Translanguaging in a multilingual class: a study of the relation between students’ languages and epistemological access in science

This study describes multilingual students’ authentic use of their multiple languages in a science classroom in Viljoensdrift, South Africa. There has been a broad scope of research conducted by several researchers with regards to translanguaging and all have proven it to be an effective pedagogical tool that can be used in the process of teaching multilingual students universally. The studies showed that translanguaging can be used to break the common notion of monolingual bias to eradicate the disadvantages it inflicts on multilingual students. This present mixed-methods study involves 28 eighth-grade high school Natural Sciences students whose home language is Sotho. The participants were taught in both English and Sotho and were given tutorial materials written in their home language. After the lessons, the participants wrote a post-test and were also interviewed on their experiences of the translanguaging pedagogy and learning materials they used. The post-test results and interview responses highlight the significant role played by students’ home language in the science classroom, illustrating the ways in which translanguaging in a science classroom constitutes a resource in joint negotiations of the scientific content and its related language for multilingual students.