Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?

Authors: CREESE, ANGELA¹; BLACKLEDGE, ADRIAN²

Source: The Modern Language Journal, Volume 94, Number 1, Spring 2010 , pp. 103-115(13)

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Abstract:

This article reports on research that questions commonsense understandings of a bilingual pedagogy predicated on what Cummins (2005, 2008) refers to as the “two solitudes” assumption (2008, p. 65). It sets out to describe a flexible bilingual approach to language teaching and learning in Chinese and Gujarati community language schools in the United Kingdom. We argue for a release from monolingual instructional approaches and advocate teaching bilingual children by means of bilingual instructional strategies, in which two or more languages are used alongside each other. In developing this argument, the article takes a language ecology perspective and seeks to describe the interdependence of skills and knowledge across languages.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00986.x

Affiliations: 1: University of Birmingham School of Education MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom, Email: a.creese@bham.ac.uk 2: University of Birmingham School of Education MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom, Email: a.j.blackledge@bham.ac.uk

Publication date: 2010-03-01