The benefits of translanguaging as a language learning strategy on the OU’s modern language MOOCs and the implications for the OU’s approach to distance modern language education
The aim of this scholarship project is to gain insights into the use of translanguaging as a communicative strategy within the OU’s online adult modern language learning spaces, with a view to informing approaches to enabling and supporting such practices more systematically across its suite of programmes.
Translanguaging – the capacity of individuals to combine elements of their multilingual repertoire in order to communicate meaning – has been increasingly promoted and documented as a pedagogic practice in recent years, primarily among children in face-to-face additional (second) language classroom contexts.
Pedagogic translanguaging has been demonstrated not only to enhance learning, by enabling the use of a wide range of linguistic resources in the process, but also to impact positively on children’s sense of identity, agency and belonging. Yet, to date, the promotion – indeed sanctioning – of translanguaging within modern (foreign) language learning contexts, particularly among adult learners, and online, remains relatively unexplored. Driven by our interest in the potential application of this communicative practice to the OU’s distance modern language learning environment, our project represents a new direction for research in this area.
Our earlier Language Acts and Worldmaking-funded examination of the synchronous (spoken) tutorials and asynchronous (written) forums associated with the OU’s distance modern language learning modules suggested that learner translanguaging featured very rarely within tasks of an ‘instructional’ nature but was more in evidence in informal, authentic communicative exchanges (c.f. Adinolfi and Astruc, 2017), a reflection perhaps of long-standing, if unsubstantiated, perceptions as to target language only environments contributing to better learning outcomes.
To gain insights into the use of translanguaging as a communicative strategy within the OU’s online adult modern language learning spaces, with a view to informing approaches to enabling and supporting such practices more systematically across its suite of programmes.
In particular, we aimed to address the following research questions:
- In what ways do learners on the OU’s text-based modern language FutureLearn MOOCs engage in translanguaging?
- How does translanguaging help create a safe, motivating and effective learning space within these MOOCs?
- What are the implications for harnessing this communicative strategy across the OU’s wider modern language programme?
Cite items from this project
Funding
Praxis
Project lead(s)
Lina Adinolfi ; Caroline Tagg
Team members
Esther Asprey ; Penny Manford ; Anna Calvi
Authorship group
- Academic - Central
Project reference number
PRAXIS 2018/19 LA
Project start date
Project end date
Project status
Completed
Institutional priority category
- Achieving Study Goals
- Students Learning Experiences
Subject discipline
- Languages and Applied Linguistics
Project findings and recommendations
Our analysis of log files from the three MOOCs under study revealed that, while learners routinely limit themselves to using the target language when responding to the language-focused [instructional] tasks, they deploy their full multilingual repertoire in the task-related discussions - embracing elements of English – as the course’s lingua franca – and other languages in such exchanges. In the latter, learners spontaneously translanguage to explore and share their evolving understanding of the target language, often with reference to elements of other known languages and through language play, while also scaffolding the learning of their peers. Such practices may be explained in part by the fact that communication within this relatively new type of mass learning space is more akin to written social media use - insofar as it is more anonymous, more learner-led and more collaborative than that of conventional instructional environments. A potential benefit of these learner practices is thus to compensate for or provide an alternative to the relative low level of tutor mediation associated with MOOCs. Our research shows that translanguaging within the task-related discussions within the MOOCs may be associated with the following functions: • Being strategic: drawing on all available resources • Being creative: exploring target language, tapping into shared knowledge, connecting with others • Scaffolding: facilitating understanding, modelling, prompting. Below we present a selection of examples of translanguaging from one step of the Post-beginners’ German MOOC. The instructions are as follows: Meet your fellow learners (DISCUSSION) Instructions: Take a few minutes to contribute to the discussion at the bottom of this page and tell your fellow learners: • What’s your main motivation for joining this course and learning German? You can write in English, German or your own first language. Learner responses (examples) Being strategic ‘Hallo Ich heisse Robyn aus London. Ich habe Deutsch in der Schule gelernt, so would like to refresh my German’ Being creative ‘Hi!!! I'm Guillermina. I'm from Argentina. As many of you, I learnt Deutsch in the past but now I dont remember much...I can understand it yet, but I have lots of doubts when I have to speak it...I hope we all Viel Spass while learning have it!!!’ Scaffolding ‘We are not alone einsam =solitude we are connected and we can learn and meeting( encounter) by others and become happier and meaningful life’ Based on our findings, we identify a potential role of translanguaging in modern language learning in: • giving learners a voice (condoning the full use of their linguistic repertoires) • enabling them to enact personal identities and group belonging • facilitating playful exploration of the target language and other languages • supporting one another’s learning. To date, we have shared our work informally with the ALs and module team members attending the two associated workshops we have given (see ‘Impact’ below). However, a next step would to disseminate our findings and recommendations more formally to OU stakeholders, with a view to exploring the ways they may be integrated into existing and newly rewritten credited and non-credited modules and alternative study options within the university’s modern languages programme. Impact a. Student experience We consider that our project has the potential to impact positively on student learning and success in the longer term. b. Teaching As part of the LAL AL professional development programme, we led an online session in May 2019, which drew directly on our work in progress on this project. The session attracted considerable interest and prompted stimulating discussion. The session built on a workshop that we held at the LAL National AL Conference (NALC) in April 2018, where we shared the findings of our earlier studies in this area.. Such workshops have been important in challenging LAL ALs’ strongly held beliefs regarding the need to exclude learners’ first languages from the classroom and encouraging them to reflect on evidence to the contrary. We plan to contribute to a future Teaching Forum and PRAXIS event over the next year to continue this conversation with language module team members. c. Strategic change and learning design We have raised awareness about the benefits of translanguaging to the OU’s modern languages programme and plan to share our findings and recommendations with key stakeholders more formally now that the study is complete. d. Any other impact In terms of impact outside the OU, we have been involved in the following activities. - We presented a poster on our PRAXIS-funded project at the launch event of the BAAL Multilingualism SIG held at the University of Westminster, London, in July 2019. The event was intended to showcase current work on multilingualism among the BAAL community and beyond, and provide an opportunity for the exchange and cross-fertilisation of ideas among academic and scholars interested in the multilingual turn in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. The poster will shortly be made available more widely on the dedicated BAAL Multilingualism SIG website. - We submitted an article based on our PRAXIS project to a special issue on the theme of translanguaging hosted by the EAL Journal (the Journal of the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum, NALDIC). The article was published in Autumn 2019. - We have recently learnt of the acceptance of the abstract we submitted to the AILA Annual Congress 2020 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Drawing directly on our PRAXIS project, our presentation, entitled ‘Translanguaging as a plurilingual pedagogic strategy in online modern language learning: a study of two MOOCs’, forms part of a themed symposium called Plurilingual approaches in the language classroom, which aims to offer a platform to discuss and evaluate multilingual approaches to language learning.
Keyword(s)
Translanguaging ; online learning ; adult modern language learning ; learning space
