Translanguaging in Immersion: Cognitive Support or Social Prestige?

• Published in: Canadian modern language review Vol. 75; no. 4; pp. 340 - 352
• Main Author: Lyster, Roy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press 01.11.2019
• Subjects: Academic Language; Bilingual Education Programs; Code Switching (Language); Course Content; Educational Benefits; Elementary Secondary Education; English; Foreign Countries; French; Immersion Programs; Language Minorities; Language of Instruction; Language Usage; Native Language; Relevance (Education); Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Social Status; Spanish; Teaching Methods; Canada; United States
• ISSN: 0008-4506
• DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.2019-0038

Translanguaging practices come into play in social interactions between bilinguals when they are making use of all their shared linguistic resources and blending their languages in natural ways. Stemming from these practices is translanguaging pedagogy, which is designed so that students in school-based additive bilingual programs can benefit from drawing on their entire linguistic repertoire. Whereas translanguaging pedagogy applies especially well to contexts where minority-language students are learning some or all of their school subjects through a majority language that is not their home language, this paper questions the relevance of translanguaging pedagogy across all contexts of bilingual education. Specifically, an argument is made against more use of English L1 in Canadian and US immersion programs featuring minority languages such as French or Spanish, given the high status of English that militates against the use of non-English languages. A research-based example of translanguaging pedagogy is presented to illustrate how it goes against current proposals for immersion pedagogy designed to systematically develop students' academic literacy in the minority language. Arguments are put forth for more sustained use of the minority language, drawing support from previous research on the benefits of separate spaces for instructional languages and from cognitive notions such as depth of processing and skill acquisition. Counterbalanced instruction integrating language and content along with strategies for scaffolding comprehension and production are presented as alternatives to translanguaging pedagogy.