Examining Translanguaging in EFL Contexts in Japan

Abstract

Translanguaging has been attracting not only bilingual class teachers but also EFL teachers in recent years. According to Baker (2017) translanguaging can be defined from theoretical and pedagogical perspectives, although “its meaning and use are still developing” (p. 99). From a theoretical viewpoint, the concept of translanguaging is based on dynamic bilingualism, which advocates that “there is only one linguistic system” (Garcia, 2014, p.15). It is noticeable that this concept is different from the view of Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence in that Cummins differentiates L1 and L2. From a pedagogical perspective, it is “the planned and systematic use of two languages inside the same lesson (Baker, 2017, p. 280)” Therefore, in some part of a well-planned translanguaging class L1 can play a key role to make students more deeply understand the given content than L2 so that students’ language proficiency will eventually improve. Although a translangauging pedagogy was originally aimed at bilingual or multilingual education, it is expected to be applied to EFL classes (Kano, 2016). The paper examines the applicability of translanguaging to English education in Japan and posits a question: when a first/native language is weak in some domains, then can an L2 complement the weakness, according to the translangauging theory? Or should students manage to deepen their understanding of a given content somehow in Japanese according to a translanguaging pedagogy? The paper takes up Japanese abstract words as one of the major weaknesses obstacles for Japanese to comprehend abstract concepts. Then the author suggests a solution that going back and forth between Japanese and English may enhance Japanese students’ cognitive domains which lead to deepen their understanding of abstract concepts.

Keywords: translanguaging, the dynamic bilingualism, abstract words, L1, L2