Abstract

In a multilingual classroom where students have diverse linguistic backgrounds, teaching in the English language is very challenging, especially when the medium of instruction is English or a second language. There are a number of research studies focused on this linguistic issue. One of the emerging strategies to deal with multilingual students is translanguaging where students can build their own repertoire of language to make and build meaning. This study will focus on the student’s perspective about translingual pedagogy. The questionnaire will be used to investigate if the students were given the chances of translingual strategies, and effective they thought those strategies were. The observations will help to get the data from another angle. The results provide the data that students are mostly in favor of the translingual strategies yet they are not provided much chance to use the native language

Key Words

Translanguaging, Multilingualism, English Language Teaching, Medium of Instruction

Introduction

This research work is inspired by the concept shared by Garcia (2009) and; García & Wei, 2014; Canagarajah, 2012. The second concept is the communities who practice the translanguaging pedagogies, which has been coined earlier (Wenger, 1998), these concepts are about the individuals, who are bilingual or multilingual, making meanings in translingual environments.

The translanguaging pedagogies work in classroom scenarios the mentors should try to make the learning process of the scholars, more meaningful and smooth by introducing the use of multiple languages and expressions. In such a situation, where multiple resources are being in practice, shown an entirely different level of understanding and learning, students are more keen, clear-minded, and confident. As compared to traditional classrooms, where learners are anxious due to over-burdened with grammatical and lexicon rules and regulations. This anxiousness of laws is a big hurdle in the learning process.

Recent research work on Translanguaging by Garrity. Aquino- Sterling & Day, in 2011, in Classroom. Whereas, “Song 2015” applied this theory in a “Korean Household" has shown us more fruitful results with learning achievements. Similarly, " Mazak & Herbas – Donoso 2015" did research work on university science students in  Puerto Rico, where multiple languages and multiple expressions were being practiced, had showed a classroom culture of more confident students with clear concepts, understanding, and meaningfulness.

In 2001, “Ken & van Leeuwen" recommended the "importance of speakers" and how this knowledge is being "organized" is very helpful in the current research.

In 2011, “Garcia and Sylvan“ commented translingual pedagogies are useful for an individual's flexibility to learn and adapt linguistic resources in the context of communication. Teachers' role is very significant, as mentioned in, "Arthur & Martin 2006. We are living in the age of globalization, where our students are coming from different cultural backgrounds. This cultural diversity has given room to multi-lingual classrooms. Being an observer and a University Lecturer, I have noticed how charismatic and vigorous pedagogies of translanguaging can help to create and add meaning/ information to the students, simultaneously to develop a sense of honor and to develop multilingual identities by giving encouragement to translanguaging spaces in the class.

How identities can be honored?

Studies have revealed that classes with the acceptance of the environment of multilingual, prove to be dynamic and energetic in learning, as teachers adopt translingual pedagogies/approaches in teaching. The globalization aspect in education has given room to the multilingual identities of students. It’s the crucial role of the teacher to develop confidence and a sense of honor among students, who have weak communication skills in English by encouraging dual language. The native language of students is equally worthy in status as the language of instruction which is mostly English Language. This sense of honor in the native language will develop multilingual identities, this confidence in multilingual identities will be observed in such an energetic, vigorous, and productive way to notice the academic achievements of the class. In 2010, the study of “Creese and Blacklege” heavily relied “on code-switching practices” to support our research journey.

The new perspectives emerge as there are suggestions for the active role on the part of the teachers when students are bilingual (Creese and Blackledge, 2010). Literature is available in support of code-switching practice among bilingual classrooms, as both languages are used in communication, literature support is stated by “Blom & Gumperz” in 2000.

Secondly, the question arises, of how a teacher in collaboration with his students can generate or create acceptable space for translanguaging, as the English language is a dominating way of teaching. A study in 2009 by “ Coyoca and Lee 2009" has proven that in a dual-language school, where students were allowed to use the English language as well as the Spanish language during school time, the outcome of more meaningful and relatable learning with more clarity of mind and confidence of learners. In the same way,, “Lave & Wenger 1991” in “Communities of Practice" has given a clarified framework, to use and practice different language tools for the enlightenment of students

Lier (2000) proved in the research that teachers could motivate students to practice their indigenous language to make meanings, which was useful for students learning. Such practices not only engage students but make learning more meaningful and relatable.

