Translanguaging in the Culturally Diverse Classrooms of a South African School: Towards Improving Academic Success and Literacy Competencies, a Paradigm Shift to Translingualism?

In this study, I have argued that language structure should be adapted and shaped by the task of producing talk and meaning for others in human interaction in ways that give shape to a particular social world. This premise was seen in the context for this study - the multi-racial school of De Vos Malan High School in King Williams Town, in the Province of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The total number of learners who took part in the study was 18 (9 females and 9 males). Their ages ranged from 13 to 17 with a mean age of 15.8. They were selected according to their academic performance in English First Additional Language (EFAL) and English Home Language. The study was informed by Gutiérrez’s (1995) Third Space as a theoretical framework. The central question asked how EFAL learners could be taught through translanguaging pedagogy in the culturally diverse classrooms of a South African school. The methodology for the study was interpretive and qualitative in nature. The context underpinned the conclusions of the study which were drawn from key findings from journaling, observation and Gibbon’s curriculum cycle. Results revealed a need to attend to contradictions and rethink a strict temporal analysis of classrooms - that is, a diachronic view of talk and interaction in classroom activity - to a view of classrooms as having multiple, layered, and conflicting activity systems with various interconnections. Based on these findings, I have proposed an unorthodox approach to pre-writing structure and language use, and a cognizance of the importance of affording students agency.