The Relationship between Online Translanguaging Practices and Chinese Teenagers’ Self-identities

Translanguaging as an emerging theme in sociolinguistic studies refers to the meaning-making process by which people deploy various linguistic and semiotic resources at their disposal. This concept emphasises how personal history and experience are embedded in language practices, and thus enables researchers to understand how identities are rooted in and develop in contemporary contexts. Translanguaging in China is an under-researched area, and this study investigates the relationship between online translanguaging practices and Chinese teenagers’ identity. The study is located in contemporary metropolitan China, where teenagers have more access to global communication networks than ever before, but where free expression and information exchange is progressively restricted. It aims to find out how Chinese teenagers understand their identities, and how this relates to their multilingual and multimodal online expression. Based on the understanding of their language and identity, the study also hopes to draw some implications for general pedagogy and language education. Based on recent translanguaging studies (Simpson and Bradley, 2017; Zhu and Li, 2017), I adopt a linguistic ethnographic approach that interprets social and cultural life through situated language use (Creese and Copland, 2015). I followed their social networking sites and recorded their posts over the course of a year, with an analytical focus on posts involving translanguaging, and I interviewed them about their self-identities in order to understand how their language practices and identities are interrelated. The findings reveal that the participants’ are actively and critically developing their self-identities, regardless of geographical and cultural boundaries, or current political attempts to restrict their self-expression. The online translanguaging practices enable the teenagers to articulate their identities freely with the multimodal semiotic resources at their disposal, in a way they might not be able to do offline. I conclude that translanguaging is a valuable lens through which to understand Chinese teenagers’ identity construction, and the study offers some implications both for future research on translanguaging, and for school English language pedagogy

Translanguaging in Hong Kong English Medium Instruction Classrooms: An Ethnomethodologically Informed Study of Classroom Interaction and Teachers’ Reflection

Recent research on English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classroom interaction, where students learn the subject matter through L2 English, has examined the role of translanguaging in supporting classroom participants to exploit multilingual and multimodal resources to facilitate content teaching and learning. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research to date that examines the details of how translanguaging is practised in content learning classrooms. This study focuses on the sequential organisation of translanguaging practices in content classrooms and illuminates how EMI teachers create different translanguaging spaces through mobilising multiple languages and modalities in EMI mathematics and history classrooms in two secondary schools in Hong Kong. The data of this study consists of classroom observations with fieldnotes, ethnographic interviews with teachers and other stakeholders, classroom video recordings and video-stimulated-recall-interviews. Multimodal Conversation Analysis is carried out on the classroom interactional data, looking at not only different named languages but also spatial repertoire, the use of objects and other facilities in the classroom space. The analyses of the classroom interactional data are triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interview data which are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in order to analyse the teacher’s reflections on his pedagogical and interactional strategies. Findings reveal different translanguaging spaces that being created by the EMI teachers. These translanguaging spaces are constructed through 1) engaging in playful talk, 2) integrating the students’ everyday life knowledge into the learning space, 3) deploying the affordances of a technological device, 4) increasing student engagement for responding to diverse students’ needs and 5) engaging in co-learning between teacher and students. The construction of these translanguaging spaces requires the EMI teachers to utilise various linguistic, multimodal, spatial resources and their sociocultural and pedagogical knowledge. It is argued that an EMI classroom is an integrated translanguaging space which entails multiple translanguaging sub-spaces that afford teachers to draw on available resources in a coordinated performance in order to engage students in the learning process and promote equitable knowledge construction processes. The findings of this research reveal important implications for adopting a translanguaging perspective to studying classroom discourse and implications for EMI education and policymaking

Examining the linguistic and multicultural practices of refugee children in a primary school in Cyprus: A sociocultural approach to language learning

