Translanguaging pedagogies in an ESP context: Exploring trilingual students’ metalinguistic awareness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58859/resla.866Keywords:
Translanguaging, Metalinguistic Awareness, Morphological Awareness, Cognate Awareness, English for Specific Purposes (ESP)Abstract
As a pedagogical practice, translanguaging develops the languages that are part of the learners’ linguistic repertoire in a horizontal continuum rather than as separate compartments. This approach to language pedagogy affirms the dynamic language practices of multilingual learners, and thus many educators working on bilingual programs have embraced it in compulsory education with positive results, even when minoritized languages are involved. However, its potential in tertiary education has been less investigated. The goal of this study is to explore the effect of a translanguaging intervention on the metalinguistic awareness of 31 trilingual undergraduate students in a Business English course in the Basque Autonomous Community. Results showed significant improvement in morphological awareness and cognate awareness as well as an increase in the perception of cross-linguistic similarities across English, Spanish, and Basque. In this way, we suggest that pedagogical translanguaging can be a valid approach in ESP courses and in tertiary education.
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