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Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals

Received: 30 July 2020     Accepted: 13 August 2020     Published: 8 September 2020
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Abstract

In this article, I employed a qualitative discourse analysis method from a heteroglossic perspective to investigate first-grade Korean American bilingual students’ translanguaging practices in a Korean heritage language (HL) school. Although the instruction was delivered exclusively in Korean in the HL classroom, the students were allowed to use English and translanguage if they needed. The transcripts of audio-recordings of students' spoken language were the main resources for this qualitative study. I first examined the incidence of the students' translanguaging. In performing the analysis of translanguaging function, I adopted Jakobson's [1] six functions of language (directive, expressive, referential, phatic, metalinguistic, and poetic). The findings showed that the function of students' translanguaging was documented in the five following categories: referential, directive, expressive, metalinguistic, and poetic. The close analysis revealed that 14 different subsidiary functions were further discovered under the five functional categories. The functional analysis of the students’ translanguaging performance indicates that their translanguaging was not accidental or deficient, but they were sophisticated, systematic, and purposeful. The findings imply that engaging in translanguaging when communicating even in a monoglossic classroom setting (such as an HL classroom) is considered as a natural phenomenon among bilingual students as they were activating and developing their bilingualism through everyday translanguaging practices. The article provides implications for teachers of bilingual learners.

Published in International Journal of Elementary Education (Volume 9, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11
Page(s) 50-59
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Bilingual Education, Korean Bilinguals, Heritage Language Learning, Translanguaging, Heteroglossia, Discourse Analysis

References
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[2] Lindholm-Leary, K. J. (2001). Dual language education. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Martin-Beltran, M. (2010). The two-way language bridge: Co-constructing bilingual language learning opportunities. The Modern Language Journal, 94 (2), 254-277.
[3] García, O. (2011). Educating New York’s bilingual children: Constructing a future from the past. Internatioanl Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14, 133-153.
[4] Genesee, F. (2008). Bilingual first language acquisition: Evidence from Montreal. Diversite urbaine, 9-26.
[5] García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
[6] Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39 (1), 9-30.
[7] Bailey, B. (2012). Heteroglossia. In The Routledge handbook of multilingualism, ed. M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, and A. Creese, 499-507. London, UK: Routledge.
[8] García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
[9] Lewis, G., Jones, B., & Baker, C. (2012). Translanguaging: Developing its conceptualization and contextualization. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18, 655-670.
[10] Bauer, E. B., Presiado, V., & Colomer, S. (2017). Writing through partnership: Fostering translanguaging in children who are emergent bilinguals. Journal of Literacy Research, 49 (1), 10-37.
[11] Durán, L., & Palmer, D. (2014). Pluralist discourses of bilingualism and translanguaging talk in classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14, 367-388.
[12] Nam, K. M. (2017). How young children make sense of two different writing systems: Korean written in the Hangul alphabet, and English written in the Roman alphabet. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18 (4), 490-517.
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[15] Canagarajah, A. S. (2011). Codemeshing in academic writing: Identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging. The Modern Language Journal, 95, 401-417.
[16] Velasco, P., & García, O. (2014). Translanguaging and the writing of bilingual learners. Bilingual Research Journal: The Journal of the National Association of Bilingual Education, 37 (1), 6-23.
[17] Gravelle, M. (1996). Supporting bilingual learners in schools. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham.
[18] Soltero-González, L., & Butvilofsky, S. (2016). The early Spanish and English writing development of simultaneous bilingual preschoolers, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 16 (4), 473-497.
[19] Appel, R., & Muysken, P. (1987). Language Contact and Bilingualism. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
[20] Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[21] Malik, L. (1994). Socio-linguistics: A study of code-switching. New Delhi, ND: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.
[22] Shay, O. (2015). To switch or not to switch: Code-switching in a multilingual country. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 209, 462-469.
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    Chaehyun Lee. (2020). Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals. International Journal of Elementary Education, 9(3), 50-59. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11

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    Chaehyun Lee. Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals. Int. J. Elem. Educ. 2020, 9(3), 50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11

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    AMA Style

    Chaehyun Lee. Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals. Int J Elem Educ. 2020;9(3):50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11,
      author = {Chaehyun Lee},
      title = {Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals},
      journal = {International Journal of Elementary Education},
      volume = {9},
      number = {3},
      pages = {50-59},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijeedu.20200903.11},
      abstract = {In this article, I employed a qualitative discourse analysis method from a heteroglossic perspective to investigate first-grade Korean American bilingual students’ translanguaging practices in a Korean heritage language (HL) school. Although the instruction was delivered exclusively in Korean in the HL classroom, the students were allowed to use English and translanguage if they needed. The transcripts of audio-recordings of students' spoken language were the main resources for this qualitative study. I first examined the incidence of the students' translanguaging. In performing the analysis of translanguaging function, I adopted Jakobson's [1] six functions of language (directive, expressive, referential, phatic, metalinguistic, and poetic). The findings showed that the function of students' translanguaging was documented in the five following categories: referential, directive, expressive, metalinguistic, and poetic. The close analysis revealed that 14 different subsidiary functions were further discovered under the five functional categories. The functional analysis of the students’ translanguaging performance indicates that their translanguaging was not accidental or deficient, but they were sophisticated, systematic, and purposeful. The findings imply that engaging in translanguaging when communicating even in a monoglossic classroom setting (such as an HL classroom) is considered as a natural phenomenon among bilingual students as they were activating and developing their bilingualism through everyday translanguaging practices. The article provides implications for teachers of bilingual learners.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    T1  - Functions of Translanguaging Performed by Korean-American Emergent Bilinguals
    AU  - Chaehyun Lee
    Y1  - 2020/09/08
    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11
    T2  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    JF  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    JO  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    SP  - 50
    EP  - 59
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7640
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20200903.11
    AB  - In this article, I employed a qualitative discourse analysis method from a heteroglossic perspective to investigate first-grade Korean American bilingual students’ translanguaging practices in a Korean heritage language (HL) school. Although the instruction was delivered exclusively in Korean in the HL classroom, the students were allowed to use English and translanguage if they needed. The transcripts of audio-recordings of students' spoken language were the main resources for this qualitative study. I first examined the incidence of the students' translanguaging. In performing the analysis of translanguaging function, I adopted Jakobson's [1] six functions of language (directive, expressive, referential, phatic, metalinguistic, and poetic). The findings showed that the function of students' translanguaging was documented in the five following categories: referential, directive, expressive, metalinguistic, and poetic. The close analysis revealed that 14 different subsidiary functions were further discovered under the five functional categories. The functional analysis of the students’ translanguaging performance indicates that their translanguaging was not accidental or deficient, but they were sophisticated, systematic, and purposeful. The findings imply that engaging in translanguaging when communicating even in a monoglossic classroom setting (such as an HL classroom) is considered as a natural phenomenon among bilingual students as they were activating and developing their bilingualism through everyday translanguaging practices. The article provides implications for teachers of bilingual learners.
    VL  - 9
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Author Information
  • Department of Educational Instruction and Learning, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, USA

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