Translanguaging theory. questionnaire.

Translanguaging theory. questionnaire.

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  Practice II, Didacticsof ELT and Practicum Primary School level. Adjunto Regular a/c Prof. Estela Braun (2019). Full Name/s: Angela Lopez, Solange Cortese. Practical number: 7 Topic: Translanguaging Theory Date: May 21st, 2019 How does Garcia define translanguaging? According to Garcia, translanguaging is the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features or what is usually called autonomous languages in order to maximize communicative potential. It is an approach centered on the multiple discursive practices of bilinguals in order to make sense of their multilingual words. Translanguaging goes beyond code-switching. Translanguaging for the author extends what Gutiérrez and her colleagues have called “hybrid language use,” that is, a “systematic, strategic, affiliative, and sense-making process” What were the views of balanced bilingualism? The term balanced bilingualism describes someone who is equally competent in two languages in all contexts and with all interlocutors. However, it has long been recognized that such a form of bilingualism does not exist. This belief claims that a bilingual is like two persons, each fluent in one of the two languages.But more realistically, a bilingual is a person that has diverse and unequal experiences with each of the two languages. The concept of bilingualism itself has been extended beyond
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  the traditional “balanced”conception. The languages of an individual are rarely socially equal, having different power and prestige, and they are used for different purposes, in different contexts, with different interlocutors. What are the differences between translanguaging and code-switching? The concept of translanguaging makes obvious that there are no clear-cut boundaries between the languages of bilinguals. Sometimes bilinguals do not choose one language-based practice or the other, but select elements from both in the same speech act. What examples of translanguaging are provided? Translanguaging is an important practice among language minority children who serve as translators for their parents, who do not speak the majority or dominant language. For example, a meal in a bilingual family. Families are constituted by bilinguals with different degrees of abilities and sometimes monolingual family members. Translanguaging is thus the only discursive practice that can include all family members. Why do studies state that bilingualism corresponds to both communicative and affective domains? Studies have shown that the language that bilinguals choose to use responds to their communicative and affective intent, as well as to the situation and the interlocutor. Fishman proposed the construct of domains. Domains are “an abstraction which refers to a sphere of activity representing a combination of specific times, settings, and role relationships”. For example, a study conducted by Fishman of the Puerto Rican community determined that the domains of family, friendship, and religion were mostly
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  carried out inSpanish, whereas employment and education were domains in which English was used. What makes the repertoire of bilinguals different from that of monolinguals? Although many bilinguals’ performance in two languages may well differ distinctly from that of two separate monoglots, in terms of the totality of the range of abilities, bilinguals may not need the same levels of proficiency in all of their languages in all of the same discourse domains as monolinguals. For example, the child of a two language home, the native-born child of immigrant parents, the hearing impaired user of ASL and spoken English, the hotel desk clerk, the hospital intake nurse, the fruit vendor in the open market, the airport control tower operator, and the student on a study abroad program all use their linguistic resources clearly in different ways. Bilingualism is not about 1 + 1 = 2, but about mixing different aspects of language as they are needed to be socially meaningful. Because the range of the linguistic repertoires of bilinguals is more differentiated than that of monolinguals, the linguistic choices for bilinguals are also greater. Language use of bilinguals has much to do with the desire to be socially distinct. The fact that speakers select one variety or another, or even both simultaneously, has to do with different values and attitudes, but also with different communicative intents and possibilities. Weinreich (1951) used the term interference but authors nowadays prefer the term transference. Why? The term “Interference” was used to describe the deviations from the norm that native- speaking children go through as they acquire a given language. However, authors
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  nowadays prefer theterm transference because this language contact phenomena is an intent to find the right word. What are borrowings or loans? Provide examples of phonological or morphological assimilations. All speech is characterized by borrowing, that is, the taking of individual lexical items from other languages. But the speech of bilinguals often reveals more borrowings or loans than that of monolinguals. Sometimes, bilingual speakers borrow the form of a word from another language, along with its content.Some of these borrowings are phonologically assimilated, that is, they become part of the sound system of the language into which they come, as in the case of bíldin. Other times, these borrowings are morphologically assimilated and take on the grammatical characteristics of the borrowing language. This is the case, for example, of rufo or lonchar in the practices of U.S. Latinos, where the words are from English – “roof,” “lunch” – but Spanish morphology is used. What is the exact definition of code-switching provided by Gumperz (1982)? The process of going back and forth from one language to the other is generally referred to as codeswitching. Code-switching is defined by Gumperz (1982) as “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems” What bilinguals do is to intermingle linguistic features that have linguistically assigned to a particular language. What is substractive bilingualism?
