A sociolinguistic analysis of the 'Bilingual approach to the teaching of Chinese language' in Singapore

Master'sMASTER OF ART

"WHEN YOU WRITE 'FOUR' IN CHINESE, YOU WILL FIND TWO 'J'S' IN IT": A CASE STUDY OF FOUR CHILDREN LEARNING TO BE LITERATE IN ALPHABETIC AND NON-ALPHABETIC PRINT

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2006Framed within sociocultural, sociopsycholinguistic, and socio-semiotic views of language and literacy learning, I employed a qualitative case study approach to examine the nature of bilingual and biliteracy learning process of four young ethnic Chinese children living in a community where mainstream American culture and English predominated. I used observations, interviews, and analysis of documents to collect data over a 3.5-year period at a community-based, weekend mother tongue (Chinese) class where I was also the teacher of my research participants. A constant comparison approach was used to analyze and interpret the data gathered. Because of their heritage and life experiences, these children had access to two sets of cultural and semiotic resources in both minority (home and the weekend mother tongue school) and dominant (community where they lived and school they attended daily) sociocultural contexts. Findings from this research revealed that meaning making began when these children responded to existing or created texts while involved in semiotic engagements, and through this process these young learners acquired culturally and semiotically specific knowledge. Experiences with and exposure to these two sets of specifics enabled children to transfer knowledge they acquired in one context to the other, as well as to transmediate between sign systems across sociocultural borders. Finally, within the context of the classroom, these children also experimented with different ways of meaning making, drawing knowledge they possessed from both contexts to create new meaning, from which new specifics were generated

Exploring Instructional and Institutional Opportunities and Challenges in a Newly-Formed Translanguaging Dual- Language School

Translanguaging pedagogy disrupts linguistic inequalities and creates transformative spaces for emergent bilingual students in dual language education (DLE) programs to leverage and expand students’ full linguistic repertoires. Guided by translanguaging theory and positioning theory, this case study presents an analysis of the opportunities and the challenges of implementing translanguaging pedagogy in a co-teaching Chinese-English dual language Pre-K school in China. Using the entire school as a case, this investigation is based on data from videos and field notes of class observations, interviews of teachers, school leaders and parents, audio recording of school meetings, and school documents. The study focuses on two main factors: First, how translanguaging pedagogy was implemented in the school including the individual or coordinated translanguaging practices of 34 Chinese and English teachers and the challenges they encountered; second, the institutional factors including teachers’ institutional positionality and the understanding of translanguaging among stakeholders (teachers, administrative leaders, and parents), which all influence the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy. The findings provide a rounded view of how the school’s translanguaging policy provided opportunities for teachers to legitimately navigate between two languages in teacher-student interactions and teachers’ co-teaching practices. Teachers employed various translanguaging strategies to construct three translanguaging components (translanguaging bridges, translanguaging assessments, and translanguaging showcases) through which emergent bilingual students’ full linguistic repertoire were validated and developed. The school’s child-initiated play pedagogy and stakeholders’ strong translanguaging stance supported the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy. The findings also reveal that the legitimizing position of translanguaging pedagogy did not eliminate all the challenges teachers encountered. These challenges stemmed from teachers’ insufficient experience of practicing translanguaging and their limited skills in translanguaging co-teaching design. Discrepancies between the institutional positions and co-teaching assignments, between language equivalency inside and outside the classroom, and between different stakeholders’ expectations created hindrances for the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy. This study adds to the growing research on translanguaging in early childhood education, as well as offering useful translanguaging strategies and examples for language teachers at Pre-K schools. This study explores the ideological boundary between two languages and reflects the core of translanguaging theory, which resonates with anti-bias education and conceptualizes the sociolinguistic reality and symbolic competence of emergent bilingual students. This study also provides insights about what kind of administrative and peripheral support is needed for translanguaging to occur and what obstacles may hinder teachers’ translanguaging practices in this specific DLE program. The findings can inform other schools to overcome challenges and enact an anti-bias and dynamic bilingual education based on the acknowledgment of the full linguistic capital students bring to the classroom