Shakina Rajendram

This book details a study of teacher education programs that prepare teachers to work with multilingual learners. The book examines how racism and linguicism shape the conditions under which teacher candidates learn how to teach, and offers guiding principles and a suite of teacher education practices to disrupt the interplay of language and race.

A collaborative approach to Narrative Inquiry Interviews. The aim of this presentation is to outline the reasoning and approach to setting up a collaborative graduate student-led research project. The project itself is an narrative investigation into how international graduate students who are second-language users of English have negotiated English language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS as part of the application procedure to graduate school. In this presentation, we will describe the origins of the project, and go into detail about the purpose of the project, which stems from our own reflections and observations as international and non-international students within our Department of graduate study. Introducing the reasoning behind the project, we will illustrate how we have woven ethical considerations of working with peers, as co-researchers and participants, into the methodology of the project, the interview process, our own researcher reflections. We will also provide the specifics of seeking faculty and/or departmental support, ethical approval, recruitment, the transcription process and using technology to collaborate. In conclusion, we will discuss some of the next steps we anticipate taking in order to complete such a project. While critical language testing scholarship has described the gatekeeping nature of high-stakes commercial English language tests and institutional language policies (Shohamy, 2001), research has yet to explore their human side. This project uses a Foucauldian (1982) framework, which provides a lens to understand the interaction between student agency and the techniques of power that are embodied in institutional language policies and high-stakes language assessments. Narratives gathered through interviews will be coded and analysed by emerging themes using NVIVO. We seek to uncover international students' perspectives on the testing process itself (from test preparation to test completion) as well as their initial time at the university. Specifically, what supports are available to them and what challenges do they face during test preparation? How does this process of negotiation-and the test itself-affect international students in their initial months at the university? This research raises important questions relating to social justice and the consequential validity (Messick, 1995) of high stakes language tests.

Language development: The lifespan perspective, edited by Annette Gerstenberg and Anja Voeste, is a collection of papers that brings together the subjects of language development and age, with a particular focus on language change in the middle and later stages of the individual lifespan. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the volume, its contributors use historical longitudinal data as well as contemporarymethods of inquiry to examine various linguistic sub-fields, adopting psycholinguistic, corpus linguistic, and sociolinguistic approaches. The book is made up of ten chapters, including an introductory chapter by the editors. The two chapters following this introduction are concerned with language change in public broadcasts. Ulrich Reubold and Jonathan Harrington write about phonetic changes in the broadcasts of British-American radio commentator Alistair Cooke, spanning over 60 years. Reubold and Harrington suggest that Cooke’s accent reversion may be related to his shift in attitude towards his American host country. In the next chapter, David Bowie writes about the changing use of sociolinguistically marked variants in publicly broadcast religious sermons spanning over 30 years. The next three chapters in this volume are concerned with linguistic changes related to normal and pathological aging among older adults. Susan Kemper makes a compelling argument about common negative stereotypes of older adults which result in overand underaccommodations to aging, the use of elderspeak, and the perception of older adults as off-target and verbose. Next, Ian Lancashire discusses the lexical profiles of three novelists who died with dementia and three ‘healthy’ control writers, and concludes that advanced old age does not necessarily end in dementia. Annette Gerstenberg’s chapter reports on a corpus analysis of spoken French based on two series of interviews with 28 older adults, conducted seven years apart. Her research suggests that the reduced use of speech fillers among older adults can be seen as compensation for the increased effort of speaking under the difficult conditions of cognitive and somatic aging processes. The final four chapters of this volume focus on age-related linguistic changes in writing. Terttu Nevalainen examines variation in the writings of conservative and progressive individuals in the English language community during the 15 and

The translanguaging turn in language education offers a new perspective on multilingualism by positing that multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire rather than two or more autonomous language systems (García, O. & L. Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave MacMillan). When learners engage in translanguaging, they draw on all the features from their repertoire in a flexible and integrated way (Otheguy, R., O. García & W Reid. 2015. Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3). 281–307. DOI:10.1515/applirev-2015-0014). While much of the current literature on language teaching advocates teachers’ use of pedagogical translanguaging, less research has focused on the pedagogical affordances of student-led translanguaging, especially in contexts with dominant monolingual norms. This paper presents the results of a case study exploring the affordances of translanguaging in two multilingual Grade 5 English language classrooms in Malaysia where English-only policies and practices were enforced by the teachers, but where translanguaging was used agentively by learners during their peer-to-peer interactions. The primary data sources for this six-month-long study included 100 30–90 min-long video recordings of 55 learners working together in small groups on various collaborative language learning activities, and member-checking interviews with the learners. The study was grounded in sociocultural theory and translanguaging, and employed a methodology of sociocultural discourse analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that in both classrooms, learners resisted the English-only policies and practices by using translanguaging widely and strategically throughout their collaborative peer-to-peer interactions. The use of translanguaging fulfilled 100 important cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive functions that supported their individual and collective learning. The results of this study provide us with a view of translanguaging as collaborative and agentive, socioculturally situated and culturally responsive, and a resource for learning as well as a process of learning. The study makes recommendations for a language learning pedagogy that creates opportunities for learners to move language policies from the ground up through their collaborative use of translanguaging.

Translanguaging remains a timely and important topic in bi/multilingual education. The most recent turn in translanguaging scholarship involves attention to translanguaging in context in response to critiques of translanguaging as a universally empowering educational practice. In this paper, seven early career translanguaging scholars propose a framework for researching translanguaging “in context,” drawing on the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) transdisciplinary framework for language acquisition. Examining translanguaging in context entails paying attention to who in a classroom wields power, as a result of their greater proficiency in societally valued languages, their more “standard” ways of speaking these languages, their greater familiarity with academic literacies valued at school, and/or their more “legitimate” forms of translanguaging. In our framework for researching translanguaging in context, we propose three principles. The first principle is obvious: (1) not to do so ap...

This article includes aspects of a larger study in which we critically examine how and what mainstream teacher candidates learn in preservice programs about supporting multilingual learners (MLs). Since 2015, the province of Ontario has required that all teacher candidates — not just future ESL specialists — be prepared to support MLs. Within this context, we provide a description and discussion of who multilingual learners are imagined to be in policy documents and by various actors in education, along with examples of teacher candidate learning from a mixed-methods case study of teacher-candidate learning in the Master of Teaching at the University of Toronto. Our article reveals the complexity of preparing teachers to support MLs and suggests possibilities for centring multilingual learners and countering racism in Canadian teacher education.

This study examines pre-service teacher candidates’ (TCs) stances and use of translanguaging and multimodality to support K-12 multilingual learners’ writing. Data were drawn from a course on supporting multilingual learners in a teacher education program in Ontario. Data sources were responses to the Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Language- Inclusive Teaching (PeCK–LIT) Test, and TCs’ unit plans and lesson plans. Analytical codes were derived from the literature on translanguaging: monolingual and translanguaging stance, translanguaging as a scaffold and resource, teacher-directed and student-directed, intentional and spontaneous translanguaging, and supporting monomodality and multimodality. Findings demonstrate the use of translanguaging strategies such as multilingual word walls and online translation tools. However, there were constraints to TCs’ stances, such as allowing translanguaging as a temporary scaffold towards English-only instruction and approaching writing as a di...