As a result of the 2015 refugee crisis, classrooms in the Republic of Cyprus are now becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. Cyprus, as one of the neighbouring host countries, should be working on developing the appropriate conditions for the educational support of children with refugee trajectories. Following a sociocultural approach to second language learning, this ethnographic study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the linguistic and multicultural practices that a group of refugee primary school children develop in order to learn the target language (Greek) and also to become members of their learning community. The data come from an in-depth analysis of spoken classroom interactions and semi-structured interviews following a discourse analysis approach. The study suggests that multilingual research in education settings presupposes reflecting on participants’ multilingual complexities and that is why a multilingual transcription and presentation of spoken discourse is provided. Multimodal artefacts were also examined and provided valuable insights for children’s learning. The findings suggest that children experienced their languages coming together holistically and used them in a flexible way that mediated their learning and communicative interactions. The linguistic practices derived from this juxtaposition of languages were code-switching, translating and repeating. These linguistic practices were seen as scaffolding tools that enhanced children’s learning of Standard Modern Greek, as the interactional data provide ample evidence of children’s metalinguistic awareness. This study also provides examples of good teaching practices and considers that, when classrooms are seen as sites of multilingualism, refugee children’s linguistic and cultural backgrounds become visible tools and have positive learning outcomes not only for the minority but also for the majority of learners. I argue that the understanding of the Communities of Practices concept goes beyond assimilationist perspectives on learning as the data suggest that this flexible use of linguistic and multicultural resources enabled the participants’ roles to be reversed. I show that refugee children were not only expected to join in with the school’s learning practices, but their linguistic and cultural experiences were actively implemented in the learning process. Thus, in some cases, the majority of children also needed to claim their legitimacy during teaching. The study considers pedagogical implications and emphasises the need for a better understanding of issues of multilingual education for policy makers, researchers and educators in Cyprus and beyond to recognise the rich value of children’s available linguistic repertoires. This recognition will not only provide opportunities for language learning but will also add to the multilingual discourse that aims for social justice in education and wider society

Plurilingual Classroom Practices and Participation

Plurilingual Classroom Practices and Participation contributes to a better understanding of plurilingual education in Catalonia by providing a description of the interactional resources mobilised by learners as social actors. This volume is a collection of studies that show interactions containing plurilingual and multimodal sequences that illustrate moments of potential acquisition of aspects of language use. Analysing data collected through ethnographic fieldwork, the studies explore interactions in primary, secondary, and tertiary milieus as well as non-formal settings and examine how participants organise their interaction, their ways of participating, and the resources they mobilise for them. The linguistic policies of the educational settings studied establish the use of a given language but contain samples of plurilingual practices in which languages like Arabic, Catalan, English, French, Greek, Mandarin, Punjabi, Riffian Berber, Spanish and Urdu come into play. The chapters explore the links between these practices and the construction of participation in the ongoing interaction. Although focused on language education in Catalonia, results can be transferred to classrooms worldwide which host plurilingual learners. Thus, the volume is an excellent resource for teachers and researchers interested in plurilingual education and can be used as a reference book in doctoral studies and teacher training programmes in this research field

Creative interventions : an integrated arts based pedagogical approach in the workplace preparation classroom of the extended access programme at the University of Johannesburg

Abstract: This study evaluates how the integrating of arts based approaches in my teaching practice can be used to both expand my practice and to utilise the capability of the Workplace Preparation Programme (WPP) to achieve a more equitable and accessible curriculum. I am concerned with promoting appropriate changes in the classroom in order to foster a more egalitarian and democratic value system in the teacher/learner relationship which promotes individual and collective freedoms. I integrate arts based methods in my pedagogical practice in order to expand the modes for communication and meaning-making in the classroom: these methods include visual, performative, indirect, non-verbal and symbolic techniques. I contend that these teaching approaches are relevant for the contemporary multilingual classroom and more especially for teaching first-year students. Arts based methods can foster opportunities for multimodal learning and for developing the kinds of student capacities and relationships that can contribute to positive learning experiences...M.Tech. (Fine Art

An exploration of teachers’ culturally responsive teaching practices and students’ acculturation experiences in the elementary school classroom

