Cover not available
Article published In:
Translanguaging – researchers and practitioners in dialogue
Edited by Lina Adinolfi, Holly Link and Oliver St John
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 4:3] 2018
► pp. 334–360

Between question and answer

Mother tongue tutoring and translanguaging as dialogic action

| Örebro University

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a form of special educational support to enable pupils with non-Swedish language backgrounds to follow Swedish medium instruction and succeed at school. For pupils who risk failing to meet minimal curricular requirements, it is an educational right. This study investigates tutor-mediated interaction with Somali newly arrived pupils and subject teachers in oral examinations at the ninth year and asks how translanguaging may be relevant to speech performances in this multilingual setting. Both tutors and pupils translanguage advantageously to accomplish pedagogical objectives. Translanguaging proves subject to the personal aspirations of speakers, the organization of interaction as well as wider pedagogical goals. Following Bakhtin, discrepancy between tutor translingual interpretation and the other participants’ interpreted utterances is accounted for as the responsive engagement of a second consciousness that supplements other voices creatively. Central aspects of translanguaging are challenged through a dialogic lens. The implications of treating translanguaging in mother tongue tutoring as dialogic action include positioning translanguaging in an interactionist framework, the importance of a discourse of constraint as well as affordance, a dynamic epistemology and the need for teachers and tutors to be aware of the inherent meaning-making processes in translingual interpretation for pupil assessment.