Supporting Ontario’s diverse multilingual learners (MLs) requires more than “just good teaching” (de Jong & Harper, 2005, p. 102). MLs’ success is tied to specific teacher knowledge, attitudes, and pedagogical moves based on linguistically responsive teaching (Lucas & Villegas, 2013). This study investigated the perspectives of teachers, curriculum leaders, and consultants regarding how MLs can best be supported, their challenges and successes in working with MLs, and what needs to change in teacher education to achieve the goal of supporting MLs across their curricula. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 teachers currently working with MLs in Ontario, organized around their personal and professional backgrounds and experiences, issues faced in supporting MLs, perspectives on how Ontario’s policies impact their work, and opinions about how to enable future teachers to develop necessary skills to support MLs. Findings from an inductive thematic analysis of the interview...

This paper presents the results of a small-scale qualitative case study that explored a tutor’s role in supporting young learners through a digital storytelling (DS) activity through Microsoft PowerPoint. The two children who participated in this study were in grade one and attended private schools in Canada. Participatory observations, field notes, interviews, the children’s narratives, and observational narratives were the primary sources of data. The children carried out a DS activity during three separate sessions for each child that involved planning the story, enacting the story, creating and editing a storyboard with cameras and computers, and lastly, celebrating the stories they produced with their family members. We found that the tutor played an important role in making the activity purposeful, authentic, and passion-led (Anderson, 2016). We also found that the tutor helped the children represent and understand meaning through an integration of modes, supported their use o...

The colonial history of many English language teaching (ELT) contexts has shaped how the concept of language is understood, how language policies are constructed, and how language education is organized. Various aspects of ELT in countries that were colonized continue to promote the imperialism of English (Motha, 2014) through the naming (i.e., labeling of linguistic phenomena as distinct languages, dialects, and language varieties), separation and hierarchization of languages, and the dominance of monolingual policies and practices in the classroom. Translanguaging, a theory and pedagogy that challenges colonial understandings of language and monoglossic norms in language teaching, has the transformative potential to liberate language practices that have been rendered invisible by abyssal thinking in ELT (García et al., 2021). Translanguaging as a theory posits that multilingual learners do not possess two or more autonomous language systems but rather that they select and deploy linguistic features from a unitary linguistic repertoire (Vogel & García, 2017). Translanguaging as a pedagogy urges educators to leverage learners’ entire linguistic and semiotic repertoires to support their learning instead of requiring them to keep certain languages outside the classroom. However, in educational contexts that respond to socially and politically imposed boundaries between languages, there are ideological and systemic challenges to the enactment of translanguaging as a pedagogy. This paper discusses these challenges with reference to the Malaysian language education context and draws on data from a collaborative translanguaging pedagogy designed through teacher-researcher collaboration and implemented in two Malaysian elementary English classrooms to offer recommendations for how ELT can be decolonized.

The colonial history of many English language teaching (ELT) contexts has shaped how the concept of language is understood, how language policies are constructed, and how language education is organized. Various aspects of ELT in countries that were colonized continue to promote the imperialism of English (Motha, 2014) through the naming (i.e., labeling of linguistic phenomena as distinct languages, dialects, and language varieties), separation and hierarchization of languages, and the dominance of monolingual policies and practices in the classroom. Translanguaging, a theory and pedagogy that challenges colonial understandings of language and monoglossic norms in language teaching, has the transformative potential to liberate language practices that have been rendered invisible by abyssal thinking in ELT (García et al., 2021). Translanguaging as a theory posits that multilingual learners do not possess two or more autonomous language systems but rather that they select and deploy l...

The translanguaging turn in language education offers a new perspective on multilingualism by positing that multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire rather than two or more autonomous language systems (García & Li Wei, 2014). When learners engage in translanguaging, they draw on all the features from their repertoire in a flexible and integrated way (Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015). While many studies have advocated for the use of teacher-led pedagogical translanguaging, less research has documented the affordances of student-led collaborative translanguaging, and the factors that may constrain their use of translanguaging. My study is a step in this direction as it provides evidence of the potential of translanguaging as an intentional and agentive student-led collaborative pedagogy for multilingual learners. My research was a case study of two trilingual Grade 5 English language classes in a Malaysian elementary school – one class with an English-only policy, and one class without. Over 6 months, I recorded learners’ interactions as they worked in groups of 3-5 on collaborative learning activities. My data sources also included interviews with 55 learners and their two teachers, artefacts, field notes, and reflexive journal entries. Using sociocultural critical discourse analysis (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Mercer, 2004), I conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of 100 30-minute to 1.5-hour long transcripts of learners’ interactions, and conducted a thematic analysis (Nowell, Norris, White & Moules, 2017) of the interviews. The results revealed that learners in both classes used translanguaging agentively to fulfil 100 cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive functions that supported their individual and collective learning. Even with an English-only policy in place, learners harnessed the affordances of translanguaging using multimodal resources such as symbols, images, videos, and gestures. However, their specific language choices and beliefs about language were influenced and at times constrained by the teacher’s language policies and practices, parental discourses about linguistic capital, and ethnic tensions in the country. My research positions translanguaging as collaborative and agentive, socioculturally situated and culturally responsive, and a resource for learning as well as a process of learning. As an outcome of this study, I provide recommendations for a collaborative translanguaging pedagogy approach.

This workshop will provide a variety of multimodal, hands-on activities (e.g., visual arts, text-based storytelling, drama, video) based on multilingual approaches that promote inclusive and equitable language education. Teachers will be invited to collaboratively develop their own activities, emphasizing critical and creative thinking, within their grade levels.

