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I am new to EAL and there are lots of theories, strategies and jargon to learn and understand.

Translanguaging is in my blood and is a natural thing from where I come from and I'm sure many teachers and parents are similar to me.  I've leverage from it so why not allow it to be know and practice at school, amongst the students.  In international schools, we are used to being around people from all over the world with different cultures, customs and religions so why not allow languages to be adapted and acquired instead of focusing on just one language.

I've learned there are many KEYs to promote translanguaging and increase learning, my 3 main keys are:
1. Collaboration is key.  Collaborations between students and teachers allows for linguistic and cultural exchanges and thus shared learning.  Collaborations allows peer support and scaffolding for both teachers and students.  Collaborations help enhance learnings, creates inclusiveness and leverage linguistic resources resulting in more effective communications and learnings.
2. Scaffolding is key. Scaffolding is key to translanguaging because it provides support and guidance to learners (both teachers and students) as they engage in complex language tasks and activities.
3. Student's overall language repertoire is key.  We need to allow room for the students to prove to us their understanding in their learnings by recognizing their linguistic capabilities and abilities.

We use languages to indicate what we have learn and we need to communicate it to allow the educators know what we know and how well we know it. Such languages shouldn't be restricted to just English and English only.

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García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism, and education. Palgrave Macmillan.

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In the podcast, Ms Gracia mentioned that schools and teachers are often time constraint by regulations and government policies.  E.g. getting a teaching education in general and a specialist qualification for each subject or speciality in order to be working at school.

Schools and children spent alot of time getting accreditation and qualifications so that they can continue to perform their roles for the students.  It maybe necessary and I feel the government could also include translanguaging policies for the multilingual education and encourage educators and schools to adopt translanguaging practices as a pedagogical approach that supports multilingual learners.

Schools could also incorporate a policy of like.  They could incorporate translanguaging as a recognized and supported instructional strategy in curriculum guidelines and standards and encourage teachers to create the environment for multilingualism and embrace it.

A paradigm shift is only possible and successful if we could have the support and blessings of our government and administrators (CLIL#10)

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In the podcast by Jacob Huckle, he mentioned that translanguaging is when students use their whole linguistic repertoire as part of their learning.

I feel that language is a rich substance; a combination of one's culture, varieties, skills that one possess in order to communicate. It includes all the languages and language resources he/she acquires and can draw upon in different contexts and for various purposes.  It may include 1st language, 2nd language and even 3rd language or dialects, etc or a varieties that they pick up throughout learning.

Recognizing and valuing student's whole linguistic repertoire is essential because it acknowledges the richness and diversity of her language abilities and although students may possess different levels of proficiency and expertise in various languages, they can use their linguistic resources to navigate different social, cultural, and communicative contexts.  Perhaps this is what a school should offer; an environment for total growth and not English alone.

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE?
Because PreK children are so young and has lower English proficiency and capabilty, we need to give time and space for our students to adapt and learn and share learning together with his peers and teachers and vice versa. Group work and repetition is very helpful for children this age to acquire a language. Teacher's pedagogy

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We could adapt a one universal language instead of just English, Mandarin, Spanish, or French.  The universal language could be communication; putting the knowledge, ideas and understanding across rather than focusing on just one language alone.  More so, we can stop seeing kids in an English-only deficit lens but rather, continued scaffolding to continue asset based learning. Like how Ms Gracia described the drummer: Music sounded so much better with 2 sticks.

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English may be important but it could be done without having a student to make any sacrifices in order to acquire it.  Before schools often require students to separate home practices from school practices for fear of confusion for the students.  As a result, the child is unable to bring his identity to school and often time, feels less privileged and less welcoming.  The school and could give opportunity to what they have and what they're lacking

Instead, we can leverage and tap on the student's knowledge, skills, (basically the entire language repertoire) and teachers to include pedagogy translanguaging and scaffolding (CLIL#5), whether planned or intentional, to be part of their learning process so as to encourage learning and engagement.  Researched has indicated that teachers gain knowledge through translanguaging too.  (Gracia, et.al., 2014)

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From hearing the podcast and reading, I understand there has been a paradigm shift from how language proficiency and learning was before to how it is now.  The world is ever evolving and 'nothing is static so learning shouldn't too'.

A monolingual environment is a thing of the past as teachers and school are allowing multilingualism and tapping on students various language strengths and vast culture to learn and understand teaching instead (CLIL#9)

Teachers are also learning from students as they observe and allow their students to focus on their strengths and leverage on their abilities.  They benefitted from this asset-based learning compared to the old school English-only theory.

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Translanguaging holds alot of values yet in totality, create some myths that worry parents, teachers and society.

