Translanguaging Genre-based Pedagogy In Tertiary Multilingual Classrooms Of Dong Area

The research reported in this dissertation investigates the teaching of college English in the context of multilingual education in Dong area of Guizhou provience.The theoretical framework is translanguaging and systemic functional linguistics(SFL),particularly with reference to notions of genre and register theory and genre-based pedagogy.As multilingualism has gained increasing currency in the globalized world in recent years,multilingual education has been becoming a norm around the world.This is also true in China,‘a nation of multi-ethnicities’.The spread of English as a language of international communication is clearly seen in Chinese minority education,where English has been added to the school curriculum,so the turn of the century ushered in the era of Sanyu Jiaoyu(trilingual education)and Sanyu Jiantong(mastery of three languages: ethnic minority language(L1),Chinese(L2)and English(L3),or simply trilingualism).The past two decades has witnessed the proliferation of research on this seemingly new phenomenon,while research is usually conducted by a monolingual approach with the main focus on English.There is still a shortage of research on specifically feasible curriculum or pedagogy to truly realize the educational goal of trilingualism in multilingual education for ethnic minority areas,especially for Dong area.Therefore,this research purports to design and implement an innovative curriculum for college English teaching in the context of multilingual education in Dong area,aiming to establish a multilingual teaching/learning pedagogy that can truly realize the educational goal of trilingualism in Dong area and other ethnic minority regions in China.The dissertation is thus an evaluation of the implementation and impact of the design based innovative intervention program,with the aim at addressing the following three research questions:(1)How is translanguaging genre-based pedagogy(TL-GBP)established under the frameworks of translanguaging and genre-based pedagogy theories for English teaching in the context of multilingual education of Dong area,and ultimately for Sanyu Jiaoyu with the objective of Sanyu Jiantong?(2)How is the students’ whole linguistic repertoire(Dong language as L1,Chinese as L2 and English as L3)used as a resource in the teaching of English,based on translanguaging genre-based pedagogy(TL-GBP)?(3)To what extent is the intervention program effective in enhancing students’ learning of English,improving their multilingual competence,promoting their metalinguistic awareness,and developing their multilingual identity?The methodology underpinning the pedagogy is drawn from translanguaging approach(García,2009;García & Li,2014),and genre-based pedagogy(Rose,2012,2015).Specifically,the project incorporates translanguaging as teaching strategies into every step of the Reading to Learn(R2L)cycle,which is theoretically rooted in SFL and genre-based pedagogy.The program was implemented in two ethnic classes of Kaili University,the local ethnic college in Guizhou Dong area,and lessons were taught in two iterations in each of the two classes.The students’ progress across the lessons was recorded systematically.The data were thus collected,analyzed and evaluated,including students’ written texts in different implementation stages and qualitative data derived from interviews of the students’ learning process,evaluation of the curriculum,and self-reflections of the teacher and participants.In addition,an ethnographic approach was also employed to investigate how minority students use translanguaging practices to facilitate English learning.The research provides evidence for the value of employing students’ language resources in L3 teaching and learning.The major findings are as follows:(1)The TL-GBP was constructed by incorporating translanguaging into genre-based pedagogy.Translanguaging approach was contextualised as teaching strategies that employ students’ linguistic and cultural resources to assist them in learning a new way of languaging.The R2 L model was taken as a pedagogy to provide specific curriculum design for making a planned use of translanguaging strategies when gradually introducing English in steps.More specifically,the pedagogy involves a deliberate use of the students’ linguistic and cultural resources as translanguaging strategies in a planned and deliberate way,while introducing English in a systemic way in the R2 L cycle,scaffolding students towards gradual control of knowledge about English and English language resources.Moreover,students are given agency to flexibly use their language practices to develop high-staking English writings as well as construct their own meanings and identity.In principle,the use of students’ mother languages is not rejected,as some theorists on second language teaching have argued,nor are they introduced in a haphazard way,as often occurs in practice.Instead,the students’ whole linguistic repertoire is used in a planned way that assists learning of English.(2)With regards to the pedagogic practices,the program involved two iterations of the designed translanguaging Reading to Learn(TL-R2L)teaching/learning cycle.In Iteration 1,the reading text is in L3,while the languages used in class talk were mainly L1 and L2.In the way of translanguaging class interactions,deconstruction(i.e.‘preparing for reading’,‘detailed reading’ and ‘sentence making’),joint construction and independent construction were carried out to scaffold students accessing knowledge about L3,language resources and the way of languaging.In Iteration 2,the reading text is a Dong folk story in both L1 and L2.While the use of L1 and L2 were decreased in class interactions,L3 talk was increasingly used.After the lesson activities of reading the bilingual texts(i.e.‘preparing for reading’,‘detailed reading’),translating the identified notes of the text(‘translating’),L3 text were jointly constructed via the re-instantiation of L1 and L2 reading texts by using the language resources in L3 text and knowledge negotiated in the previous lesson activities(‘joint construction’).Finally,students were required to write independently by using all language resources provided for them in the two iterations(‘independent construction’).In this process,translanguaging strategies of the combined use of the new language resources and their own linguistic repertoire were encouraged to facilitate them to organize their thoughts and construct their writings.(3)Evidence shows impact of the pedagogic practices on the students’ L3 writing development and the achievement of the multilingual teaching goals.Over the iterations,students are able to write whole and longer texts with a good control of narrative genre and register with particular regard to field,literary elements,grammar(e.g.identifying clauses and verbal groups),and presentation(e.g.paragraphing,spelling,and graphic features).Throughout the program,students also develop their multilingual competence,promote their metalinguistic awareness,and sustain their multilingual identity.The pedagogy developed in this project is both interventionist and innovative.It is interventionist in that it proposes active intervention in the teaching,scaffolding students towards growing independence and confidence in their use of L3.The program attempts to change the ways of traditional trilingual teaching and learning practices with the main focus on L3 in many minority areas.By taking translanguaging approach,the use of students’ whole linguistic repertoire is taken as a legitimate practice in classrooms to assist their L3 learning.In this translanguaging process,the students’ advantages as multilingual learners(e.g.multilingual resources,multilingual competence,multilingual learning experience,metalinguistic awareness)are actively to learn L3 in a more efficient way.At the same time,by frequently appropriating students’ linguistic repertoire,their linguistic repertoire is expanded as their L1,L2 and L3 has been gradually developed.Moreover,their multilingual identity is also established in this process.This practice,therefore,is argued to truly achieve the specific curriculum objective of ethnic tertiary education in minority areas,i.e.Sanyu Jiantong or additive trilingualism.The pedagogy is also innovative in that it breaks new ground for the context of multilingual education in Chinese minority areas.It is an innovative curriculum of incorporating translanguaging approach into genre-based pedagogy by taking the multilingual characteristics in English classrooms of Dong area.It,therefore,provides a new principled approach to the design and implementation of English programs in the context of multilingual education in ethnic minority areas.The pedagogy does this by actively utlizing the students’ language resources and learning experiences in systemic teaching steps to gradually introduce new way of languaging.Their semiotic load and processing burden can be reduced by taking L1 and L2 as a scaffold,so that they are steadily enabled to use L3 confidently and reinforce their L1 and L2 at the same time.In this sense,the current project can be seen as a pilot study towards more ambitious studies in the future.Moreover,it also makes a contribution to the development and refinement of the application of genre-based pedagogy and the pedagogic use of translanguaging approach in multilingual context.