Objectives This symposium will provide a forum for candid discussion of the data universities and colleges need if they are to understand the experiences of their students. The panelists will discuss the quality of the data that are currently available, the additional data that are needed, and the challenges encountered in developing and using new data collection tools. Significance of the Topic The National Survey of Student Engagement, the National College Health Assessment, and other surveys periodically collect data about student experience in universities and colleges. Some institutions have developed additional data collection tools. For example, Mohawk College has an established suite of post-admission reading, writing and math assessments and a Student Entrance Survey (SES) that the majority of new students complete prior to the first day of classes. These data are an important resource for identifying and supporting students who may be likely to struggle in their academic program (Fricker, Doyle, Ellingham, & Fernandez, 2016). Student services staff in the advising, tutoring and student engagement offices track interactions with students (and student participation in co-curricular activities) and to inform more proactive outreach and support initiatives. Researchers, too, have developed measures of student experience (see, for example, Braxton, Doyle, Hartley, Hirschy, Jones, & McLendon, 2014; Mayhew, Rockenbach, Bowman, Seifert, Wolniak, Pascarella, & Tenenzini, 2016), some of which have then been adapted by institutions for routine use. Faculties and departments also often create measures aligned with local goals. Student associations may also create and adminster surveys of their members. With so much data being collected, it is easy to assume that institutions have the data they need to improve student experience. But, do they? Are the data of sufficient quality for the intended uses? What other data are needed? Panellists The panellists bring a wide variety of experiences collecting and using student experience data as staff, students, and researchers in colleges and universities: • Sheldon Grabke is the Registrar at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto • Timothy Fricker is the Director of Student Success Initiatives at Mohawk College and a member of HEQCO's Access and Retention Consortium • Shakina Rajendram is the Vice President Internal, OISE Graduate Students’ Association and is leading a project to measure graduate students' perceptions of equity of access • Hany Soliman is a Master’s Student at OISE and is working with the University of Toronto’s Student Life Programs and Services to develop a measure of resilience All of the panellists have been involved in developing and using measures of student experience and all have thought deeply about the challenges and possibilities of collecting and using such data. Session Structure The moderator will describe the purpose and structure of the session and will introduce the panellists. Each panellist will begin by briefly describing his or her role in collecting or using data about student experience. The panellists will have received the following questions before the conference: • What data do we need that are not already available? • How good are the data we already have? (e.g., Are we asking the right questions? Are the questions understood as we intend by students? Are enough students answering?) • What can we do to improve the usefulness of the data that are already being collected? • Based on your experiences developing new data collection tools, what advice would you give to others who are considering developing new tools? Depending on the length of the session, the moderator will either invite each panellist to address each question or will ask the panellists to chose two or three on which to focus. The moderator will also invite members of the audience to respond to the questions based on their experiences. The intention is to begin a candid and critical discussion of the quality of the data about student experience and practical steps to improve the quality. References Braxton, J. M., Doyle, W. R., Hartley, H. V., III, Hirschy, A. S., Jones, W. A., & McLendon, M. K. (2014). Rethinking college student retention. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Fricker, T., Doyle, H., Ellingham, S., & Fernandez, D. (Winter 2016). Advising in Canada: Summary survey results. Communiqué. Canadian Association of College and University Student Services. http://www.cacuss.ca/_Library/Communique/CACUSS-Q1-FINAL_AMENDED4_Digital_compressed.pdf Mayhew, M., Rockenbach, A., Bowman, N., Seifert, T., Wolniak, G., Pascarella, E., & Tenenzini, P. (2016). How college affects students: 21st century evidence that higher education works, Volume 3. San Fransico: Jossey Bass.

This narrative study describes the agency and resistance of international graduate This narrative study describes the agency and resistance of international graduate students as they negotiated commercial, high-stakes English language proficiency students as they negotiated commercial, high-stakes English language proficiency tests to gain admission to one Canadian university. This interdisciplinary paper, which tests to gain admission to one Canadian university. This interdisciplinary paper, which is grounded in Foucault and critical language testing scholarship, addresses is grounded in Foucault and critical language testing scholarship, addresses questions of power, social justice, and consequential validity. questions of power, social justice, and consequential validity. Abstract Abstract The purpose of this narrative study (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000) is to describe how The purpose of this narrative study (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000) is to describe how international graduate students who are L2 users of English have negotiated English international graduate students who are L2 users of English have negotiated English language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS in order to gain admission to language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS in order to gain admission to one institution of higher education in Ontario, Canada. one institution of higher education in Ontario, Canada. While critical language testing While critical language testing scholarship has described their gatekeeping nature (Shohamy, 2001), research has scholarship has described their gatekeeping nature (Shohamy, 2001), research has yet to explore the human side of high-stakes commercial English language tests. This yet to explore the human side of high-stakes commercial English language tests. This project uses a Foucauldian framework (1982) which provides a theoretical lens to project uses a Foucauldian framework (1982) which provides a theoretical lens to understand the power relations involved in this process. Our research sheds light on understand the power relations involved in this process. Our research sheds light on the interaction between student agency and the techniques of power that are the interaction between student agency and the techniques of power that are embodied in institutional language policies and high-stakes language assessments. embodied in institutional language policies and high-stakes language assessments. Narratives gathered through interviews will be coded and analysed thematically Narratives gathered through interviews will be coded and analysed thematically through NVIVO. We seek to uncover international students' perspectives on the through NVIVO. We seek to uncover international students' perspectives on the testing process itself (from test preparation to test completion) as well as their initial testing process itself (from test preparation to test completion) as well as their initial months at the university. Specifically, what supports are available to them and what months at the university. Specifically, what supports are available to them and what challenges do they face during test preparation? How does this process of negotiation challenges do they face during test preparation? How does this process of negotiation-and the test itself-affect international students in their initial months at the-and the test itself-affect international students in their initial months at the university? university? This research raises important questions relating to social justice and the This research raises important questions relating to social justice and the consequential validity (Messick, 1995) of high stakes language tests. consequential validity (Messick, 1995) of high stakes language tests.

This session presents the results of a study exploring the experiences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students engaged in a reader-response project based on the multiliteracies pedagogy. The participants in the project consisted of 25 culturally and linguistically heterogeneous first-year undergraduate students in a Literature in English Language Teaching program in a Malaysian public university. The students engaged in a reader-response project which required them to work in small groups to write, produce and present short films in response to the novel Step by Wicked Step by Anne Fine. Over a period of eight weeks, each group created two short films, one in English and the other in a local Malaysian language. Throughout the study, the participants kept journals in which they recorded their responses to the novel, and reflected on their experiences with the project. At the end of the project, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six focal participants. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews with the focal participants and their journal entries, the researcher found that students expressed more aesthetic and critical literary responses to the novel when they responded to it by producing short films in their local languages instead of in English. Using their local languages in the film allowed students to function as language experts, encouraged them to take liberties with the novel more confidently, helped them to make intertextual connections between the novel and local dramas and movies, increased their sense of personal meaningfulness, and fostered intercultural understanding among them.

This workshop will discuss accessibility broadly and offer practical ways to work with accessibility concerns at OISE, teaching in the classroom and within other workplaces. Topics discussed will include accessibility concerns not only related to physical ‘disability’, but also gender and sexuality, intercultural communication and mental health. The workshop will provide practical ways to bring inclusiveness and accommodation to the workplace and classroom regarding a variety of accessibility concerns. Through peer-facilitated group discussions and other activities, participants will identify key concerns they have experienced and potential solutions to these issues regarding accessibility.

