Maximizing students’ content and language development: The pedagogical potential of translanguaging in a Chinese immersion setting

Abstract

Background

Recent studies highlight the benefits of translanguaging for emergent bi/multilinguals (EMLs), enhancing their understanding of academic content in a new language. Despite the growth of Chinese immersion programs in the U.S., research on translanguaging and its impact on teacher and student experiences in this context remains scarce.

Aims

This study aims to explore how Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers implement pedagogical translanguaging to support students’ learning in academic content and language within a Chinese immersion context in the U.S., and to understand the perspectives of teachers and students on translanguaging.

Sample

Participants were two Chinese CLIL teachers and six of their students from a Chinese immersion school in the U.S.

Methods

Using a participatory design research methodology that combines ethnographic methods with multimodal conversation analysis, we documented the use of pedagogical translanguaging and triangulated data from field notes, classroom artifacts, and interviews.

Results

Findings reveal teachers utilized diverse communicative resources and exercised translanguaging shifts to enhance students’ grasp of advanced vocabulary and academic concepts, facilitating complex idea articulation in Chinese. Both teachers and students valued these strategies for deepening subject understanding and supporting their learning of the Chinese language.

Conclusions

The study highlights the importance of continuous professional development for CLIL teachers to effectively implement pedagogical translanguaging, supporting students’ learning in an immersion setting.