This research will try to find the relationship between teachers' use of translanguining pedagogies and students' improvement in learning as a result. The observations will also help in understanding students' involvement and improvement after such activities.

Methodology

The teachers will be provided with a questionnaire for 

the purpose of the research. The questionnaire will be distributed to the sample of the students. The imperial data will analyzed in SPSS software to see the causal-comparative relationship between variables Last two items are open-ended and based on opinions. To analyze the last two items ANTCON software will be applied. As it is used to analyze the language in the qualitative data.

Objectives

? Exploring the students’ perceptions and practices about the application/ implementation of translanguaging pedagogies in English Language teaching at the University level.

? Observing how translanguaging pedagogies practices will improve students’ learning  in English classrooms




The following Research Questions will Shape the Study

1. What are the perceptions and practices of students regarding translingual pedagogies in English Language teaching at the University level?

2. How do translingual pedagogies practices will improve students’ learning in English classrooms?




Research Design

In this study will practice a mixed method approach, (Cresswell, 2011), where the qualitative method will be applied to investigate the research problem, and observations will be conducted to verify the translanguaging pedagogies by the teachers. The observations will provide in-depth data on how students learn or make meaning in such classrooms.

The researcher will use an exploratory research approach.

A focused group interview will be conducted with a representative group of teachers.

The focus group interview analysis will provide a base for the qualitative study. The variables will be selected after the analysis of the interviews. Then a questionnaire will be designed on the basis of these variables.

The data will be analyzed by the SPSS software. Professional help will be taken for the technical analysis of the data: for item analysis X, and SD will be applied, and t-test and ANOVA will be applied to analyze gender and demographic items respectively.

Data Analysis

Table 1

	F	P	V P	C P
Valid	2	2	12.5	12.5	12.5
	3	10	62.5	62.5	75.0
	4	4	25.0	25.0	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

Table 2

		F
	English	8
	Both	9
		16

Table 3

		Frequency
Valid	Yes	8
	No	8
	Total	16

 For the use of students' native language, in the classroom, in an ESL environment

.Table 4

How often do you use indigenous language for discussing content and activities?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Often	4
	Somewhat Often	4
	Often	4
	Very Often	5
		16

 For the question of how often you use indigenous language for discussing content and activities, the data is verified.  Mixed responses were collected

 

Table 5

How often do you use indigenous language to let them provide assistance to peers during the activities?

		F	P	V P	CP
	Not Often	2	12.5	12.5	12.5
	Rarely Often	6	37.5	37.5	50.0
	Often	2	12.5	12.5	62.5
	Very often	6	37.5	37.5	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

 For the question of how often you use indigenous language to let them provide assistance to peers during the activities, the data is verified. Mixed responses were collected. For the option of Somewhat often got more responses.

Table 6

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Not Often	2	12.5
	Somewhat often	6	37.5
	Often	2	12.5
	Very Often	6	37.5
	Total	16

  For the question of How often you use indigenous language to let students brainstorm during activities, the data is verified. Mixed responses were collected. For the option of Somewhat often got more responses. For the option of Not Often only 2 % of students gave their opinion. For the option of Somewhat often the no. of responses is 6.

Table 5

How often do you use indigenous language to let them provide assistance to peers during the activities?

		F	P	V P	CP
	Not Often	2	12.5	12.5	12.5
	Rarely Often	6	37.5	37.5	50.0
	Often	2	12.5	12.5	62.5
	Very often	6	37.5	37.5	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

 For the question of how often you use indigenous language to let them provide assistance to peers during the activities, the data is verified. Mixed responses were collected. For the option of Somewhat often got more responses.

Table 6

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Not Often	2	12.5
	Somewhat often	6	37.5
	Often	2	12.5
	Very Often	6	37.5
	Total	16

  For the question of How often you use indigenous language to let students brainstorm during activities, the data is verified. Mixed responses were collected. For the option of Somewhat often got more responses. For the option of Not Often only 2 % of students gave their opinion. For the option of Somewhat often the no. of responses is 6.

