Towards Adopting a Multilingual Habitus in Educational Development

Benson, Carol

doi:10.1007/978-94-6209-218-1_16

Cited by 54 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Her call embraces many of the features of a strong multilingual programme: a sense of social justice and a desire to be on the same social footing as speakers of Dominant languages; an MT base, and the implied value of the home À school link in using the community language; the same language to be used for teaching, textbooks and tests; and the value of an MT-based approach for maintaining cultural heritage and identity. These insights resonate powerfully with features of MLE programmes across the world, whether for majority-language populations as in post-colonial Africa (Heugh and Skutnabb-Kangas 2010; Ouane and Glanz 2011), or for ethnolinguistic minorities in Asia (Benson 2013).…”

Section: Policy Violators Policy Interpreters Policy Performers Policmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Given the scenario sketched above, four immediate tasks suggest themselves for the realisation of MLE and the shift from a monolingual habitus (Gogolin 1997) towards a multilingual habitus (Benson 2013). The first would entail incorporating exciting ethnographic research that has begun to document the resourcefulness of children in multilingually diverse classrooms and playgrounds (cf.…”

Section: Four Tasks For Multilingual Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This applies especially but not only to speakers of nondominant languages (Benson 2013). It is self-evident that children should be taught in a language they understand if they are to develop a strong foundation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Unlocking the grid: language-in-education policy realisation in post-apartheid South Africa

Plüddemann

2015

Language and Education

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This paper reflects on the state of educational language policy two decades into a postApartheid South Africa caught between official multilingualism and English. The focus is on the national language-in-education policy (LiEP) that advocates additive bi/multilingualism, and a provincial counterpart, the language transformation plan (LTP). Using Ricento and Hornberger's onion metaphor, the paper seeks to uncover the meanings of policy realisation in education at legislative, institutional, and interpersonal levels. The LiEP's non-realisation at institutional level is indexed by a 'gridlock of collusion' (Alexander, personal communication) between political elites and the majority of African-language speakers, who emulatively seek the goods that an English-medium education promises. To illustrate how teachers can become policy advocates, data are presented from a bilingual education in-service programme that supported the LTP. The paper argues that sociolinguistic insights into speakers' heteroglossic practices should be used to counter prevailing monoglossic policy discourses and school language practices, and that all languages should be used as learning resources. Strategic essentialism would recognise the schooling system's need to separately classify language subjects and to identify the languages most productively used for teaching across the curriculum. The paper concludes with a call for the revision of the LiEP.

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Section: Policy Violators Policy Interpreters Policy Performers Policmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Four Tasks For Multilingual Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unlocking the grid: language-in-education policy realisation in post-apartheid South Africa

Plüddemann

2015

Language and Education

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“…African languages are relegated to oral communication, while English and other European languages have been promoted to academic and other acts that are considered literate (Mbaabu, 1996). Benson (2013) has correctly noted that research in multilingual contexts often fails to recognize multilingualism as a social and individual reality. Benson (2013) calls this an imperfect fit designed for learners.…”

Section: Monolingual Habitus In Multilingual Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translanguaging in the Writing of Emergent Multilinguals

Kiramba

2016

International Multilingual Research Journal

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This article discusses the findings of an empirical study that investigated the writing practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. The study was undergirded by Bakhtin's heteroglossia. Analysis of texts indicated that these emergent multilinguals used multiple semiotic resources to maximize the chances of meeting the communicative goals through translanguaging. However, the translanguaging process in writing was a tension-filled process in terms of language separation and correctness. The emergent multilingual writer went through tensions in the process of finding a balance between authorial intentions and the authoritarian single voicedness required by the school and the national curriculum. The author suggests that translanguaging in writing disrupts unequal voices and language hierarchies by transgressing standard ideologies in academic writing. It is recommended that educators consider multilingual resources as legitimate cognitive tools and resources for communication in school contexts to allow authentic voices and inclusive instruction.

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“…Pan's (Chapter 34) argument about the effects of globalisation on the discourse of English language learning in China and the discourse's impact on educational policy is part of a story of globalisation and language, and the teaching and assessment of second and other languages. In multilingual contexts, the learner's habitus -or socially constructed sense of self -is supported, Benson (2013) argues, through additive and dynamic programs. Holistic, communicative approaches to language development frame the languagelearning context (see Jessner, 2006).…”

Section: The Socio-cultural Turn In Curriculum Pedagogy and Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%