TRANSLANGUAGING PEDAGOGY IN BILINGUAL PRIMARY EDUCATION: ENHANCING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE ACROSS LANGUAGES
Keywords:
translanguaging, bilingual education, primary school, communicative competence, language pedagogy, multilingualism.Abstract
This article examines translanguaging pedagogy as an instructional approach for bilingual primary school learners. The aim of the study is to determine how allowing children to draw flexibly on their full linguistic repertoire, rather than restricting classroom talk to a single target language, affects participation, collaborative writing quality, and classroom dynamics. Classroom observation, analysis of student writing samples, and a teacher reflective journal were used as the primary sources of data over a six week instructional cycle. The findings indicate that permitting translanguaging during planning and discussion stages increased both the length and the quality of student contributions, supported peer scaffolding, and reduced visible signs of language anxiety, while the final written products remained in the designated target language. The article also discusses practical implications for lesson design and teacher preparation in multilingual primary classrooms.
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References
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