Values:
1. recognizes the linguistic diversity and multilingualism that already exists and that these languages forms resources for communication and learning.
2. that we should respect student's cultural background that they come from a dynamic nature of languages and allow fluidity to express what they understand and interconnect and interwine their understanding of the content.
3. it is inclusive and equitable to everyone in communication and education

There has been a huge paradigm shift in pedagogy as many schools sees the importance and benefits of how MLs proficiency increases as a result of this.  However, English is still a dormant practice and many teachers and parents likewise are worried that it may hinder the child's language acquisition.  Some misconceptions includes:
1. Translanguaging occurs as a result of a language deficiency
2. and by allow it will hinder language learning
3. and it may lower the standards for content learning

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One would think how is this a political act?
Teaching is about helping a student acquire critical consciousness and to allow to see things from a different angle and learn and understand and expand from the teaching into a better learning.  Teachers could create a socially just environment for this learning to take place and translanguaging best offer this opportunity to students.

In an ideal world, there should be no walls for learning and all doors should be open to create a just world for the students in the classroom.  (CLIL#4) students learn best in a cohesive, welcoming, comfortable environment and teachers can redesign activities that is existing to include and allow for translanguaging. e.g. group students and give a research topic and allow the group to share and process ideas by themselves using a language they're comfortable and presenting it in English for their end work.

By doing so, collaborations (CLIL#3) amongst teachers to include content teaching for EAL/MLs learners in mainstream classroom too.  Collaboration could be vital in all aspect of learning (content planning, scaffolding strategies, administrators commitment, etc) to be successful for all students in the school regardless of their race, language or religion.

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The thinking of English as 'the ONLY' language for MLs to better pick up the language and transit smoothly into a monolingual school is very much old school now. I think the world has evolved and gotten smaller where everyone is travelling and settling down everywhere and the dynamics and demographic of a school environment has changed alongside with it.  As mentioned in Ofelia Gracia's podcast that translanguaging could already happened from as early as when migration starts,  before experts formalised and researched has been conducted on it.  I like one of her quotes: One language runs through the heart but the other runs through the veins.

I cannot express this better than i myself being born and breed in Singapore where the entire country is made up of people from different races, cultures and languages.  This might be true that we are translanguaging then even though we didn't what translanguaging is all about and all we know is how we will discuss in our own mother tongue with our fella classmate (because it was simply easier and better understood by ourselves) and write them into English and presenting it to our teachers.  It was a way to survive the intensity of the classroom teaching content and submitting our homework with understanding.

Although it sounded complicated, it really wasn't.  It was just a natural thing to do.  Perhaps, it was the need to understand the content over what language we use to understand it.

It maybe true that most school are now seeing the great advantages of translanguaging and allowing changes made to school curriculum to put inplace more cohesive methods to understanding a content rather than just focusing on English alone.

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE?
In Prek, perhaps teachers can use the CLIL#8 principle to tap on the children's knowledge and introduce English words to them.  e.g. the teacher will introduce the animals by showing a figurine and saying it in Mandarin to engage student's interest and then introducing new vocab words like "cat", "dog", "lion" in English and repeating them in Mandarin for clarification.  In most cases, the students will pick up the language quickly and will even teach the teacher the correct way of pronouncing the animals in Mandarin by reiterating it as saying "Gou is dog", etc.

At this young age where foundation is near zero, it is important to allow the students to feel comfortable and less alienated.  Leaning is best achieve when the students feels a sense of belonging especially when they hear their familiar mother tongue.

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Translanguaging recognizes and validates the natural language practices of bilingual individuals or communities, rather than enforcing strict language separation or monolingualism.

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Translanguaging recognizes and validates the natural language practices of bilingual individuals or communities, rather than enforcing strict language separation or monolingualism.

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Episode Twenty One - Translanguaging with Jacob Huckle

2023-01-01

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Episode Twenty One - Translanguaging with Jacob Huckle

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Episode Twenty One - Translanguaging with Jacob Huckle:Jacob Huckle is an EAL teacher and Head of Multilingual Learning at a British international school in Suzhou, China. He works on designing policies and systems that leverage the linguistic and cultural diversity within the school as resources that enrich the learning of all.

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Ep 65. Dr. Ofelia García - The joys of translanguaging

Friday May 28, 2021

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Ep 65. Dr. Ofelia García - The joys of translanguaging

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A fierce advocate of translanguaging, Dr. Ofelia García shares how it can be transformational for a school community. To learn more about one of Tan's work, go to https://www.empoweringells.com @TanKHuynh

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What policies (i.e., general actions to take) do people differ on? What policies do they agree on?

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What practical interests (e.g., investments, land, group loyalty) do people differ on? What practical interests do they share?

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What values do people differ on? What values do they agree on?

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What facts do people differ on? What facts do they agree on?