Switching between two languages when teaching provides for the exploitation of all the linguistic repertoires of pupils in assessment for learning tasks rather than only taking their proficiency in the dominant language into account.
This is the view Prof Piet Van Avermaet, a visiting academic from Ghent University, Belgium, shared with the audience attending the Seminar on Translanguaging as a pedagogical resource.
The Seminar was hosted recently by the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences on the Granger Bay Campus. The faculty’s language co-ordinator, Dr Sithembele Marawu invited Van Avermaet to address the seminar.
Presenting his lecture under the title, Translanguaging as a pedagogical resource. Go beyond binaries, he said: “Translanguaging is the process of making meaning, shaping experiences, gaining understanding and knowledge through the use of two languages”.
He added that social inequality and unequal outcomes in education were big problems not only in schools but also in higher education. Van Avermaet said language use at home is seen as the cause of this inequality; speaking the home language is seen as hindering children’s academic development.
“Move beyond the binaries and towards a new approach to learning that integrates translanguaging and learning,” enthused Avermaet.
He argued that when learning and evaluating are seen as inseparable, the concept of assessment for learning can be connected seamlessly to the concept of functional multilingual learning.
“Both call for a learning environment that allows frequent interaction between the pupils and allow for the exploitation of all the linguistic repertoires of pupils in assessment for learning tasks rather than only taking their proficiency in the dominant language into account.”
