Browsing by Subject "Translanguaging"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A case study of grade 6 multilingual learners' experiences with monolingual assessment practices in a working-class township school in Cape Town.
    (2022) Cingo, Siviwe Innocent; Kapp, Rochelle
    This qualitative case study focusses on the experiences and challenges f multilingual learners when writing monolingual assessments. It draws on a growing body of poststructuralist theory on linguistic repertoire and translanguaging in order to understand how grade 6 multilingual learners engaged with monolingual assessments in a working-class school in the Western Cape where English is the language of learning and teaching for all learners except those for whom Afrikaans is a home language. Using ethnographic methods, I focused on 3 grade 6 classrooms and observed 46 lessons over a period of 8 weeks. In addition, I collected assessment transcripts, learners' notebooks and conducted interviews with 14 learners and their teachers. The data shows how classroom pedagogy tended to be mainly oral and dominated by teacher talk with limited space for learner engagement. Informal written assessment tasks were monolingual, but generally mediated by translanguaging and translation. Learners relied on teachers and on the linguistic resources of peers to facilitate comprehension of assessment questions and assessment content. By contrast, formal, high-stakes assessments included no mediation prior to and during assessment. Thematic analysis of learners' written answers shows how the majority of learners struggled with language comprehension at the level of vocabulary, sentence, as well as schooled academic literacy. The study concludes that both teachers and learners are placed in an untenable position by language in education policies that insist on monolingual assessment practices. Such policy results in compensatory, and contradictory classroom teaching and learning that is aimed at instrumental, assessment focused practices rather than meaningful learning. The study ends with recommendations for policy and practice.
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    De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education
    (2021) Botes, Inge-Ame; Nyamnjoh, Francis
    The salience of English as the main language of instruction at tertiary institutions across South Africa has not been without critique. At the University of Cape Town, henceforth UCT, conversations surrounding language and academic success have become bolstered by the rhetoric of decolonisation, necessitating a review of policy and practice. This in turn has opened up research opportunities pertaining to student and staff experiences of language at the institution. This thesis is a response to the urgent need for ethnographic focus on the language situation at UCT and higher education institutions countrywide, where increasingly light falls on the language question within quests for decolonisation and social justice. Focusing the language question within frameworks of decoloniality, glocalisation, translanguaging and the development of African languages in education, this thesis distills ethnographic data to argue that language borders need to be reevaluated in a quest for conviviality informed by the universality of incompleteness, where fluidity, interconnection, and interdependence are prioritised over the current dominance of English. Grounded in rich ethnographic evidence in the form of student interviews and reflections, meeting at the intersection of social and linguistic anthropology, this thesis grapples with the critical questions: “What is language at UCT? And what does language do?”
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    The language socialisation experiences of a grade r child in a black middle-class multilingual family
    (2019) Molate, Babalwayashe; Mckinney, Carolyn
    South Africa (SA) is home to 11 official named languages; its Language in Education Policy (LIEP) identifies multilingualism as one of the defining characteristics of its citizenry (DOE, 1997). Moreover, English is the official Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) in most ex-Model C schools nationwide. It is the language that is reported to be valued by the middleclass, people who are known for placing a high premium on education (Soudien, 2004; Alexander, 2005). The aim of this ethnographic Language Socialisation study is to explore the language socialisation experiences of a Grade R child in a Black middle-class multilingual family residing in a Cape Town suburb. The study is framed by the question: What are the language socialisation experiences of a child from a Black middle-class multilingual family? It uses a socio-cultural approach, drawing from linguistic anthropology, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics to critically analyse the language ideologies, language practices and linguistic repertoires evident in both the home and school domains across which the young child traverses. Concepts such as multilingualism, Family Language Policy and ‘mother tongue’ identity are reviewed and used to gain insight into the lived language experiences of the Grade R child. The concepts of assimilation (Soudien, 2004) and anglonormativity (Christie & McKinney, 2017) are reflected on as markers of school language practices and ideologies. Findings reveal that the Grade R child is an emergent multilingual who participates meaningfully in multilingual conversations with her family but only produces English. Despite the evident heteroglossia (Bhaktin, 1991) of the family’s language practices through translanguaging (Garcia, 2009; Creese and Blackledge, 2010) and drawing from the range of resources in their linguistic repertoires (Busch, 2012), the parents continue to use their Tswana and Xhosa ethnicity as markers of their language identities. The parents want their children to speak their heritage languages for identity reasons. They also want them to speak English to ‘fit in’ with their peers and to access learning. They see the teaching of Tswana and Xhosa as their sole responsibility thereby absolving the school. Their view enables the schools’ status quo of anglonormativity to go unchallenged. The child, thus, experiences heritage languages as identity markers and languages reserved for home, and English as a valuable language resource that gives access to learning. The notion of a single language identity remains complex for a child who is expected to be multilingual at home but monolingual at school.
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    The use of Translanguaging in assisting educators to teach African languages: A case study of Tshwane South Education District, Pretoria
    (2023) Gobodwana, Anele; Possa - Mogoera, Rethabile
    South Africa is a diverse and multicultural country with too many more spoken indigenous languages. It is also one of the fastest developing countries on the African continent. This multilingual nature coupled with migration from neighbouring countries, presents serious challenges for language planners and education authorities, especially the impact on education. This study, therefore, explores the use of Translanguaging and how it has facilitated the teaching of African languages in multilingual classrooms at the Tshwane South Education District in Gauteng Province. The primary objective of the research happened to track the transitioning of dialect or variant development across different grades in these multilingual areas. The secondary aim was to observe and document language practices in these schools to provide a firm base for future language planning efforts in South Africa. The research was conducted in two schools: one primary school and one high school. The focus of the study was on the entry and final standards of the fundamental classes, the middle classes, the exit primary classes (standard 5), and entry classes (standard 6), up until the year of schooling (standard 10). The data were collected using interviews, questionnaires as well as observation. The data were subjected to thematic analysis to get an in-depth understanding as well as to identify and generate new insights into Translanguaging. Whereas many of the educators speak more than one language, many were not aware of their Translanguaging practices in teaching. The participating educators also affirmed that they have been using Translanguaging without realising it. Educators further indicated that raising awareness about their language practices facilitated their teaching because they felt at ease switching and mixing languages in their teaching. In addition to the positive outcome, some educators alluded to the fact that in some areas they were faced with language barriers. The study therefore recommends that in addition to raising awareness amongst educators, the Department of Education and the Fundza Lushaka Bursary scheme should assess the language repertoires of teachers before commencement of employment. The study further recommends that language policy makers and planners need to be mindful of the impact of multilingualism and migration on the education system.