Translanguaging as a vehicle for L2 acquisition and L1 development : students’ perceptions
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Date
2016-07
Authors
Carstens, Adelia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to report on a project aimed at exploring the use of
translanguaging as a strategy to support bi-/multilingual students in acquiring
academic literacy in English while promoting the terminologisation of African
languages through exploratory scientific talk. The topic is contextualised by
juxtaposing multilingualism as a problem with multilingualism as a resource.
This is followed by a discussion of translanguaging as an alternative to
monolingual education. An overview is given of a number of empirical studies
on translanguaging conducted in South Africa during the past 15 years.
Subsequently, I discuss a research project that elicited students’ opinions about
translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy. Speakers of eight African languages,
including Afrikaans, experienced cognitive and affective benefits. Despite some
reservations, they also considered translanguaging to be a useful platform for
creating technical terms in African languages, and were positive about future
use
Description
Keywords
Academic literacy, L1 development, L2 acquisition, Multilingualism, Terminologisation, Translanguaging
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Adelia Carstens (2016) Translanguaging as a vehicle for L2 acquisition and L1 development: students’ perceptions, Language Matters, 47:2, 203-222, DOI:
10.1080/10228195.2016.1153135.