Translanguaging pedagogies in a Mandarin-English dual language bilingual education classroom: contextualised learning from teacher-researcher collaboration

ABSTRACT

Teacher-researcher collaborative inquiry helps illuminate contextual demands and affordances of teaching and learning and how they shape and inform theory and practice. Elaborating on a university-school study in a Mandarin-English dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programme in the U.S., we examine how the researcher worked alongside a Grade 3 Mandarin teacher in implementing translanguaging approaches across different content areas. We focus particularly on critical moments of dissonance in their research partnership that capture their changing understandings and constant negotiations of translanguaging stance, design, and shifts. Through open and focused coding of qualitative data, we identified both parties’ evolving perspectives and teaching/research practices. Ambivalence, doubts, and contradictions characterised their collaboration process as both researcher and teacher wrestled with what translanguaging means to Chinese education within a DLBE context where English hegemony reigns both inside and outside school. Important critical moments are highlighted to illuminate how the pair gradually developed a shared understanding about the need for a more comprehensive, critical, and contextualised lens to translanguaging pedagogies and to learn how to orchestrate translanguaging spaces in DLBE programmes while privileging students’ use of Mandarin.

KEYWORDS:

• Translanguaging pedagogies
• teacher-researcher collaboration
• Mandarin-English dual language bilingual education
• critical moments of dissonance
• contextualised learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Singlish is a variety of English in Singapore that combines linguistic features from mostly English and Mandarin as well as other languages (Cantonese, Hakka, etc.).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhongfeng Tian

Zhongfeng Tian is Assistant Professor of TESOL/Applied Linguistics at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Theoretically grounded in translanguaging, his research centers on working with classroom teachers to provide bi/multilingual students with equitable and inclusive learning environments in ESL and dual language bilingual education contexts, and preparing culturally and linguistically competent teachers with social justice orientations. He co-edited two books: Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens: Global Perspectives (Springer, 2020) and English-Medium Instruction and Translanguaging (Multilingual Matters, 2021).

Sunny Man Chu Lau

Sunny Man Chu Lau is Full Professor in the School of Education at Bishop’s University and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Integrated Plurilingual Teaching and Learning. She specializes in critical literacies, second language and plurilingual education, participative-based research methodologies, and related teacher education. She co-edited the book volume Plurilingual Pedagogies: Critical and Creative Endeavors for Equitable Language in Education (Lau & Van Viegen, 2020) and is a co-editor for Critical Inquiry for Language Studies.