Colin Baker

Translanguaging: origins and development from school to street and beyond

The article traces the Welsh origins of “translanguaging” from the 1980s to the recent global use, analysing the development and extension of the term. It suggests that the growing popularity of the term relates to a change in the way bilingualism and multilingualism have ideologically developed not only among academics but also amid changing politics and public understandings about bilingualism. The original pedagogic advantages of a planned use of translanguaging in pedagogy and dual literacy are joined by an extended conceptualisation that perceives translanguaging as a spontaneous, everyday way of making meaning, shaping experiences, and communication by bilinguals. A new conceptualisation of translanguaging is in brain activity where learning is through 2 languages. A tripartite distinction is suggested between classroom translanguaging, universal translanguaging, and neurolinguistic translanguaging. The article concludes with a summary of recent research into translanguaging with suggestions for future research.

Translanguaging: developing its conceptualisation and contextualisation

Following from Lewis, Jones, and Baker (this issue), this article analyses the relationship between the new concept of “translanguaging” particularly in the classroom context and more historic terms such as code-switching and translation, indicating differences in (socio)linguistic and ideological understandings as well as in classroom processes. The article considers the pedagogic nature of translanguaging in terms of language proficiency of children, developmental use in emergent bilinguals, variations in input and output, relationship to the subject/discipline curriculum, deepening learning through language development, cognitive development, and content understanding, and the role of children, including Deaf children, and in the use of translanguaging in educational activity. The conceptualisation of translanguaging is also shown to be ideological.

How Deep Is Your Immersion? Policy and Practice in Welsh-Medium Preschools with Children from Different Language Backgrounds.

A challenge noted in a number of endangered language contexts is the need to mix second-language (L2) learners of the target language with first-language (L1) speakers of that language in a less planned way than is found in the two-way immersion approach. Such mixing of L1 speakers of the target language with L2 learners arises from the difficulty of making separate provision for the dwindling L1 minority. The issue of how to manage the range of language proficiency in such mixed groups is relevant to a number of language contexts. This paper explores data gathered in Wales from educators in Welsh-medium preschool nursery groups (cylchoedd meithrin). Particular attention is given to issues relating to the grouping of Welsh L1 and L2 children and to policies and practices pertaining to the teaching and learning of Welsh in these groups. Survey data were collected from 162 cylchoedd Leaders in areas where such mixing of L1 speakers and L2 learners regularly occurs. The Leaders’ skills, attitudes and approaches to developing the language of the children in such mixed groups are examined, as well as the issues of differentiated input and pedagogical adaptation to address those needs, in an exploration of how policy and practice can diverge in dealing with this challenge. The study aims to develop a fuller understanding of the needs of these early immersion Leaders, in order to support them and maximise their effectiveness, by recognising that they are striving, not only to promote language maintenance/enrichment in L1 minority language speakers and L2 acquisition among L2 learners, but also to provide high-quality early years’ education.

Survey Methods in Researching Language and Education

It is important initially to define survey methods. The survey method is not the use of a questionnaire and a large sample with the resulting set of relatively simple statistical analyses. A survey is not synonymous with a particular technique of collecting information. A survey can occur via questionnaires, structured and in-depth interviews, structured or systematic observation, and content analysis of documents (Marsh, 1982; de Vaus, 1986; Babbie, 1990). A survey can occur with one classroom of children, on large and representative samples of teachers and students, and a country’s population (e.g. as in a National Census).

Bilingual Education in Ireland, Scotland and Wales

Ireland, Scotland and Wales are joined by having a common Celtic heritage. However, their language history, language demography and bilingual education systems are very different. To understand such systems, it is necessary to contextualize bilingual education in the language demography of these countries. In the 1991 United Kingdom census, from a Scottish population of approximately 5 million people, only 1.4% (about 66,000) said they spoke Gaelic. Although there are Gaelic speakers throughout much of Scotland, with Gaelic communities in cities such as Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow, the highest concentration of Gaelic speakers is in the Western Isles. The remoteness and relative inaccessibility of these islands has meant that they have resisted Anglicisation more successfully than the rest of Scotland. Generally, the Gaelic language in Scotland is fighting for survival.

Book Reviews: Language, society and education in Singapore: Issues and trends S. Gopinathan, Anne Pakir, Ho Wah Kam and Vanithamani Saravanan (Eds.) (1998, Second Edition) Singapore: Times Academic Press. ISBN-981-210-121-7 (paperback). pp. 407

contains two very rich chapters devoted to reviewing pertinent sections of the research literature— a theoretical chapter discussing the main features of Experientialism in relation to cross-linguistic influence, and a chapter summarizing empirical work on prototype effects, lexical reference studies and research into other L1 related factors affecting lexical use. As has already been indicated, the study which forms the focus of the bulk of the text leaves, in one or two important respects, something to be desired. On the other hand the topic it attempts to address is fraught with problematicity, and the author deserves high praise for his courage in tackling it. Furthermore, the very detailed account the author provides of his results has the great merit of yielding abundant matter for further interpretation and debate.