VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES LƢƠNG THỊ BÍCH HUỆ EXPLORING THE USEFULNESS OF TRANSLANGUAGING IN A HA NAM HIGH SCHOOL: AN EXPLORATORY ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT (Nghiên cứu hành động khám phá: Tìm hiểu lợi ích của việc sử dụng liên ngữ tại một trƣờng Trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nam) M. MINOR THESIS Field : English Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES LƢƠNG THỊ BÍCH HUỆ EXPLORING THE USEFULNESS OF TRANSLANGUAGING IN A HA NAM HIGH SCHOOL: AN EXPLORATORY ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT (Nghiên cứu hành động khám phá: Tìm hiểu lợi ích của việc sử dụng liên ngữ tại một trƣờng Trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nam) M. MINOR THESIS Field : English Methodology Code : 8140231. Lê Văn Canh Hanoi, 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis “Exploring the usefulness of using translanguaging in the high school context in Ha Nam province: An action research approach” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people. Therefore, I hereby wish to send my application to all of them. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Van Canh for his invaluable and insightful comments, guidance, and encouragement he gave me during the time I tried to do the research.
This thesis would not be completed without his great help from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage. My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of Postgraduate Studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps. Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing the research. In addition, I am also grateful to my colleagues and my students who helped me collect the necessary data.
Special acknowledgement is also given to my students from classes 10A3, 11A6 and 11A8 for their participation in the experimental lessons. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family whose support and encouragement have always been the great source of inspiration for me in bringing this study to a success. Without all this support, I could not have finished this thesis. Lƣơng Thị Bích Huệ December , 2019 ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been a significant shift from a monolingual approach to teaching English as a second or foreign language to multilingual perspectives.
According to these perspectives, learners‘ first language (L1) is considered as resources for learning the second language (L2). As a result, translanguaging in the EFL classroom has attracted great scholarly attention and interest. The number of studies on translanguaging in different contexts is increasing considerably. Despite this fact, the term ‗translanguaging‘ seems to be new to many Vietnamese EFL teachers.
This thesis may be the first one that deals with this topic. This thesis reports on the results of an action research project on the benefits and drawbacks of translanguaging in a high school context. In the light of the discussions relative to the effectiveness of translanguaging in the EFL classroom, the present study aims at providing functions of translanguaging in both language teaching and learning. Data was collected from a student questionnaire, recorded student translanguaging, teacher self-observation and the reflection.
The findings provide initial insights into the students‘ attitudes towards translanguaging and the possible benefits of translanguaging to students‘ learning English in the high school classroom. Key words: translanguaging, L1, L2, code-switching iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
vi LIST OF TABLES. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Structure of the thesis. 2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. What is translanguaging?.
Theoretical foundation of translanguaging. Previous studies on translanguaging in L2 classrooms .3 Classroom self- observations. The exploratory action research. 18 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Data collection procedures. Data analysis procedures. Discussions and implications. Summary of the study.
Limitations and suggestions for further study. I APPENDIX I: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS. I APPENDIX II: INTERVIEWS FOR STUDENTS. VIII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR : Action Research L1 : First Language L2 : Second Language EFL : English as Foreign Language ELF : English as lingual franca ELT : English Language Teaching SPSS : Statistical Packages for Social Sciences TESOL : Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TL : Target language vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Students’ attitude of L1 use in English classrooms (N= 80; Grade 11) .2: Students’ attitude of L1 use in English classrooms (N= 45; Grade 10) .3: The percentage of 11th graders’ responses towards the question 1 .4: The percentage of 10th graders’ responses towards the question 1 .5: Students’ perception of L1 use in learning grammar (N= 80; Grade 11) .6: Students’ perception of L1 use in learning grammar (N= 45; Grade 10).
33 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale of the study In recent years, working in bi/multilingual contexts, scholars, researchers and teachers in the field of second or foreign language education has been increasingly interested in the concept of translanguaging, defined as ―the planned and systematic use of two languages for teaching and learning inside the same lesson‖ (Lewis et al. 3), Teachers in many different contexts have begun to recognize the pedagogic potential of translanguaging (Li 2018a: 32) in ways that could also be beneficial to students. In fact, translanguaging pedagogies are based on the view that bi/multilingual learner's first language (L1) can be valuable linguistic resources for second language (L2) learning.