Supporting students from culturally diverse backgrounds requires a restructuring of current pedagogical practices. However, many teachers feel unprepared and lack the knowledge and practices necessary to work with students from diverse cultural backgrounds (Ballantyne, Sanderman, & Levy, 2008; Bankeree &Luckner, 2013). Considering this, a new theoretical model is presented which combines Third Space Theory and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) so educators are equipped with a model that supports students’ cultural, academic, and psychological well-being collectively. Next, a qualitative phenomenological case study is shared that explores three teacher’s CRT practices, their students’ perceptions of these practices, and students’ strategy use within the same elementary school. The study, which was conducted in a large, diverse school in the Midwest utilized the Culturally Responsive Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (Siwatuet al., 2015) and teacher and student interviews in order to explore the phenomenon at study. Results from the study revealed that CRT is a multifaceted phenomenon and even within classrooms where CRT practices are prevalent, how these practices are perceived often differ from student to student due to various factors (i.e., students’ purpose or goal, immigration experience, time in host country, or English language proficiency) and this has a reciprocal impact on their strategy use. Last, based on the theoretical model presented, educators are provided with a ready-to-use display that includes practices to support students’ cultural, academic, and psychological well-being

Spoken and embodied interaction in facilitated computer-supported workplace meetings

Almost 25 years ago, Clawson, Bostrom, and Anson (1993) drew attention to the fact that the ability to facilitate diverse human and technological interactions will be one of the most essential skills for leading and contributing to all levels of the organization in the future (p. 547). Today, there is an increased interest in studying facilitated meetings, wherein facilitation is most commonly understood as the process of helping groups work effectively to accomplish shared outcomes. Nevertheless, little of the existing research has provided empirically-grounded insights into the practice of facilitation. This thesis aims to close this gap by means of providing a detailed analysis of how facilitators go about doing facilitation work in facilitated computer-supported workplace meetings. The data comprise 53 hours of audio- and video-recorded multi-party interactions among facilitator(s) and participants, occurring during facilitated meetings in a business setting. The data were analysed using conversation analysis to examine the talk and embodied conduct of facilitators and meeting participants, as these unfold sequentially. The first analytic chapter reveals the macro-organization of the facilitated meetings, and it contrasts the practice view with the theoretical approach towards the organization of the facilitated meetings. The second analytic chapter investigates the interactional practices used by the facilitators to unpack participation that has already been elicited, captured, and displayed graphically on the public screen via the use of technology. In the third analytic chapter, I explore how the facilitators use computer software to build visual representations of the participants contributions. In the final analytic chapter, I investigate the practices of decision-making in meeting settings with multiple participants. Overall, this thesis makes innovative contributions to our understanding of the practice of facilitated computer-supported workplace meetings. It challenges existing literature on facilitation by finding that facilitators can orchestrate participant input, questioning the facilitator s role as content-neutral , as proposed by leading practitioners in the field of facilitation (e.g., Kaner et al., 2014). At the same time, it shows how the manipulation of computer software is an accountable action and how the decision-making process occasions or constrains the production of alignment between participant(s) and facilitator(s). The thesis also contributes to conversation analytic research on questioning, as well as the action of unpacking participation. I show that the notion that open-ended questions better elicit participation than interrogatives is generally not supported empirically, at least in this context. The thesis contributes to existing literature on multi-party meeting interaction, showing how the departure from the canonical next-speaker selection technique which involves the use of address terms and address positions in an utterance takes place. Further, it enhances our understanding of how computer software constrains and/or affords progressivity in interaction. In this sense, I enhance our understanding of the concept of agency of artefacts. Finally, I contribute to knowledge on group decision-making, an under-researched yet core activity in facilitated and other types of meetings. Here, I contribute to the body of work on the interplay between deontics and epistemics in interaction. This thesis shows the applicability of conversation analysis to the study of facilitation. By analysing talk and embodied conduct, communicative practices for accomplishing successful facilitated meetings are revealed and these should be of core interest to both professional and novice facilitators