The purpose of this narrative study (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000) is to describe how international graduate students who are L2 users of English have negotiated English language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS in order to gain admission to one institution of higher education in Ontario, Canada. While critical language testing scholarship has described their gatekeeping nature (Shohamy, 2001), research has yet to explore the human side of high-stakes commercial English language tests. This project uses a Foucauldian framework (1982) which provides a theoretical lens to understand the power relations involved in this process. Our research sheds light on the interaction between student agency and the techniques of power that are embodied in institutional language policies and high-stakes language assessments. Narratives gathered through interviews will be coded and analysed thematically through NVIVO. We seek to uncover international students’ perspectives on the testing process itself (from test preparation to test completion) as well as their initial months at the university. Specifically, what supports are available to them and what challenges do they face during test preparation? How does this process of negotiation -- and the test itself -- affect international students in their initial months at the university? This research raises important questions relating to social justice and the consequential validity (Messick, 1995) of high stakes language tests. REFERENCES Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical inquiry, 777-795. Messick, S. (1995). Validity of psychological assessment: Validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning. American Psychologist, 50, 741–749. Shohamy, E. (2001). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests. Taylor & Francis

Although much of the literature on language learning has suggested the cognitive, social, communicative, and affective benefits of translanguaging (e.g., Canagarajah, 2011; Garcia, 2009), English teachers in many second language contexts still continue to implement English-only policies in their classrooms. This monolingual approach ignores learners’ multilingualism, frames them within a deficit model, and limits the opportunities for learners with shared languages to provide guided support to their peers and scaffold each other’s learning. Furthermore, Phillipson (1992) argues that the English-only approach is situated within a broader theory of linguistic imperialism. This session presents the results from research conducted in multilingual Grade 5 classes in a primary school in postcolonial Malaysia where the official medium of instruction is Tamil, but English is enforced as the “official” language of instruction. Grounded in postcolonial theory, sociocultural theory, and collective scaffolding, and using a methodology of critical and sociocultural discourse analysis, my research examines the following questions: What is the role of translanguaging in scaffolding learning during learners’ collaborative interactions? How do learners’ attitudes towards translanguaging reflect larger institutional and societal discourses about English language learning? The results of this study suggest that translanguaging is an essential part of working within the Zone of Proximal Development for multilingual language learners, and that learners’ linguistic repertoire can scaffold their collaborative interactions which are shaped by their unique sociocultural contexts. References Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. In L. Wei (Ed.), Applied linguistics review 2 (pp. 1–27). Berlin, Germany: DeGruyter Mouton. Garcia, O. (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In A.K. Mohanty, M. Panda, R. Phillipson, & T. Skutnabb-Kangas (Eds.), Multilingual education for social justice: Globalising the local (pp. 128–145). New Delhi, India: Orient BlackSwan. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

In this workshop, we will focus on several strands of a 3-year research study involving a new mandatory course on supporting English learners designed for K-12 teacher candidates. The first strand involves a case study of this stand-alone course required for all candidates in Ontario’s only master’s level teacher-education program. It draws on observations, interviews with teacher candidates, artefacts of their written work, and instructors’ teaching materials to explore how candidates understand course content relative to their own aspirations as future teachers. Another strand reports the initial findings from a pedagogical content-knowledge test that assesses what candidates learned about supporting English learners over their two-year pre-service program. The third strand broadens our perspectives to include the voices of teachers, curriculum leaders, and teacher educators from elsewhere in Ontario. This strand analyzes interviews with these educators about their experiences supporting English learners in schools and what they believe pre-service candidates should know and be able to do upon entering the classroom. The session will be interactive as we want to hear the perspectives of participants on the enduring questions regarding what all teachers need to know about supporting ELLs and how we can support their learning.

The multimedia portraits presented in this symposium were created with diverse English learners (ELs) and are linked to two research studies. One study explores aspects of the social and academic integration of refugee students through the perspectives of settlement workers, educators, refugee parents as well as the refugee children and youth themselves. Refugee students took part in workshops where they created multimedia products focussed on their linguistic and cultural identities while providing insights on their integration in Ontario. The other study examines Ontario's 2015 policy mandating that all teacher candidates learn to support ELs. As this category of "English learner" is defined broadly and includes vastly diverse experiences and identities, we developed linguistic portraits with this heterogeneous group of ELs to determine whether Ontario's teacher education policy is consistent with the diversity, strengths, and needs of ELs. In this symposium, the process involved in the creation of the portraits is described. Excerpts from the video portraits are shared as illustrations of the thematic and linguistic analyses performed. The session concludes with the audience providing video responses to the multimedia artifacts produced by English learners using the same interface as used by the participants in both studies.

Many researchers advocate for translanguaging as a theoretical and pedagogical approach to language education because of its cognitive, social, and affective benefits (García, Johnson & Seltzer, 2017). Translanguaging, as an approach to language teaching, refers to the process by which multilingual learners draw on their rich linguistic repertoires to make meaning and gain knowledge (Canagarajah, 2011; García & Lin, 2016). This process is facilitated by the use of students’ home languages in their English language acquisition. Yet, the ways in which instructors can facilitate the use of a student’s home language is less clear, especially given that English-only language ideas still permeate many English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study examines five instructors’ ideologies and orientations towards language. Using Ruíz’s (1984) language-as-problem, language-as-right, and language-as-resource orientations to conceptually frame our study, we apply thematic analysis (Nowell, Norris, White & Moules, 2017) to identify discourse patterns that uncover issues related to language, power, and ideology. The themes that emerged in our analysis related to (1) languages in conflict, (2) languages as skills, (3) instructors’ language learning experiences and classroom policies and (4) institutional constraints. Our study suggests that despite the constraints instructors face, several instructors leveraged their own linguistic resources to validate the identity and linguistic resources of their students, thereby challenging dominant language ideologies and policies in their institutions. This study has the potential to uncover challenges in moving translanguaging from ideology to pedagogy.

Objectives
The broader study behind this paper examines Ontario’s new teacher-education policy mandating that all teacher candidates learn to support English Learners (ELs). However, this category of “English Learner” is defined broadly and includes vastly diverse experiences and identities. Of the 2 million K-12 students in Ontario, about one quarter are identified as ELs with 63% of elementary schools and 58% of secondary schools reporting ELs in the student body (People for Education, 2017). This continuum of ELs includes Metis, Inuit and First Nations students living in remote locations and experiencing chronic marginalization, Franco-Ontarians who attend French-language schools, refugees with significant gaps in their education, immigrant students who have begun to learn English at school in their country of origin, as well as secondary students in Canada on a study visa. We have undertaken to develop linguistic portraits with this very diverse group of ELs to determine whether Ontario’s teacher education policy is consistent with the diversity, strengths, and needs of ELs.

Theoretical Framework
Freire’s (1970) Humanizing Pedagogy is a frame for Cummins’ (2009) Transformative Multiliteracies Pedagogy (TMP) and the Literacy Expertise Framework (LEF) which inform our development of linguistic portraits with diverse ELs. Humanizing Pedagogy emphasizes the need for transformative educational experiences in which students’ identities and experiences are central. TMP and LEF emphasize ELs’ prior knowledge and the need to involve them in cognitively engaging activities leading to knowledge construction and dialogue via art and technology, as well as how teachers/mentors can accomplish this by focusing on meaning, language and use (Cummins, 2009; Cummins et al., 2015).

