Translanguaging

For many years it had been considered axiomatic that in the foreign language classroom exposure to the target language should be emphasized, and that the learners’ native language should be banned. However, in recent years, the analysis of classroom discourse has unravelled some essential pedagogical functions of the learners’ native language in foreign language teaching (Macaro, 2009). In line with this, the term ‘translanguaging’ has been introduced in the international literature with reference to the drawing on all of the linguistic resources that one has in order to ‘make sense’ (Garcia, 2009), and to improve language learning processes and outcomes (Lewis, Jones & Baker, 2012). Taking a sociocultural discourse analysis approach, this contribution shows how Maltese learners of Italian and their teachers interact bilingually to fulfil pedagogical requirements such as the assimilation of grammar points, explaining new vocabulary items, and shifting from formal to informal language. We give examples of how the teacher guides the learners in interaction toward target language approximation.

For their communicative needs, bilinguals access their language repertoire, in which languages are not discrete and separate, but form an integrated system. This has led to pedagogical practices which consider bilingualism as a strategic asset rather than a source of interference of the L1 upon the target language (TL). Competence does not consist of the total mastery of each language. Rather, bilinguals need to build proficiency by developing abilities in the different functions served by different languages. This new understanding clashes with the pedagogical tradition that theorizes competence in terms of monolingual norms, advocating exclusive use of the TL in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom. Given that it has been shown that FL teachers do frequently use the L1, and that the L1 can support the learning of French as a FL, this study investigates Maltese teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices in relation to translanguaging in the French classroom. A questionnaire for teachers allows a better understanding of the functions for which the L1 is put to use, whether teachers received training in language use and whether there are consensus viewpoints about when L1 use may prove more beneficial.

This study reviews beliefs related to translanguaging activities in the French as a Foreign Language (FFL) classroom and suggests cultural reasons why some condemn the concomitant use of previously learnt languages with the target language in FFL learning contexts. A corpus analysis of two Maltese FFL teachers’ recorded lessons attempts a structural categorisation of translanguaging instances according to the classification of classroom translanguaging in Causa (1998). It sheds light on the functions that translanguaging is made to fulfil in the Maltese FFL classroom, in comparison to those proposed mainly in Maarfia (2008). The results are compared to Maltese FFL teachers’ statements about their views on translanguaging in a recently administered questionnaire (Bezzina, 2016). Basic statistics reveal that the target language is often far from being the dominant language in the FFL classroom, and that learner talk is hardly encouraged in any language. Observations are interpreted in the light of possible practical factors of influence on translanguaging in the FFL classroom, as proposed in Molander (2004).