Table 7

How often do you use your indigenous language to discuss problems related to real-life situations?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Often	2
	Somewhat often	4
	Often	4
	Very often	6
	Total	16

 For the question of How often you use your indigenous language to discuss problems related to real-life situations, the data is verified. 

Table 8

How often do you use indigenous language to discuss cultural relevance to the content?

		F	P	V P	C
	Not Often	2	12	12	12
	Often	2	12.5	12.5	62.5
	Very Often	6	37.5	37.5	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

 For the question of How often you use indigenous language to discuss cultural relevance to the content, the data is verified. 

Table 9

How often do you use indigenous language to enable participation of the low proficiency students?

		F
	Not Often	2
	Somewhat Often	6
	Often	2
	Very Often	6
	Total	16

 For the question of How often you use indigenous language to enable participation of the low proficiency students, the data is verified.

Table 10

How often do you use your native language to let students respond to the teacher's questions?

		F
Valid	Not Often	5
	Never	2
	Often	1
	Very Often	4
	Total	16

 For the question of How often you use indigenous language to let students respond to the teacher's questions, the data is verified.

Table 11

How often do you use indigenous language to let students ask permission?

		F
	Not Often	5
	Never	2
	Somewhat often	3
	Often	2
	Very often	2
	Total	16

 For the question of How often you use indigenous language to let students ask for permission, the data is verified. 

Table 12

How often do you use your native language to motivate students to participate?




		F
	Not Often	7
	Somewhat often	3
	Often	2
	Very often	4
	Total	16

For the question of How often you use your indigenous r language to motivate students to participate, the data is verified. 

Table 13

How often do you use native language to help students remove the hesitation in speaking?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Often	2
	Never	2
	Somewhat Often	4
	Very Often	8
	Total	16

 For the question of How often you use your native language to help students remove the hesitation in speaking, the data is verified. 

Table 14

 How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to discuss content and activities?

		F
	NI	6
	I	8
	VI	2
		16

 For the question of How important you think it is to use indigenous language to discuss content and activities, the data is verified. 

Table 15

How important do you think the use of indigenous language is to let students provide their assistance to peers during the activities?

		Frequency
	Not Important	6
	Important	6
	Very Important	4
	Total	16

 For the question of How important you think the use of indigenous language is to let students provide their assistance to peers during the activities, the data is verified. 

Table 16 

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to let students brainstorm during activities?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Important	6
	Important	6
	Very Important	4
	Total	16

 For the question, the data is verified. 

Table 17

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to discuss problems related to real-life situations?

		Frequency
Valid	N I	2
	I	10
	V I	4

 For the question, the data is verified. 

Table 18

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to discuss cultural relevance to the content?

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Not Important	2	12.5	12.5	12.5
	Important	10	62.5	62.5	75.0
	Very Important	4	25.0	25.0	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

 For the question, the data is verified

Table 19

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to respond to the teachers' questions?

		Frequency
Valid	NI	8
	I	6
	V I	2

 For the question, the data is verified.




 




 










Table 20

How important do you think it is to let students use indigenous language to ask for permission?

		F	P	V P	CP
	N I	12	75.0	75.0	75.0
	I	4	25.0	25.0	100.0
	Total	16	100.0	100.0

 For the question, the data is verified. 

Table 21

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to motivate students to participate?

		Frequency
	N I	4
	I	8
	V I	4
	Total	16

 For the question, the data is verified.

Table 22

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to help remove students' hesitation in speaking?

		F
Valid	N I	4
	I	6
	V i	6
	T	16

 For the question, the data is verified.

Table 23

How often do you use indigenous language to explain concepts?

		F
Valid	Not Often	4
	Never	2
	Somewhat Often	8
	Very Often	2
	Total	16

 For the question the data is varied. 

Table 24

How often do you use indigenous language to describe vocabulary?

		F
	N O	2
	N	4
	S	6
	O	4
	T	16

 For the question the data is varied. 

Table 25

How often do you use indigenous language to give directions?

		F
	Not Often	2
	Never	4
	Somewhat Often	8
	Often	2
	Total	16

 For the question the data is varied. 

Table 26

How often do you use inherent language for classroom management?

