Translanguaging has received an increasing amount of attention in applied sociolinguistics in recent years due to its reconceptualization of multilingualism as fluid (e.g. Canagarajah 2011, Cenoz & Gorter 2015, Creese &... [ view full abstract ]
Translanguaging has received an increasing amount of attention in applied sociolinguistics in recent years due to its reconceptualization of multilingualism as fluid (e.g. Canagarajah 2011, Cenoz & Gorter 2015, Creese & Blackledge 2010, García 2010). Translanguaging has been defined as “the ability of multilingual speakers to shuttle between languages, treating the diverse languages that form their repertoire as an integrated system” (Canagarajah 2011:401). While theoretically exciting, language teachers have reported struggling with how to make use of translanguaging theories while still implementing the popular Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach in the language classroom. Teachers even report that the experience of learners resorting to L1 is one reason they are reluctant to adopt a task-based approach (Carless, 2004). This presentation examines the relationship between translanguaging and TBLT in depth, answering the question of how both theories can co-exist in practice in the language classroom.
We address the above question through an applied sociolinguistics approach, asking what roles learners’ full linguistic repertoires, including first languages (L1s), play in oral task performance in the language classroom. This is a key question when language teachers use interactive classroom tasks, especially in the many EFL contexts in which learners often share a common L1 (Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003; Storch & Aldosari, 2011). To date, little research has explored the intersection between task-based learning teaching (TBLT) and translanguaging perspectives in languages education. We argue that there is much to be gained from doing so.
We illustrate our discussion with data from two sets of transcribed recordings of Vietnamese learners of English participating in various interactive tasks, as well as interviews with the teachers. The first set is from 18 lessons taught by seven different teachers at various Vietnamese primary schools, and the second set from 48 recordings of pairs and groups of Vietnamese high school EFL learners performing classroom speaking tasks.
Finally, our paper provides a mandate for TBLT to embrace “the intuitive communicative strategies multilinguals display in everyday life?” (Canagarajah 2011: 401). We conclude that translanguaging can challenge and extend the ways TBLT is implemented and researched.