Methods & Participants
Using participatory action research (PAR) and Flipgrid, a video discussion app, we collaborated with over 20 ELs aged 10-20 years to create multimedia profiles of their full linguistic repertoires, their beliefs and attitudes about the languages they speak, and what needs they have at home, in the community, and at school to maintain their languages. PAR helped us to rethink researcher positionality with respect to youth who are marginalized. We followed McCarty, Wyman and Nicholas (2014) in viewing EL youth not merely as objects of policy, but also as policy-makers themselves. We have used maximum variation sampling (Merriam, 1998) to reflect the vast diversity among English learners in Ontario.

Findings
A content analysis of the linguistic portraits reveals the uniqueness of each EL in terms of how they use the various languages in their repertoire across the multiple worlds in which they live. In fact, these portraits have become a rich resource for teacher educators and classroom teachers, in that they provide evidence of the complexity of the students who are categorized as ELs.

Significance
Our study is significant as it reveals the disconnect that can exist between policy and reality. In this case, the linguistic profiles of diverse ELs are very different from the taxonomy of ELs on which the policy is based.

Perspectives and Objectives
Teacher educators are central to realizing Ontario’s policy that all future teachers receive training to meet the needs of English Learners (ELs). For in-service teachers, however, the onus for learning how to meet their ELs’ needs is on them; they have not necessarily received training in this new curriculum, but are, nevertheless, faced with a growing population and increasing diversity of ELs in their classrooms. It is expected that they understand what it means to be an EL, what it means to learn English to succeed in school—academically as well as socially—and how to facilitate such success. The objective of this research is to explore the experiences of teachers, curriculum leaders and consultants against the backdrop of current research on teacher education for supporting ELs.

Supporting ELs requires more than “just good teaching” (de Jong, 2005, n.p.). ELs’ success is tied to specific teacher knowledge, attitudes, and pedagogical moves. Previous findings on teachers’ experiences reveal concerns over mentorship of teachers, undervaluing their professional development around ELs, and teachers’ lack of preparedness towards accommodating ELs in mainstream classes (Reeves, 2006; McKinney, 2008; Greenfield, 2013). In this paper, we examine the experiences of language professionals in the classroom and in leadership positions designed to support ELs in Ontario. Our study investigates their perspectives regarding how ELs can best be supported, and what needs to change in teacher education to achieve that goal.

Methods and Participants
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers, curriculum leaders, and consultants who attended the 2018 Celebrating Linguistic Diversity Conference in Toronto as part of their professional development. The interview questions were organized around the following topics: personal, educational, and professional background and experiences; issues faced in supporting ELs; perspectives on the impact of their province’s educational language policies on their practices; and opinions about how best to enable future teachers to develop necessary skills for supporting ELs.

Results
Our results suggest that current mainstream teachers lack specialized training in supporting ELs, and have inadequate programming and resources for ELs. Practitioners lament the disconnect between theory and practice in teacher education programs, and emphasize the need for (future) teachers to acquire practical strategies for supporting ELs, such as through translanguaging and linguistically responsive teaching practices (Lucas & Villegas, 2013). Practical exposure to demonstration classrooms, and placement in schools with a large EL population can provide teacher candidates with tangible skills for supporting ELs. Educators also recommended that teacher candidates can benefit from participation in educator networks such as the ESL Resource Group of Ontario.

Significance
While research on teacher education has addressed the major components of a knowledge base for teacher candidates (de Oliveira & Burke, 2015), the knowledge base for supporting ELs has yet to be connected empirically to the issues practitioners face in supporting ELs, and to the specialized strategies that have proven to be successful in their various contexts. Our study reports actionable evidence addressing this gap.

This session presents findings from a case study of two Grade 5 classrooms in a multilingual elementary school in Malaysia where three languages are used during learning. Bringing together sociocultural theory and translanguaging, this study applies sociocultural discourse analysis to study the affordances of translanguaging for supporting collaborative learning among multilingual learners. Analysis of students’ collaborative interactions, classroom observations, field notes, and student artefacts revealed that translanguaging enabled learners to scaffold each other linguistically, conceptually, affectively, and socially. Translanguaging also provided important multimodal and sociocultural affordances by allowing learners to draw on multiple semiotic resources and their shared sociocultural knowledge during their collaborative dialogues. This session discusses the pedagogical implications of this research for developing a student-led collaborative learning pedagogy.

Research on plurilingualism and translanguaging has consistently shown that English Language Learners (ELLs) benefit academically, socially, and emotionally from pedagogical approaches that draw on all the languages in their linguistic repertoire (Garcia & Li Wei, 2014). By creating a space for home languages in the classroom, teachers can build bridges between what ELLs experience at home and in school, and facilitate the flow of knowledge and skills across the languages in their linguistic repertoire, thereby creating a more effective learning environment for them in the classroom (Cummins, Hu, Markus & Montero, 2015). In this session, participants will learn about research-based multilingual teaching approaches that support the language development of ELLs, specifically, their writing skills. Using interactive media and hands-on demonstrations, the presenters will show participants several multilingual storytelling and writing activities such as Language Flowers, the ScribJab app, and multilingual poetry. The presenters will also engage participants in a reflective discussion on how these activities can be used to teach and assess ELL writing strategies such as:
-generating ideas and information for specific purposes and audiences
-organizing ideas visually through graphic organizers
-pre-writing, planning, drafting, and revising writing
-using a variety of literary and stylistic elements
-using editing, proofreading and publishing strategies

The aim of this session is for participants to walk away with a repertoire of research-based multilingual activities that make language learning more engaging and relevant to their ELLs and, in turn, develop their writing skills. This session is intended for teachers of ELLs in primary and secondary schools.

References Cummins, J., Hu, S., Markus, P., & Montero, M. K. (2015). Identity texts and academic achievement: Connecting the dots in multilingual school contexts. TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 555-581.

García, O., & Li Wei (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Educational research over the years has argued for the importance of developing teacher praxis to improve practitioner performance in the classroom (e.g., Imbert & Ardonio, 1985; Justice & Tenore, 2018). Drawing from this research, we consider how similar ideas may be applied to developing ‘researcher praxis’, that is identifying ways of being (epistemological), ways of knowing (ontological) and ways of doing (methodological) researchers apply to their practice. This presentation outlines the methods and findings of a broader research project into the politics of collaboration (Chan & Clarke, 2014) and its impact on researcher identity in the realm of higher education research. In this presentation, three researchers discuss an artful inquiry they each undertook as a means of re-negotiating their understanding of the concept of “collaboration”, a focal point shared in their research practice. Each researcher created their own inquiry to explore the concept: one visual (painting), one tactile (creating a board game) and one gustatory (baking cupcakes). Situated within an arts-based educational research framework (Barone, 2008), narrative analysis (Wells, 2011) served to uncover conceptual overlap among the three researchers. Findings reveal that engaging in interactive negotiation, rotational leadership for the purpose of dismantling hierarchy, relational aspects, unpredictability, trust, and bringing the self to the group are key facets of collaboration for this group of researchers. The aim of this presentation is to outline one potential method for artful inquiry into key research concepts and practices among academics for the purpose of fostering researcher praxis.

