Using a translanguaging multimodal approach to develop teachers’ language awareness in linguistically diverse classrooms in Australia

Abstract

More research is needed on the role of teacher language awareness in the incorporation of students' language knowledge in linguistically diverse classrooms. This article reports on a design-based research project that involved in-service professional learning for seven teachers from five linguistically diverse Australian schools. Teachers learned about and implemented plurilingual strategies. Data on their subsequent language awareness were drawn from teacher interviews, classroom activities and student work samples. Teachers’ awareness was demonstrated to different degrees across affective, social, cognitive, power and performance domains. A translanguaging multimodal approach assisted in developing the language awareness identified across the domains.