Translanguaging in a reading class

Abstract

Using translanguaging as a theoretical foundation, this paper analyses findings from a Grade 2 reading class for low achieving students, where Malay was used as a scaffold to teach English. Data come from one class in one school in Singapore and its Learning Support Programme (LSP), which is part of a larger research project on biliteracy. The LSP is an early intervention reading programme in English for students in lower primary school. Our key finding is that the broad goal of translanguaging in teacher talk was to mediate academic content. Specifically, the purposes for translanguaging in teacher talk were to aid comprehension (in 41% of switches) and translate vocabulary (in 39% of switches). The use of Malay changed interactional patterns by closing the gap in talktime between teacher and students: though the ratio of talktime between teacher and students on Day 1 was 76%:20%, this became a more democratic 47%:49% on Day 8. Finally, the scaffold of Malay changed the way the students attempted to answer questions.

Keywords:

• bilingual approach
• Singapore
• translanguaging
• codeswitching

Notes

1. Initiation–response–feedback (IRF): IRF is an interactional pattern in which the teacher usually initiates (I), the student usually responds (R), and finally the teacher offers feedback (F).

2. We follow Baker's (2006) spelling of the concept: ‘codeswitching’. The spelling may be different in quotations because different scholars prefer to spell this word in diverse ways.