While interest in researching translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy in ELT classrooms is growing globally, it has received little attention in Vietnam. In fact, the concept of translanguaging is new to many Vietnamese EFL teachers, and as a result, this innovative pedagogy has not been extensively researched in Vietnamese EFL classrooms. Motivated by the benefits of translanguaging to L2 learning, I decided to use an action research approach to explore whether translanguaging works in the context of Vietnamese high schools. Aims of the study This exploratory action research is aimed at exploring the students‘ attitudes towards translanguaging in the EFL classrooms and the possible benefits of translanguaging to students‘ learning English in the high school classroom.
Research questions In an attempt to achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions are formulated: 1. What are the students‘ attitudes towards translanguaging in learning English? 2. What are the possible benefits of translanguaging to students‘ learning English in the high school classroom? 1. Scope of the study 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The study focuses specifically on using translanguaging in learning English as well as evaluate the students‘ attitudes towards this pedagogy in a high school in Ha Nam province.
The study limits itself to the teaching and learning English, and the subjects of the study are 125 non-English majors from three classes studying new ―English 10‖ textbook ( 10 A3) and ―English textbook 11‖ (11 A6, 11 A8) at a high school. Significance of the study The findings of this study are beneficial in two ways. First, they provide initial empirical insights into the possible benefits of translanguaging in the context of Vietnamese high schools. Secondly, the study will help to influence stakeholders‘ attitudes towards the role of L1 in L2 learning.
Research Methodology An exploratory action research design (Smith &Rebolledo, 2016) is used to achieve the aim of the study. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the researcher explored the students‘ attitudes towards to use of Vietnamese in the English lessons through a survey questionnaire. In the second phase, based on the results of the survey in the first phase, action, i., the use of translanguaging, was taken in the classroom with a focus on the possible benefits of translanguaging to students‘ learning English in classroom learning tasks.
Then, the action was evaluated to measure the effect of translanguaging on students‘ engagement in classroom learning. Data for this evaluation was obtained by means of the teacher‘self-observation, reflective journals and interviews of the students. Structure of the thesis The thesis is composed of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and design of the study. Chapter 2: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about translanguaging and using the first language in the second language classrooms.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology – presents the situation analysis, participants, data collection instrument, data collection procedures and data 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The detailed results of the research are focused. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion – shows major findings, discussion and some recommendations for teachers and learners in using of translanguaging in teaching and learning English. Chapter 5: Conclusion- is a review of the study, suggestions for further research and limitations of the study.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature on translanguaging in second and/or foreign language teaching and learning. It first provides the definition of the concept of translanguaging. Next, the theoretical foundation of translanguaging is discussed. Finally, studies conducted in a variety of different contexts are reviewed to identify the research gap where the present study fits.
What is translanguaging? According to Conteh (2018), translanguaging was originated in Welsh bilingual education in the 1980s. ‗Trawsieithu‘—a Welsh term coined by Cen Williams, and later translated into English as ‗translanguaging‘—was constructed as a purposeful cross-curricular strategy for ‗the planned and systematic use of two languages for teaching and learning inside the same lesson‘ (Lewis et al. Cenoz and Gorter (2011: 359) define translanguaging as ―the combination of two or more languages in systematic way within the same learning activity.‖ Thus, translanguaging is understood to be a wider concept which contains not only code- switching but many other kinds of bi/multilingual practices as well. While code-switching refers to the alteration of switch between languages by bilinguals in communicative event, translanguaging focuses on how bilinguals take advantages of their linguistic resources to make meaning or to make sense (Li, 2018b).
The distinction between the two concepts is detailed in the following section. Researchers use the term ‗translanguaging‘ to describe multilingual oral interaction (e. García, 2009; Blackledge and Creese, 2010) and the use of different languages in written texts (e. Canagarajah, 2011; García and Kano, 2014).
code-switching Code-switching is a bilingual-mode activity in which more than one language, typically speakers‘ native language (L1) and second language (L2), are used intransententially or intersententially (Cook, 2001). Code-switching has not been appreciated in traditional L2 classrooms where the students‘ target language 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com and native language were viewed as being compartmentalized or separated, and the target language was the ―legitimate‖ language in the classroom while the native language was a taboo. Therefore, according to Creese and Blackledge (2000), code- switching is occasionally employed by language curriculum developers and instructors to assist language practices that multilingual speakers are engaged in. Meanwhile, translanguaging is a term which has recently used in line with code- switching in the literature.
Similarly, translanguaging and code-switching are related to multilingual speakers‘ transferring between languages in a natural way.