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  When monolingualism andmonolingual schools are the norm, it is generally believed that children who speak a language other than that of the state should be encouraged to abandon that language and instead take up only the dominant language. In this model, the student speaks a first language and a second one is added while the first is subtracted. The result is a child who speaks only the second language. This monolingual leads to the death of many Indigenous languages throughout the world. This model subtracts people’s possibility from becoming bilingual. This model, then, favors monolingualism. The mother tongue is slowly removed from the school curriculum up to the time where students are only using the language used in school. What do we understand by additive bilingualism? It is a model under which the second language is added to the person’s repertoire and the two languages are maintained. Despite of the benefits of this approach, bilingualism here is still seen from the perspective of a monolingual norm. This is, bilingualism within this model is simply double monolingualism. Bilingual individuals are expected to be and do with each of their languages the same thing as monolinguals. (Model proposed by Lambert) ( it attempts balanced bilingualism) What is recursive bilingualism? When bilingualism is developed after the language practices of a community have been suppressed, the development of the community’s mother tongue is not a simple addition that starts from a monolingual point. When a community engages in efforts to revitalize their language practices, individuals are not starting from scratch and adding simply a second language.Bilingualism is not simply additive, but recursive. The language is not added whole, but in bits and pieces, as ancestral language practices
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  are reconstituted fornew functions. Indeed in these cases bilingualism is recursive because it reaches back to the bits and pieces of an ancestral language as it is reconstituted for new functions How can the relationship between dynamic bilingualism and plurilingualism be explained? What is expected from citizens? Dynamic bilingualism states that Bilingualism is not simply linear but dynamic Individuals engage in multiple simultaneous discursive practices that incorporate the many language practices that they have available. This model of dynamic bilingualism is closely related to the concept of plurilingualism as they share similar views. The Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe proposes the concept of plurilingualism as: The capacity of all speakers to use and learn more than one language. In other words, it is the ability to use several languages to varying degrees and for distinct purposes. This ability is concretized in a repertoire of languages a speaker can use. It is expected for citizens to develop linguistic tolerance as they give equal value to each of the varieties they themselves and other speakers use, that is tolerance towards speakers who “language” differently. Who tend to use mothertongue? Why? Kroon gives a reason for the use of the term mother tongue: “The awareness or invention of a common mother tongue plays a central role in the attempt to establish and develop the awareness of a common fatherland, a nation-state. A fatherland needs a mother tongue, which education has to supply, and generally speaking, this
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  is done byselecting, standardizing and teaching a so-called national or official language.” Which criteria can be used to identify mothertongue? Compare it to “lengua de escolarización”. Skutnabb-Kangas (1981: 18) refers to four criteria that can be used to identify mothertongue: • Origin: The language(s) one learned first • Competence: The language(s) one knows best • Function: The language(s) one uses most • Identification: º Internal The language(s) one identifies with º External The language(s) others identify one with What is heritage language? The term “heritage language” is also often used to refer to languages spoken by ethnic communities. A heritage language is the language someone learns at home as a child apart from the dominant one, and that is considered as a minority language in a society. Bilingualism for these students is a much better focus, one that recognises the fluidity of bilingual language use, the possibilities of bilingual acquisition and the potential of accessing a full range of expressive and communicative possibilities now and in the future. Heritage language has been used broadly to refer to non-societal and non-majority languages spoken by groups often known as linguistic minorities. Those members of linguistic minorities who are concerned about the study,
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  maintenance, and revitalizationof their minority languages have been referred to as heritage language students. Such minorities include populations who are either indigenous to a particular region of a present-day nation-state How do bilingual activities differ? Depending on the reasons for using their languages, bilingual individuals manifest language abilities- Oracy, Literacy, Signacy- in different combinations. Oracy Literacy Signacy Listening Speaking Reading Writing Attending Producing Sometimes bilinguals only have receptive bilingual abilities. That is, they may understand, read or attend to, or interpret, signs in more than one language, although they can’t speak, write, or produce signs in more than one language. Other times bilinguals also have productive bilingual abilities. That is, they are capable of also speaking, writing and producing signs in more than one language. Which circumstances may produce receptive or passive bilinguals? There are four circumstances that often produce receptive or passive bilinguals: 1. Children of language minority background, whose home languages are not promoted in the wider society and who are often able to understand their parents and elders, but are incapable of speaking the language themselves.
