 2012; Makalela, 2015; Wei, 2011). Makalela (2014) stated that most
studies on translanguaging have critiqued notions such as additive bilingual-
ism and stable diglossia primarily due to their divisional orientation and treat-
ment of the process acquiring a language as linear and sequential when this is
not necessarily the case. Recent studies on translanguaging argued for a plural
vision of languages, maintaining that languages are embedded into one another
and integrated to reflect the communicative practices of bilingual or multilin-
gual speakers (Baker, 2011; García, 2009, 2011; Hornberger and Link, 2012;
Makalela, 2015; Wei, 2011).
Parallel to this line of reasoning, García (2009) contended for the need to
shift from monolingual practices in order to keep abreast with the 21st century
and circumvent educational tensions. She stated,

Too often bilingual students who translanguage suffer linguistic shame

because they have been burdened with monoglossic ideologies that value
only monolingualism. . . . And too often bilingual teachers hide their natu-
ral translanguaging practices from administrators and others because they
have been taught to believe that only monolingual ways of speaking are
“good” and “valuable”.Yet, they know that to teach effectively in bilingual
classrooms, they must translanguage.
(p. 303)

As a practical teaching strategy, translanguaging can be traced back to the

work of Cen Williams, who studied Welsh-English bilingual secondary school
learners’ language practices in Wales (Baker, 2011; Wei, 2011). According to
 Translanguaging in the EYL classroom 49
Baker (2011), translanguaging was implemented in Wales as a reaction to his-
toric separation of Welsh and English languages that engendered unbalanced
bilingual outcomes.
The practice of translanguaging, nonetheless, must not be confused with
code-switching. The latter is an instance of translanguaging, but it is ideologi-
cally different from the former. According to García (2009, 2011), the process of
translanguaging incorporates purposeful and systematic discursive modes such
as comparative hypothesis-testing, translation, code-switching and navigating
the in-between spaces as well as note-taking, sighing, and discussing to make
sense of learning. This demonstrates that translanguaging is operationally more
complex than code-switching. Hearer-centred (that is, what the hearer thinks
is going on in the speech) is the ideological underpinning of code-switching.
Code-switching is also monolingual in orientation because it recognises lan-
guages as separate forms of structures that are either mixed or switched at the
point of speech, hence mixing or switching. On the other hand, translanguag-
ing does not recognise boundaries in that it entails a large speech repertoire
that overlaps between administratively assigned languages that the speakers of
those languages use flexibly as part of their everyday way of meaning-making.
This means translanguaging is a speaker-oriented process, focusing on what
speakers do with the languages. It also includes recursive processes of going
between and beyond languages using the aforementioned meaning-making
discursive modes.
García (2009, p. 45) further stated that translanguaging encompasses all dis-
cursive resources that can be best explained as “more like an all terrain vehi-
cle whose wheels extend and contract, flex and stretch, making possible, over
highly uneven ground, movement forward that is bumpy and irregular but also
sustained and effective”. The process of translanguaging may look incoherent
and vague from the hearer’s point of view, as the all-terrain vehicle may be
to an observer. However, the outcomes are effective for the speakers to make
sense of the world and of who they are in the same way that the all-terrain
vehicle effectively completes its complex task. This is a broadened view that
permits the creation of an integrated pedagogy that affirms and enhances all
semiotic modes that multilingual students bring with them to schools. Thus,
students could develop dual literacy skills in both receptive and productive
modes as well as to internalise information in two languages where their deeper
understanding of the content and both languages are mutually fostered. By the
same token, gravitations towards translanguaging in classrooms will free teach-
ers from monoglossic burdens and empower them to use multilingual resources.
Several cutting-edge empirical studies into the effects of translanguaging
pedagogy on empowering learners have appeared in different educational
contexts (e.g. Canagarajah, 2011; Creese and Blackledge, 2010; Makalela,
2014, and Wei, 2011). For example, Canagarajah (2011) showed translanguag-
ing practice improved the academic skills of a Saudi Arabian graduate student
who used French and Arabic while writing in English and employed post-
writing strategies such as recontextualisation, textualisation, focus on voice,
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Thank you for your understanding and support.
60  Subhan Zein
Second, it is vital to support prospective teachers through the process of
developing translanguaging as a discursive pedagogy. It is within the realm of
teacher educators’ work to develop plans and activities that encourage prospec-
tive teachers to critically reflect upon their languaging practice before even-
tually developing skills in translanguaging as a suitable pedagogical approach.
Translanguaging as a metadiscursive practice is not innate; rather, it is devel-
oped through astute recognition of interactional discourse and critical skills
to observe, analyse and develop languaging discourse that meets the needs of
the learners. To help prospective teachers develop their translanguaging skills,
teacher educators could employ the multivocal ethnography used as a basis
in this study. As Engin (2015) suggested, teacher educators could elicit mul-
tiple perspectives through analysis of video clips and group discussions, and
later scaffold their instruction in ways that encourage prospective teachers
to develop their reflective skills. Implementing translanguaging with such an
approach is relevant to the increased awareness of multilingualism and language
varieties typifying English language classrooms in Asia in general and ASEAN
Plus Three countries in particular. This could be one of the proposed areas of
interest for the ASEAN University Network in their promotion of activities on
teacher preparation among universities and institutions of higher learning in
the ASEAN Plus Three Forum.

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