References

Barone, T. (2008). How arts-based research can change minds. In M. Cahnmann-Taylor & R. Siegesmund (Eds.), Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice. New York: Routledge.

Chan, C., & Clarke, M. (2014). The politics of collaboration: discourse, identities, and power in a school–university partnership in Hong Kong. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 42(3), 291-304.

Imbert, F., & Ardoino, J. (1985). Pour une praxis pédagogique. Vigneux, France: Matrice.

Justice, J. E., & Tenore, F. B. (2018). Becoming critical teacher educators: narratives of  disruption, possibility, and praxis. New York: Routledge.

Wells, K. (2011). Narrative inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

A translanguaging pedagogy involves teachers drawing on all the diverse languages and language practices of all their students in order to challenge linguistic inequality and create more equitable and transformative learning practices (Garcia & Li Wei, 2014). However, despite the many cognitive, linguistic, affective and social benefits of a translanguaging pedagogy, English language teachers in many second language contexts continue to implement English-only policies in their classrooms to ensure that students do not use their first language while interacting with each other. Although English-only policies are often premised on the idea that maximum immersion in the target language will lead to more effective language learning, in reality, they may hinder opportunities for learners to demonstrate their cognitive, linguistic, and cultural strengths and identity, and to reach their level of potential development. English-only policies also remove opportunities for learners from the same linguistic and cultural background to collaborate with each other and build a collective scaffold to support each other’s learning. Drawing on a framework of translanguaging and critical sociocultural theory, I conducted a mixed-methods study of two multilingual Grade 5 classes in an elementary school in Malaysia – one class with an English-only policy, and one class where translanguaging was allowed. Using a critical sociocultural discourse analysis method, interviews and classroom observations, I analyzed the peer-to-peer interactions of learners as they engaged in collaborative learning activities to examine the affordances of translanguaging. My research revealed that translanguaging helped learners to fulfil important cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive functions in their collaboration. Translanguaging also affirmed the culture and identity of minority language learners, built their confidence, and developed student agency. 

References

García, O., & Li Wei (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Many researchers advocate for translanguaging as a theoretical and pedagogical approach to language education because of its cognitive, social, and affective benefits. Translanguaging, as an approach, refers to the process by which multilingual learners draw on their rich linguistic repertoires to make meaning and gain knowledge (Canagarajah, 2011; García & Lin, 2016). This process is facilitated by the use of students’ home languages in their English language acquisition. Yet, the ways in which instructors’ can facilitate the use of a students’ home language is less clear, especially given that English-only language ideas still permeate many English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify ESL instructors’ beliefs about the role of students’ home languages in the English language acquisition process in their teaching practices. This study also explores possible reasons why instructors may have these beliefs. Qualitative data for the study was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with five ESL instructors at a major Canadian university. Using Ruíz’s (1984) language-as-a-problem, language-as-a-right, and language-as-a-resource orientations to conceptually frame our study, we analyse the interview data to identify discourse patterns that uncover issues related to language, power, and ideology. The interplay between the orientations to language have pedagogical implications for instructors’ implicit and explicit classroom language policies. The findings of this research offer considerations for how language-in-education and non-official language policies in ESL classrooms can respond to globalization and superdiversity.

References
Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied linguistics review, 2(1), 1-28.

García, O., & Lin, A. M. Y. (2016). Translanguaging in bilingual education. In O. García, & A. M. Y. Lin (Eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education (Encyclopedia of language and education, Vol. 5). Dordrecht: Springer.

Ruíz, R. (1984). Orientations in language planning, NABE Journal, 8(2), 15-34.

This session presents the results of a study examining the role of translanguging (Garcia, 2009) in scaffolding the collaborative learning of multilingual English language learners (ELLs) in a primary school in Malaysia. The research questions guiding the study were: (1) What role does translanguaging play in scaffolding the learning of multilingual ELLs during collaborative learning? (2) What social, cultural, affective, and linguistic functions are accomplished through learners’ use of translanguaging during these activities? (3) What
type of collaborative learning activities support the learning of multilingual ELLs through translanguaging? The participants for this study were 58 ELLs in two Grade 5 classes. The English language
teachers in both classes conduct collaborative learning activities in each lesson, and learners are encouraged to use all the languages in their linguistic repertoire – Tamil, Malay and English – strategically
while they work together in small groups. The data for the study consisted of video recordings of the learners as they interacted with each other during their collaborative group work every day for 4 months, as well as interviews with the learners and the two teachers. Drawing on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and using sociocultural discourse analysis (Mercer, 2004), the data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to determine how learners translanguage to scaffold their own and each other’s language
learning, for example by eliciting and explaining the meaning of words, comparing the grammatical structures of different languages, and expressing ideas. Learners’ collaborative interactions were also
analyzed to identify the cognitive, sociocultural, linguistic, creative and affective functions that were fulfilled through translanguaging. In addition, the data was analysed to determine the types of
collaborative activities that encouraged translanguaging in a way that was conducive to ELL’s learning.The results of this research offer important pedagogical implications for teachers of ELLs in linguistically and culturally diverse contexts such as Canada.

In this session, we discuss our involvement as research assistants in the SSHRC-funded study - More than “Just Good Teaching”: Mainstream Teacher Education for Supporting English Language Learners. Led by Dr. Jeff Bale, Dr. Antoinette Gagné and Dr. Julie Kerekes, the study is a policy ethnography exploring how the Ontario teacher education policy is operationalized at various levels, and is informed by the tradition of ethnographies of language education policy. The study has many dimensions including  but not limited to classroom observations both in schools and at OISE, linguistic profiles of English Learners and interviews. The objectives of the study are to: (1) to determine whether Ontario's teacher education policy is consistent with the diversity, strengths, and needs of English learners; and (2) to identify how teacher candidates, teacher educators, practicing teachers, and subject consultants in local boards interpret and enact Ontario's new policy requirement. As graduate student researchers on this project, we probe into our experiences using methods such as ethnography and participatory action research, showcasing examples of how we collected and analyzed the data from the study. We discuss the ways that the tools and methodology have shaped our own research journeys. Much of our learning as student researchers has been on how a large research project with multiple moving parts is organized and carried out by the co-PI’s delving into how to move the research project forward.

This session presents research conducted in a Grade 5 English as a Second language This session presents research conducted in a Grade 5 English as a Second language classroom in Malaysia where despite the English-only policy, students translanguage classroom in Malaysia where despite the English-only policy, students translanguage during collaborative learning through the use of Tamil, Malay and English. Guided by the during collaborative learning through the use of Tamil, Malay and English. Guided by the theoretical framework of translanguaging, the study aims to answer this overarching theoretical framework of translanguaging, the study aims to answer this overarching question: What role does translanguaging play in supporting the learning of multilingual question: What role does translanguaging play in supporting the learning of multilingual English language learners during collaborative learning? A thematic and discourse English language learners during collaborative learning? A thematic and discourse analysis of interviews with students and recordings of their collaborative interactions analysis of interviews with students and recordings of their collaborative interactions suggest that translanguaging plays an important role in collaborative language learning suggest that translanguaging plays an important role in collaborative language learning by helping students identify gaps in their knowledge, take ownership of their learning, by helping students identify gaps in their knowledge, take ownership of their learning, engage in higher-order thinking, build rapport, maintain their cultural identity, and resist engage in higher-order thinking, build rapport, maintain their cultural identity, and resist monolingual ideologies. monolingual ideologies.

