Fostering a translingual framework in teacher education focused on pragmatics: Identity and the multilingual turn in pragmatics pedagogy

Abstract

As part of the multilingual turn in applied linguistics, practices in teacher education for L2 pragmatics should be reconsidered to highlight the interconnection between identity and pragmatics and explore ways to support learners' and teachers' multilingualism through pragmatics instruction. This paper aims to provide an overview of second language (L2) pragmatics research informed by a multilingual or translingual framework and to illustrate how teacher education can integrate its basic tenets into teachers’ professional development so that multicompetence can become a prominent goal in the teaching and assessment of pragmatic competence rather than monolingual native-speakerism.

Although language teachers are often multilingual themselves, they may not readily see the potential of their own hybrid identities under the influence of a dominant monolingual ideology and thus may not spontaneously foster learners' multicompetence. Through an example of collaborative interactions in a teacher development course centered on pragmatics instruction, this paper will explore how teachers can jointly mediate their metapragmatic awareness while engaging in translingual pedagogy and strategically leverage their own translingual identity as pedagogy in teaching pragmatics. The paper will conclude by identifying three approaches to translingual pedagogy in pragmatics-focused instruction that acknowledges learners' and teachers’ multilingual repertoire and legitimatizes their voices, languages, and knowledge construction. (200 words).