Welcome to SK TEAL
Good day and welcome to SK TEAL’s new website. We hope you enjoy!
With the upcoming SK TEAL/TESL Sask 2018 conference just weeks away, we want to share with you what we learned at the 2017 TESL Canada Conference that a few of us were privileged to attend.
One of the topics presented in a couple sessions discussed Translanguaging. Translanguaging is the use of two different languages together, for example: English and Chinese. This growing pedagogy can go against what many classroom teachers and some EAL teachers wish for in their classrooms: mastery of the language in which they teach. However, it has its benefits.
‘Translanguaging is the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features or various modes of what are described as autonomous languages, in order to maximize communicative potential.’ Ofelia García (2009: 140)
As mentioned in the esljournal, ‘Translanguaging is about communication, not about language itself. There are times when we need to be language teachers, focusing on accuracy in English so that our learners can pass exams and be taken as proficient speakers in wider society. Much of the time, though, we are working with students to explore concepts, add to their knowledge, and make connections between ideas and to help them make their voices heard by others. This is often about communicating, and this is where using all our language resources can be very valuable.’
Students can gather information in their first language, and share it with the groups or class in the target language (English). Please watch the youtube video for a clear explanation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNOtmn2UTzI
García, Ofelia (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In: Ajit Mohanty, Minati Panda, Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (eds). Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the local. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, pp. 128-145.
Shawna Jurgens
