Teaching English through pedagogical translanguaging

Teaching English has traditionally been associated with a monolingual bias and the exclusive use of English in the classroom is highly recommended in different countries. Nowadays English is widely used to teach academic content and this strict separation of languages can be problematic because it prevents students from using resources they have previously acquired in other languages (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; Kubota, 2018). In this article we discuss 'pedagogical translanguaging' understood as intentional instructional strategies that integrate two or more languages and aim at the development of the multilingual repertoire as well as metalinguistic and language awareness. Pedagogical translanguaging considers learners as emergent multilinguals who can use English and other languages depending on the social context. Their linguistic resources are valued and learners are not seen as deficient users of English but as multilingual speakers.MINECO/FEDER,Grant/AwardNumber:EDU2015-63967-R;EuskoJaurlaritza,Grant/AwardNumber:DREAMIT1225-1

Immigrant students’ minority language learning: an analysis of language ideologies

This paper focuses on language ideologies in relation to identity in Basque secondary education, in a context where the teaching of a minority language is part of the curriculum. More precisely, it addresses the views held by teachers and immigrant students in relation to Basque, which is a minority language in the Basque Country. The aim is to analyse these views in their discourses both separately and in interaction. Methods include documentary analysis, participant observation, individual interviews and focus groups. Results indicate that there are engrained ideologies indexing identity in tension: those of teachers as Basque supporters and those adopted by students as Basque detractors, which come into conflict during classroom interaction when it involves learning Basque. The article concludes that these two ideologies constitute opposing identities and provides educational guidelines to improve classroom dynamics when acrimonious interactions such as these occur.This work was supported by Eusko Jaurlaritza: [Grant Number IT-1225-19]; Ministerio de EconomAa y Competitividad: [Grant Number FFI2014-52173-P]; University of the Basque Country: [Grant Number PIF 2013]

The integration of content and language in CLIL: a challenge for content-driven and language-driven teachers

Although the core element in CLIL and immersion programmes is the integration of content and language, it is challenging to achieve a balance between the two to meet the dual-objective of CLIL. Research on the beliefs teachers have about CLIL and the way they understand the role of content and language in their classes is crucial to achieve that balance. In the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), a multilingual region in Spain, schools are implementing CLIL programmes in order to improve students' English proficiency and foster multilingualism. This case study aims at exploring how teachers in this particular setting conceptualise the integration of content and language in CLIL and their understanding is reflected through pedagogical practices. For that purpose, the thoughts and practices of two CLIL teachers with different teaching backgrounds are examined here. The findings show that teachers understand and implement CLIL in different ways and that there are substantial differences between the content-oriented teacher and the language-oriented teacher. This study shows that it is difficult to achieve a balance of content and language in CLIL classrooms because some classes tend to be content-oriented without enough attention given to language, while others are language-oriented without enough attention paid to content.This work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, Spain [Grant Number PID2019-105818GB-100] and the Basque Government [Grant Number DREAM IT-1225-19]

Developing morphological awareness across languages: translanguaging pedagogies in third language acquisition

This article focuses on the development of morphological awareness in English as a third language. It analyses how the activation of previous linguistic knowledge can influence morphological awareness. Participants were 104 primary school students who were learning English as a third language and were already fluent in two other languages, Basque and Spanish. Participants in the experimental group took part in a pedagogical intervention aiming at the development of morphological awareness by using translanguaging pedagogies. The aim of the intervention was to enable participants to use their linguistic repertoire across languages and benefit from their multilingual resources. Results indicate that participants in the experimental group obtained higher scores in morphological awareness than the control group from the same school. In addition, participants in the experimental group perceived that the use of translanguaging strategies was useful for their learning and also enjoyable as a teaching approach.This work was supported by the MINECO/FEDER [grant number EDU2015-63967-R] and the Basque Government [grant number DREAM IT-1225-19]