Multilingual learners have a natural translanguaging instinct, that is, they draw on all the languages in their linguistic repertoire to interpret and make meaning in their interactions (Canagarajah, 2011, Garcia & Li Wei, 2014). Learners translanguage to facilitate communication with other speakers, fulfil identity functions, draw on their sociocultural knowledge, and disrupt socially constructed language hierarchies (Otheguy, Garcia & Reid, 2015). This session presents research conducted over 6 months in Grade 5 English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in Malaysia where learners translanguage, drawing on Tamil, Malay and English, despite the English-only policy enforced in their classes. Using data from an inductive discourse analysis of interviews with 55 learners and recordings of their interactions, and guided by the theoretical framework of translanguaging and collective scaffolding (Donato, 1994), this research answers these questions: (1) Why do learners translanguage, despite the English-only policy? (2) How does translanguaging function to scaffold learning during collaborative learning activities? The findings of this study suggest that translanguaging scaffolds collaborative learning by encouraging more exploratory talk, where learners engage critically and constructively with each other’s ideas, and use their higher order thinking skills. Translanguaging also plays important social and cultural functions such as asserting cultural identity, building rapport, and resolving conflict.

References

Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. In L. Wei (Ed.), Applied linguistics review 2 (pp. 1–27). Berlin, Germany: DeGruyter Mouton.

Donato, R. (1994). Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In J. P. Lantolf & G. Appel (Eds.), Vygotskian approaches to second language research (pp. 33-56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex
Garcia, O., & Li Wei (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan.

Otheguy, R., Garcia, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281-307.

Objectives
This symposium will provide a forum for candid discussion of the data universities and colleges need if they are to understand the experiences of their students. The panelists will discuss the quality of the data that are currently available, the additional data that are needed, and the challenges encountered in developing and using new data collection tools.

Significance of the Topic
The National Survey of Student Engagement, the National College Health Assessment, and other surveys periodically collect data about student experience in universities and colleges. Some institutions have developed additional data collection tools. For example, Mohawk College has an established suite of post-admission reading, writing and math assessments and a Student Entrance Survey (SES) that the majority of new students complete prior to the first day of classes. These data are an important resource for identifying and supporting students who may be likely to struggle in their academic program (Fricker, Doyle, Ellingham, & Fernandez, 2016). Student services staff in the advising, tutoring and student engagement offices track interactions with students (and student participation in co-curricular activities) and to inform more proactive outreach and support initiatives.

Researchers, too, have developed measures of student experience (see, for example, Braxton, Doyle, Hartley, Hirschy, Jones, & McLendon, 2014; Mayhew, Rockenbach, Bowman, Seifert, Wolniak, Pascarella, & Tenenzini, 2016), some of which have then been adapted by institutions for routine use. Faculties and departments also often create measures aligned with local goals. Student associations may also create and adminster surveys of their members.

With so much data being collected, it is easy to assume that institutions have the data they need to improve student experience. But, do they? Are the data of sufficient quality for the intended uses? What other data are needed?

Panellists
The panellists bring a wide variety of experiences collecting and using student experience data as staff, students, and researchers in colleges and universities:
• Sheldon Grabke is the Registrar at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto
• Timothy Fricker is the Director of Student Success Initiatives at Mohawk College and a member of HEQCO's Access and Retention Consortium
• Shakina Rajendram is the Vice President Internal, OISE Graduate Students’ Association and is leading a project to measure graduate students' perceptions of equity of access
• Hany Soliman is a Master’s Student at OISE and is working with the University of Toronto’s Student Life Programs and Services to develop a measure of resilience

All of the panellists have been involved in developing and using measures of student experience and all have thought deeply about the challenges and possibilities of collecting and using such data.

Session Structure
The moderator will describe the purpose and structure of the session and will introduce the panellists. Each panellist will begin by briefly describing his or her role in collecting or using data about student experience. The panellists will have received the following questions before the conference:
• What data do we need that are not already available?
• How good are the data we already have? (e.g., Are we asking the right questions? Are the questions understood as we intend by students? Are enough students answering?)
• What can we do to improve the usefulness of the data that are already being collected?
• Based on your experiences developing new data collection tools, what advice would you give to others who are considering developing new tools?

Depending on the length of the session, the moderator will either invite each panellist to address each question or will ask the panellists to chose two or three on which to focus. The moderator will also invite members of the audience to respond to the questions based on their experiences. The intention is to begin a candid and critical discussion of the quality of the data about student experience and practical steps to improve the quality.

References
Braxton, J. M., Doyle, W. R., Hartley, H. V., III, Hirschy, A. S., Jones, W. A., & McLendon, M. K. (2014). Rethinking college student retention. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Fricker, T., Doyle, H., Ellingham, S., & Fernandez, D. (Winter 2016). Advising in Canada: Summary survey results. Communiqué. Canadian Association of College and University Student Services. http://www.cacuss.ca/_Library/Communique/CACUSS-Q1-FINAL_AMENDED4_Digital_compressed.pdf

Mayhew, M., Rockenbach, A., Bowman, N., Seifert, T., Wolniak, G., Pascarella, E., & Tenenzini, P. (2016). How college affects students: 21st century evidence that higher education works, Volume 3. San Fransico: Jossey Bass.

Praxis as a means of professional development has been a prominent topic of discussion in Teacher Education in Higher Education programs. Whether attained through self-study (e.g., Pithouse-Morgan & Samaras, 2016), action-research (e.g., Goodnough, 2010), or other means such as reflective practice (e.g., Farrell, 2013), praxis, grounded in social and constructivist views of learning, generally involves some form of collaboration. Specifically, the politics of collaboration (Chan & Clarke, 2014) have implications for developing teachers’ professional identities. So what of the politics of collaboration for researchers? What are the implications for researcher identities in developing praxis?

This paper is a narrative exploration into the processes for collaborative research of three graduate-researchers in Higher Education. The research method weaves arts-based practices (Barone, 2008) with narrative analysis (Wells, 2011) to provide perspectives on the multiple facets of collaboration, such as knowledge distribution and creation, multimodality, interdisciplinary practices, rotational leadership, and emotional intelligence. Specifically, the study will explore the nature of collaborative work for researchers and ways of attaining ‘researcher praxis’ – that is, negotiating theoretical aspirations with the practical side of conducting research in the field. The data consists of three individual narratives about the process of collaboration and one collaborative narrative on the same topic, all generated by the authors, as well as documented oral and written negotiations (via Slack, email, Word document and Whatsapp exchanges).