Mirroring Ghanaian society through slice-of-life radio advertisements

This thesis explores radio advertising in Ghana, focusing on the characteristics of a genre that is often termed 'slice-of-life' and that is popular with advertising producers. Slice-of-life adverts seek to represent a version of real life: specifically, the social reality of the target audience for the advert. I discuss how this represents a challenge to producers given a number of constraints, particularly the very brief duration of the mini-dramas that form the core of slice-of-life adverts and that last for just 1 0-60 seconds. I adopt the notion of 'designed indexicality' as a major analytical concept, arguing that this is a key strategy in designing a persuasive text. Producers, according to this view, deliberately harness culturally-salient indexical resources in the design of adverts, conveying meanings pertaining to the everyday lives of the advertised product's target audience, and that are readily and quickly interpretable by the audience. In analysing slice-of-life radio advertising I draw on an adapted, expanded form of a 'multiperspectived' discourse analysis. This combines an analysis of advertising texts with an analysis of advertising producers' accounts of their practice, observations of the production process and discussion with focus groups who represent the target audience for the adverts, meeting in a context that reflects habitual listening practices. The study therefore goes beyond the 'textualist' approaches that, until recently, have dominated applied linguistic research on advertising. I argue that the study addresses certain gaps in the literature, particularly with respect to the research context (an African country), the research focus (slice-of-life radio advertising) and the expanded multi-perspectived discourse analytical approach. I discuss a number of implications of the study for research on advertising discourse within applied linguistics and related fields, and also argue that the study points to the need for greater dialogue between applied linguists as analysts and advertising practitioners

Learning English Out of School: An Inclusive Approach to Research and Action

This volume reports on the main results of the research project Inclusive epistemologies and practices of out-of-school English learning. The study reacts to low attainment levels in English as a foreign language among socioeconomically disadvantaged youth. The contributors to this volume research teenagers’ existing practices of using and learning English out of school time and implement new, inclusive, nonformal English language educational initiatives. They evaluate the impact of the nonformal English language educational initiatives implemented and support their sustainability and transferability. The project embeds collaborative and arts-based methods into its methodology, fostering inclusive and creative educational practices and ways of knowing

Pedagogical artifacts in teacher-initiated response pursuits: a conversation analytic study of interaction in the French foreign language classroom

Using Conversation Analysis (CA), this dissertation explores teachers' use of two pedagogical artifacts, specifically chalkboards and PowerPoint slides, in French foreign language classrooms. Based on a corpus of 29 hours of university-level French foreign language classes, the analyses provide an emic account of how teachers employ pedagogical artifacts in the course of teacher-initiated response pursuits situated in the sequential context of the triadic dialogue. The analyses investigate whether and how teachers and students orient to these artifacts as interactionally relevant resources for interaction and instruction. Chapter 1 (Introduction) discusses the aims and relevance of the present study and presents the methodological framework of CA within which the study was conducted. It also describes the CA procedures used to collect and analyze the data. Chapter 2 (Literature Review) reviews CA studies of everyday and institutional interaction with a focus on response pursuits, the sequential context of the triadic dialogue, multimodality, and pedagogical artifacts in classroom interaction. The first analytical chapter of this dissertation (Chapter 3) examines how teachers construct and manage the display of student responses to teacher questions upon chalkboards and PowerPoint slides. The analyses also illustrate how teachers invoke the relevance of these pedagogical artifacts through their embodied actions and their verbal turns-at-talk. They show how teachers' physical orientations to the chalkboard, or to the keyboard in cases of PowerPoint use, shift in response to the pedagogical fittedness of students' second turn responses. These practices contribute to the assessment of student responses and either mark their suitability, or prompt students to self-correct errors in their responses. The second analytical chapter of this dissertation (Chapter 4) examines teachers' pointing and writing gestures that, when held and retracted, invoke the relevance of pedagogical artifacts in teacher-initiated response pursuits. The analyses indicate that verbal and embodied orientations to pedagogical artifacts also constitute resources available to teachers for allocating turns to students and eliciting their production of pedagogically relevant forms. Overall, the analyses of Chapters 3 and 4 illustrate the interactional relevance of pedagogical artifacts for both teachers and students as participants of classroom interaction. Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes the findings of the dissertation and discusses the resulting methodological and pedagogical implications. This chapter discusses the demonstrable importance of pedagogical artifacts for maintaining intersubjectivity, negotiating participatory roles, and accomplishing instructional objectives in teacher-initiated pursuits of student responses in the foreign language classroom. This chapter also discusses and compares the sequential environments in which chalkboards and PowerPoint slides are deployed. The chapter further provides insights into the different ways in which these pedagogical artifacts influence the unfolding of discourse, and thus student participation, in the context of foreign language classroom interaction