Keywords: translanguaging, Bakhtin, mother tongue tutoring, newly arrived pupils, interaction, pupil assessment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research context and aim
  • 3.Background
    • 3.1Bilingual education in Sweden
    • 3.2The task of a tutor
    • 3.3Educational continuity and testing
  • 4.Translanguaging
  • 5.Some Bakhtinian concepts
  • 6.Methods and data analysis
  • 7.Data analysis
    • 7.1Tutor response and representation
    • 7.2To translanguage or not to translanguage?
    • 7.3Accounting for translanguaging and tutor representation
    • 7.4Between question and answer
  • 8.Discussion
    • 8.1Translanguaging in tutoring
    • 8.2Translanguaging through a dialogic lens
  • 9.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 13 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00017.stj
References
Avery, Helen
2016 “At the Bridging Point: Tutoring Newly Arrived Students in Sweden.” International Journal of Inclusive Education, DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Colin
2011 Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 5th ed. Cleveland: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail M.
1981 The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: The University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
1986 Speech Genres & Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Alton L.
1995 Beyond translation. Essays toward a modern philology. The University of Michigan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Björk-Willén, Polly
2006 Lära och leka med flera språk: socialt samspel i flerspråkig förskola [Learning and Playing with Several Languages: Social Interplay in the Multilingual Preschool]. Doctoral Thesis. Linköping University 2006.Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian, and Angela Creese
2010 Multilingualism. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Bruce, Barbro, Ulrika Ivarsson, Anna-Karin Svensson, and Eva Sventelius
2016 Språklig Sårbarhet i Förskola och Skola. Barnet, Språket och Pedagogiken [Linguistic Vulnerability in Preschool and School. The Child, Language and Pedagogy]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Bunar, Nihad
2010 “Nyanlända och Lärande – en Forskningsöversikt om Nyanlända Elever i den Svenska Skolan” [Newcomers and Learning – a Research Overview of Newly Arrived Pupils in Swedish Schools]. Vetenskapsrådets Rapportserie. Stockholm: The Swedish Research Council.Google Scholar
2015 “Inledning” [Introduction]. In Nyanlända och Lärande – Mottangande och Inkludering [Newcomers and Learning – Reception and Inclusion], ed. by Nihad Bunar, 9–36. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.Google Scholar
Canagarajah, Suresh
2011 “Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy”. In Applied Linguistics Review, Vol. 2, ed. by Li Wei, 1–27. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cook, Vivian
2001 “Using the first language in the classroom.” Canadian Modern Language Review 57 (3): 402–424. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Creese, Angela, and Adrian Blackledge
2010 “Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?” The Modern Language Journal 94 (1): 103–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cummins, Jim
2008 “Teaching for Transfer: Challenging the Two Solitudes Assumption in Bilingual Education.” In Encyclopedia of Language and Education. 2nd ed. ed. by Jim Cummins, and Nancy Hornberger, 65–75. New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Flerspråkiga Elever: Effektiv Undervisning i en Utmanande Tid. [Mulilingual pupils: Effective Teaching in a Challenging Era]. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.Google Scholar
Davies, Alan
2003 The Native Speaker: Myth and Reality. Cleveland: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duek, Susanne
2017 Med andra ord: Samspel och villkor för litteracitet bland nyanlända barn [In Other Words: Interplay and Conditions for Literacy among Newly Arrived Children]. Doctoral Thesis. Karlstad University Studies. 20171:4.Google Scholar
Economou, Caterina
2015 “I Svenska Två Vågar Jag Pratar Mer och Så”. En Didaktisk Studie om Skolämnet Svenska som Andra Språk [“In Swedish Two, Do I Dare Talk More and Stuff”. A Didactic Study on the School Subject Swedish as a Second Language]. Gothenburg University: Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences 347.Google Scholar
Farr, Rob
1990 “The Social Psychology of the Prefix ‘Inter’: A Prologue to the Study of Dialogue.” In The Dynamics of Dialogue, ed. by Ivana Markovà, and Klaus Foppa, 25–44. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
García, Ofelia
2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Li Wei
2014 Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1981 Forms of Talk. Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hedman, Christina
2009 Dyslexi på två språk. En Multipel Fallstudie av Spansk-Svensktalande med Läs- och Skrivsvårigheter [Dyslexia in Two Languages. A Multiple Case Study of Spanish-Swedish Speaking Adolescents with Reading and Writing Difficulties]. Stockholm University: Centre for Research of Bilingualism.Google Scholar
Holquist, Michael
2002 Dialogism. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Holquist, Michael, and Caryl Emerson
1981 “Glossary.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, by Mikhail. M. Bakhtin, 423–434. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Hyltenstam, Kenneth, and Tommaso M. Milani
2012 “Flerspråkighetens Sociopolitiska och Sociokutruella Ramar.” [The Sociopolitical and the Sociocultural Frames of Multilingualism] In Flerspråkighet – En Forskningsöversikt [Multilingualism – A Research Overview], ed. by Kenneth Hyltenstam, Monica Axelsson, and Inger Lindberg, 17–152. Vetenskapsrådets Rapportserie 5. Stockholm: The Swedish Research Council.Google Scholar
Jalali-Moghadam, Niloufar, and Christina Hedman
2016 “Special Education Teachers’ Narratives on Literacy Support for Bilingual Students with Dyslexia in Swedish Compulsory Schools.” Nordic Journal of Literacy Research 21: 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger
1991 Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Gwyn, Bryn Jones and Colin Baker
2012 “Translanguaging: Developing its Conceptualisation and Contextualisation.” Educational Research and Evaluation 18 (7): 655–670. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lyster, Roy, and Leila Ranta
1997 “Corrective Feedback and Learner Uptake: Negotiation of Form in Communicative Classrooms.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 19 (1): 37–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linell, Per
1998 Approaching Dialogue. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 Rethinking Language, Mind, and World Dialogically. Interactional and Contextual Theories of Human Sense-Making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Nilsson, Jenny, and Monica Axelsson
2013 “Welcome to Sweden: Newly arrived students’ experiences of pedagogical and social provision in introductory and regular classes. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 6 (1): 137–164.Google Scholar
Nilsson, Jenny, and Nihad Bunar
2016 “Educational Responses to Newly Arrived Students in Sweden: Understanding the Structure and Influence of Post-Migration Ecology.” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 60 (4): 399–416. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair
2010 Language as a Local Practice. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Otheguy, Ricardo, Ofelia García, and Wallis Reid
2015 “Clarifying Translanguaging and Deconstructing Named Languages: A Perspective from Linguistics.” Applied Linguistics Review 6 (3): 281–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reath Warren, Anne
2016 “Multilingual study guidance in the Swedish compulsory school and the development of multilingual literacies.” Nordand 11 (2): 115–142.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1984 “Notes on Methodology.” In Structures of Social Action. Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. M. Atkinson, and J. Heritage, 21–27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sack, Harvey
1987 “On the Preference for Agreement and Contiguity in Sequences in Conversation” In Talk and Social Organisation, ed. by Graham Button, and John R. E. Lee, 54–69. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson
1974 “A simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn Taking for Conversation.” Language 501: 696–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salameh, Eva-Kristina
2012 “Flerspråkig Språkutveckling.” [Multilingual Language Development] In Flerspråkighet i Skolan – Språklig Utveckling och Undervisning [Multilingualism in School – Language Development and Teaching], ed. by Eva-Kristina Salameh, 27–55. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.Google Scholar
Sandström, Margareta
2014 “Läs- och Skrivsvårigheter hos Gymnasieelever.” [Reading and Writing difficulties among Upper Secondary School Students] In Ungdomar Läser och Skriver [Adolescents Read and Write], ed. by Siv Fischbein, 105–119. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Skolinspektionen
2014 Utbildning för Nyanlända Elever [The Education for Newly Arrived Pupils]. Stockholm: Rapport 2014: 03.Google Scholar
2017 Studiehandledning på Modersmålet i Årskurs 7–9 [Mother Tongue Tutoring in Grades 7–9]. Stockholm: Skolinspektionen.Google Scholar
Skolverket
2015 Studiehandledning på Modersmålet – att stödja kunskapsutvecklingen hos flerspråkiga elever [Tutoring in the Mother Tongue – Supporting Knowledge Development among Multilingual Pupils]. Stockholm: Skolverket.Google Scholar
2016 Utbildning för Nyanlända Elever [Education for Newly Arrived Pupils]. Stockholm: Skolverket.Google Scholar
SOU
2017:54. Fler nyanlända elever ska uppnå behörighet till gymnasiet [More newly arrived pupils should qualify for upper secondary school]. Stockholm: Elanders Sverige AB.Google Scholar
St John, Oliver
2010 “Bilingual Lexical Interillumination in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Language, Culture and Curriculum 23 (3): 199–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Approaching Classroom Interaction Dialogically. Studies in Everyday Encounters in a Bilingual Secondary School. Doctoral Thesis. Örebro University: Örebro Studies in Education 46.Google Scholar
Utbildningsdepartementet
2010 Skollagen, SFS 2010:800. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.Google Scholar
2011 Skolförordningen, SFS 2011:185. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.Google Scholar
Vološinov, Valentin N.
1973 Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Ulrich
1953 Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Williams, Cen
1994 Arfarniad o Ddulliau Dysgu ac Addysgu yng Nghyddestun Addysg Uwchradd Ddwyieitog [An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Methods in the Context of Bilingual Secondary Education]. Doctoral Thesis. University of Wales, Bangor.Google Scholar
Wertsch, James V.
1985 Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
1998 Mind as Action. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Fernández, Amaia, Pilar Sagasta & Nagore Ipiña
2019. Communicative Acts Used by Emergent Trilingual Pupils in English Classrooms in the Basque Autonomous Community. Languages 4:3 ► pp. 60 ff. DOI logo
Fuster, Carles & Camilla Bardel
2024. Translanguaging in Sweden: A critical review from an international perspective. System 121 ► pp. 103241 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.