		F
	Not Often	2
	Never	3
	Somewhat Often	1
	Often	4
	Very Often	1
	Total	16

 For the question the data is varied. 

Table 27

How often do you use indigenous language to build bonds with students?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Often	2
	Never	2
	Somewhat Often	4
	Often	2
	Very Often	6
	Total	16

 For the question the data is varied. 

Table 28

How often do you use indigenous language to clarify during the activities?

		F
	Not Often	2
	Never	2
	Somewhat Often	8
	Very Often	4
	Total	16

 For the question the data is varied.

 Table 29

How often do you use indigenous language to help low-proficiency students?

		Frequency
Valid	Never	4
	Somewhat Often	6
	Often	2
	Very Often	4
	Total	16

 The data is varied for this question. 

Table 30

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to explain concepts?

		F
	Not Important	4
	Important	10
	Very Important	2
	Total	16

  For the use of native language to explain concepts the data is varied.

Table 31

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to describe vocabulary?

		Frequency
Valid	Not Important	4
	Important	10
	Very Important	2
	Total	16

 For the use of native language to describe vocabulary the data is varied. 

Table 32

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to give directions?

		F
	Not Important	4
	Important	8
	Very Important	4

 For the use of native language to give directions the data is varied. 

Table 33

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language for classroom management?

		F
	Not Important	4
	Important	10
	Very Important	2

 For the native language for classroom management, the data is varied. 

Table 34

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to give feedback to students?

		F
V	N I	4
	I	6
	V I	6
	T	16

 For the importance of native language to give feedback the data is varied. 

Table 35

How important do you think it is to use indigenous language to help low-proficiency students?

		F
V	N I	4
	I	4
	V I	8
	Total	16

 For the importance of using the native language to help low-proficiency students, the data is varied.

Research Question 2

How will translingual pedagogies practices improve students' learning in English classrooms?



For the question of how translingual pedagogies practices will improve students learning in English classrooms, the data is varied.

During the observation, the frequencies of the responses are given in the graph. The data proved that the students need to use their native language to participate in the speaking activities.

Discussion

Perception of students about practicing translanguaging in their English classroom is very important to carry out this research.

First of all a general discussion was carried out with the sixteen teachers, who volunteered themselves to be part of this research because every faculty member of the English department is concerned about the positive results of the students. In the Pakistani educational scenario, where Urdu is a national language but English is given the status of compulsory subject from grade one till university education. In our professional studies and in higher education, mostly English is a language of instruction and communication in classroom situations. It is a reality that most of our students are not well proficient in their communication skills in the English language. It is observed by the researcher that an inefficient command of the English language gives birth to multiple hurdles to the smooth learning process of the students. It is believed that the learning process of the English language should be a smooth, progressive, joyful, interactive, vibrant, and long-lasting experience for the students. It should not be anxious, agitated, confused, odious, and obnoxious with a lack of confidence and shyness. Most of the teachers are in favor of using dual language pedagogies to overcome the factor of ambiguity and confusion among students. One of the participants responded, "My opinion is to help students with low proficiency in L2 to understand the task in L1 and collect relevant material about the completion of the task in their native language." This practice seems very helpful in collecting firsthand knowledge as well as to help learners clarify ambiguity and enhance their comprehension level as commented by Cenoz, and Gorter, (2011). On the other hand, another practice of dual language that is highly appreciated by language teachers is the use of native language in pair work and group work. As it is stated by a participant, “In group works and pair work, students interact and learn more with clarity and confidence”.  As such statements from language teachers, about the practice of dual language in their classroom are supported by the research work of McMillan and River in 2011.

Recommendations and Conclusion

The research study has found new pedagogical realities for the learners. These pedagogies are a novel reality in language teaching globally. The study found the lack of consistency in the teaching practices and the required learning requirements of the students, among the participants of this research. The learners and teachers were of the opinion that the translingual pedagogies were very pertinent to the language practices, however, there is a lack of training of these pedagogies in actual practice. Newness to the concept of translinguaging can be one of the reasons for lack of the teaching practices in teaching a second language. This study is limited and cannot make assumptions on the basis of the limited research.

Translingual practices can engage students' cognitive development and increase their motivation level in language learning if the proper training is provided to the teachers and language trainers. 

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