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  2. Deaf childrenwho are born to hearing parents, and whose education excludes the use of sign language, may not develop the ability to productively sign standardized sign languages. 3. Those that have learned a language in traditional language programs may understand, read, and interpret the language learned well, although they may be incapable of speaking, writing, or producing signs. 4. Scholars of extinct languages also have biliteracy skills but may never be in a position to develop oracy in a language that they have never heard. This is especially true for dead languages that have sacred functions, such as Latin. What is the difference between childhood bilinguals and emerging bilinguals? Some scholars now often refer to childhood bilinguals (those who develop bilingualism in childhood) and emerging bilinguals (those who develop bilingualism later). What are the advantages of developing bilingualism in early childhood? Research indicates that infants possess the ability to discriminate language-related differences in auditory input very early. Bilingual development and their timing are the same as those for monolingual children. That is to say, bilingual and monolingual children reach the stages of development within similar age ranges. The only difference with monolinguals is the fact that they produce mixed utterances in addition to monolingual ones; that is, they translanguage from an early age. And young bilingual children know usually by the second year of life how to make the choice of whether to use one language or the other, or a mix of the two. Which problems may deaf children have to face when they emigrate?
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  Deaf children whomigrate to another country have to learn new languages (both signed and written) when their parents may not know either language. Summarize the differences between child vs adult bilingualism. There is a widespread belief that earlier is better for bilingualism. And yet, there seem to be no age-related differences in the process of language learning. Some claimed that there is a critical period for L2 acquisition, but it has been equivocal in many studies. The development of bilingualism in school often has much more to do with pedagogical and student factors than with biological predispositions to acquire language, because children have more time to practice and develop their bilingual competence. Because of the social and educational settings in which they participate are often more conducive to authentic practice, it turns out they often appear to be more successful in developing their bilingualism. Yet, in formal educational settings, adults, able to use their metalinguistic skills more efficiently, learn more quickly than younger learners. Thus, the language that children need to cover their necessities is less complex and more contextualized than that needed by adults, leading many to think that they are better bilingual acquirers. In short, there is little evidence for a “critical period” for second-language learning, except perhaps for the development of a native-like accent, and adults are quite capable of becoming bilingual. Johnstone summarizes the findings by saying: “given suitable teaching, motivation, and support, it is possible to make a success of language learning at any age and stage, though older learners are less likely to approximate to the levels of a native speaker.” What do the findings of Cummins (2001) seem to indicate about Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) and the Threshold Hypothesis?
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  Cummins insists onthe interdependence of the two languages of a bilingual. Cummins says that the two languages of a bilingual individual are not stored separately in the brain but coexist and rely on a common, and not separate, underlying language proficiency. In other words, the two separate languages emerge from the same source. A bilingual individual might have different phonology (sounds), morphology (word formation), syntax (arrangement of words in sentences), and lexicon (words) in each of their languages, but the motor that makes language use and practices possible is exactly the same for each language. Also, What is learned in one language does not have to be re-learned in another, since conceptual knowledge transfers, and it is just linguistic labels that might have to be taught. On the other hand, the threshold hypothesis posits that high bilingual proficiency in two languages is associated with more positive cognitive effects. The threshold hypothesis warns us that a bilingual child who has reading difficulties in one of his languages may not have reached an adequate threshold of language proficiency. That is, the problem may not lie in reading ability itself, but on the language proficiency level acquired. 2. Apply: How can translanguaging be observed in the copies from the book “Cuaderno de Trabajo para el Aula de Inglés de 4ª EP? Programa de Educación Plurilingûe e Intercultural de la dirección General de Cultura y Educaciòn, Provincia de Buenos Aires (Dra. Silvana Barboni, 2015) In the dialogue “That’s my pichi!”, we can appreciate the hybridization that characterises translanguaging in the sense that the speakers in question switch from one language to another responding to the communicative situation and the
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  interlocutors. For example,Mailen and Andy were talking in Spanish, but then, Rebecca joined the conversation speaking in English. Andy and Mailén continue the dialogue switching to english in an spontaneous way, so that Rebecca could understand what they were talking about. There are also traces of another language which is Mapuche. Mailén used her knowledge of Mapuche to name her bird but at the same time assigning a meaning. In “Languages and us”, it is clearly evident how one of the speakers, in this case, Andy as being bilingual, plays a role of mediator between Rebecca and Vicky so that all the participants can interact in the communication. In these speakers, mainly Andy, we can see that Bilingualism is not simply linear but dynamic. He has the chance to engage in multiple simultaneous discursive practices that incorporate the many language practices that he has acquired. Andy mentions the word “Pichi”, which suggests that he possess the ability to use several languages in different degrees and for distinct purposes. We can see tolerance towards speakers who “language” differently.