The aim of the study is twofold: to outline one potential method for research collaboration among early-career academics and to begin a discussion on the inner-workings of collaborative research practices and methods for early-career/graduate researchers in Higher Education. The findings will be presented as an invitation to the audience to collaboratively reflect on potential implications for researcher identities and praxis. The study aims to contribute to the advancement of developing ‘researcher praxis’ for researchers and graduate students in Higher Education.

Stories have been around since the beginning of time. They are a shared part of our history. For centuries, people have connected and bonded across the oceans simply by sharing their stories and experiences with each other. But today, storytelling looks a lot different. New forms of media have created new ways for stories to be told. Instead of gathering around a campfire enjoying spooky stories, young people gather around the shiny screen of their iPads to check out stories from their latest Facebook news feed. Our students are getting their stories from different places and they experience their stories differently. Storytelling has evolved. So must we. In this workshop, participants will explore modern storytelling techniques that use mediums innate to the young people they teach. Using a hands-on approach, this workshop will help participants experiment with social media, music, film and video to create creative and exciting storytelling experiences for their students.

This session presents the results of a study exploring the experiences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students engaged in a reader-response project based on the multiliteracies pedagogy. The participants in the project consisted of 25 culturally and linguistically heterogeneous first-year undergraduate students in a Literature in English Language Teaching program in a Malaysian public university. The students engaged in a reader-response project which required them to work in small groups to write, produce and present short films in response to the novel Step by Wicked Step by Anne Fine. Over a period of eight weeks, each group created two short films, one in English and the other in a local Malaysian language. Throughout the study, the participants kept journals in which they recorded their responses to the novel, and reflected on their experiences with the project. At the end of the project, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six focal participants. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews with the focal participants and their journal entries, the researcher found that students expressed more aesthetic and critical literary responses to the novel when they responded to it by producing short films in their local languages instead of in English. Using their local languages in the film allowed students to function as language experts, encouraged them to take liberties with the novel more confidently, helped them to make intertextual connections between the novel and local dramas and movies, increased their sense of personal meaningfulness, and fostered intercultural understanding among them.

Although much of the literature on language learning has suggested the cognitive, social, communicative, and affective benefits of translanguaging (e.g., Canagarajah, 2011; Garcia, 2009), English teachers in many second language contexts still continue to implement English-only policies in their classrooms. This monolingual approach ignores learners’ multilingualism, frames them within a deficit model, and limits the opportunities for learners with shared languages to provide guided support to their peers and scaffold each other’s learning. Furthermore, Phillipson (1992) argues that the English-only approach is situated within a broader theory of linguistic imperialism. This session presents the results from research conducted in multilingual Grade 5 classes in a primary school in postcolonial Malaysia where the official medium of instruction is Tamil, but English is enforced as the “official” language of instruction. Grounded in postcolonial theory, sociocultural theory, and collective scaffolding, and using a methodology of critical and sociocultural discourse analysis, my research examines the following questions: What is the role of translanguaging in scaffolding learning during learners’ collaborative interactions? How do learners’ attitudes towards translanguaging reflect larger institutional and societal discourses about English language learning? The results of this study suggest that translanguaging is an essential part of working within the Zone of Proximal Development for multilingual language learners, and that learners’ linguistic repertoire can scaffold their collaborative interactions which are shaped by their unique sociocultural contexts.

References

Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research
and pedagogy. In L. Wei (Ed.), Applied linguistics review 2 (pp. 1–27). Berlin, Germany: DeGruyter Mouton.

Garcia, O. (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In A.K. Mohanty, M. Panda, R. Phillipson, & T. Skutnabb-Kangas (Eds.), Multilingual education for social justice: Globalising the local (pp. 128–145). New Delhi, India: Orient BlackSwan.
   
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Language development: The lifespan perspective, edited by Annette Gerstenberg and Anja Voeste, is a collection of papers that brings together the subjects of language development and age, with a particular focus on language change in the middle and later stages of the individual lifespan. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the volume, its contributors use historical longitudinal data as well as contemporary methods of inquiry to examine various linguistic sub-fields, adopting psycholinguistic, corpus linguistic, and sociolinguistic approaches.

The translanguaging turn in language education offers a new perspective on multilingualism by positing that multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire rather than two or more autonomous language systems (García & Li Wei, 2014). When learners engage in translanguaging, they draw on all the features from their repertoire in a flexible and integrated way (Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015). While many studies have advocated for the use of teacher-led pedagogical translanguaging, less research has documented the affordances of student-led collaborative translanguaging, and the factors that may constrain their use of translanguaging. My study is a step in this direction as it provides evidence of the potential of translanguaging as an intentional and agentive student-led collaborative pedagogy for multilingual learners. My research was a case study of two trilingual Grade 5 English language classes in a Malaysian elementary school – one class with an English-only policy, and one class without. Over 6 months, I recorded learners’ interactions as they worked in groups of 3-5 on collaborative learning activities. My data sources also included interviews with 55 learners and their two teachers, artefacts, field notes, and reflexive journal entries. Using sociocultural critical discourse analysis (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Mercer, 2004), I conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of 100 30-minute to 1.5-hour long transcripts of learners’ interactions, and conducted a thematic analysis (Nowell, Norris, White & Moules, 2017) of the interviews. The results revealed that learners in both classes used translanguaging agentively to fulfil 100 cognitive-conceptual, planning-organizational, affective-social and linguistic-discursive functions that supported their individual and collective learning. Even with an English-only policy in place, learners harnessed the affordances of translanguaging using multimodal resources such as symbols, images, videos, and gestures. However, their specific language choices and beliefs about language were influenced and at times constrained by the teacher’s language policies and practices, parental discourses about linguistic capital, and ethnic tensions in the country. My research positions translanguaging as collaborative and agentive, socioculturally situated and culturally responsive, and a resource for learning as well as a process of learning. As an outcome of this study, I provide recommendations for a collaborative translanguaging pedagogy approach.

The three authors describe and reflect on how, as part of their teaching of a mandatory course within the framework of the Master of Teaching program, they used a range of multimodalities to help TCs learn to support English learners (ELs) equitably in elementary and secondary schools.

This chapter presents research on the effects of student translanguaging in their Grade 5 English as a second language classrooms, contrasting the practice with those in contexts where language policies require the use of only English. A translanguaging pedagogy involves teachers integrating the diverse language practices of students in the classroom to create more equitable and effective learning opportunities. Although there is no official policy against the use of translanguaging in English language classrooms in Malaysia, the lack of funding and policy changes over the years have put immense pressure on the English teachers in Bukit Mawar to teach monolingually. The planning-organizational affordances category was used to classify interactions that dealt with the planning and organization of the task, rather than the content of the task itself. The affective-social affordances consisted of specific functions which served to build rapport, engage peers in social interactions, and provide socio-emotional support and assistance to one another.