Putting Theory into Practice: How to Develop Student Agency through a Translanguaging Approach.

I was so captivated that I think I leaned in so much on my laptop that my face was barely on the Zoom screen. It was hard not to get carried away when Eowyn Crisfield talked about multilinguistic pedagogies. I was really reluctant to spend the last week of my school holiday taking a course from Erin Kent Consulting (EKC), but I am glad I did. Translanguaging is not a word that just rolls off the tongue, right? So naturally wrapping your head around what this could look like in practice isn’t easy as well. I think of all the books and articles I have read about translanguaging and all the webinars and workshops I have taken, but Eowyn’s clarity made it all come into focus.

SO WHAT?-Perspectives on Multilingualism

Although many in the field of education can agree that Language is a verb and not a noun, that doesn’t mean that what looks like conceptually in our brains is agreed upon. Because expressing ideas as “languaging” is thinking itself, not everyone agrees if multilingualism is one unitary system or if it’s developed cross-linguistically, in which thinking is transferred from the dominant language to the language that is being acquired. Eowyn was quick to point out that the theory of “one linguistic repertoire” is too abstract and isn’t helpful for teachers in designing their lessons or supporting multilingual students in the classroom. I have to agree. But once we get all the abstraction out of the way, it is easy to see how we can empower our multilingual students to not only acquire new languages but to develop student agency–the ability to exercise voice, choice, and ownership in their learning.

Voice

Whether you believe that providing students with the opportunity to express themself in their home or dominant language is a human right or a resource to support academics, cultivating a learning community that values other languages honors the identity of the child by defacto. This is a foundational element of developing student agency, in which a child feels that they have something to contribute to the learning community despite not being proficient in the academic language(s) of the classroom.

Though it’s important to also apply the skillful use of translanguaging and requires thoughtful consideration and the WHEN, WHY, and HOW students will use it in their learning. Most classrooms default to its serendipitous use, allowing students to speak and write in their dominant language or discuss their home culture in classroom discussions. And although this might be appropriate for our youngest learners, as students mature, we have to improve our classroom practices and intentionally plan for it in. Eowyn calls this careful planning the “translanguaging cycle“, in which academic tasks and activities are thought through the lens of the input/output of language within learning. Moreover, ensuring that students have an opportunity to process the content of the lesson, is another part of the intentional planning process to scaffold knowledge and skills in the target language.

The question posed in this graphic is succinctly explained in this video, as well as an introduction to task design in this video.

Choice

Intentionally planning is a great way to get into the habit of translanguaging within instruction, but the next level can be offering students choice in…

• the resources that they want to use to access the content
• the language group they work in during collaboration
• the language that they want to research in (which can change the cultural perspective that they get of the learning material)
• the tools they use to record their learning (for example, making a video in the target language rather than a live presentation)
• the language that they want to communicate their ideas (speaking or writing)
• the language that they want to demonstrate their understanding

Ownership

Of course, the goal of developing proficiency in the target language doesn’t have to be sacrificed in the name of “choice”, and teachers must ensure that there is a balance of using their dominant language over the academic languages. So teachers must support learners in taking responsibility of the WHEN, WHY and HOW of their choices. Eowyn offered two frameworks that support building metalinguistic awareness and accountability in attaining proficiency in academic languages.

A Classroom “Language Policy”

A lot of schools might already have language policies but this is really specific to the learning culture of the classroom. In a straightforward way, the learning community decides as a whole what is going to be the “Language Policy” of the classroom and develops Essential Agreements for it. Discussing what the collective language goals of the learning community and how we might use our home languages as a resource are necessary to talk about when developing the “policy”. As you can imagine, co-constructing Essential Agreements is a powerful way to not only provide personal safety for students to use their dominant languages in academic discourse and completing tasks but ensure that the “policy” can be adjusted throughout the year.

Using a Choice Board

Many of us know what a choice board is and have used it in a variety of ways, but this one has the twist of providing students with the power to decide how much of their dominant language they are going to use within an activity or task. The choices should be in student-facing language, and although the choices were offered only in English, you can imagine that some truly emergent students would benefit from having these options translated in their home language so they could effectively make choices and set goals. Examples shared by Eowyn of choices might include:

I will use my (home) language to plan my work and then use English.

I will talk with my learning partner(s) in my (home) language and then complete the task in English.

I am going to use English for this task so that my classmates and teachers can also share in my learning.

NOW WHAT?

As I reflect on the journey that we have been on to create a culture of translanguaging at our school, I believe adding some of these ideas to promote empowered learners will help us continue the momentum of our initiatives. But whether or not your school is dedicated to a translanguaging approach, using a student’s home language or dominant language as a vehicle for increasing autonomy and self-direction is an integral practice, especially in PYP schools. It is my wish that you might consider some of these practical approaches that I gleaned from my EKC training and start leveraging languages to support student agency. And if any of these ideas got your head spinning and your heart thumping, please share in the comments below.