| Note: | TITLE: Language Portraits and Translanguaging: An Attempt to Link an Established Method to a New Approach in Foreign Language Teaching \
ABSTRACT: In light of increasing multilingualism, numerous changes and innovations have occurred in foreign language teaching in recent years. While monolingual approaches long dominated thinking about language, identity, education, and foreign language teaching, the multilingual reality of society is now increasingly acknowledged. In this context, translanguaging is emerging as a promising approach to describing and analysing multilingual practices. Unlike traditional approaches, translanguaging challenges the notion of clearly separated language systems and instead focuses on the linguistic repertoire of multilingual speakers, used flexibly and strategically in communication.
The purpose of this article is to present and analyse a teaching experiment based on a translanguaging approach and to link it to the established method of language portraits. Language portraits enable students and researchers to reflect on linguistic repertoires and gain insight into diverse language practices, as well as into physical, emotional, and ideologically conditioned perceptions and attitudes toward languages.
We have analysed 19 language portraits accompanied by explanations of colour and language choices, along with 19 texts written by students who were encouraged to use translingual expression. The results confirm our assumption that the linguistic diversity in the portraits would cover a wide spectrum, that the reasons for including individual languages would vary, and that the choice of languages would not necessarily correspond to students’ actual language abilities. Consistent with previous research, students explained their language choices through their relationship to and their knowledge of a language, as well as through associations with food, emotions, sports, music, and other factors. All explanations accompanying the language portraits were monolingual, written in Slovenian, even though the instructions allowed for translingual responses. Of the 19 texts, only two were multilingual, while the rest were linguistically homogeneous. Many students continued a story in Slovenian, but also in English, and – as a direct result of our experiment – in Bosnian and Ukrainian. Combining the new approach of translanguaging with the established method of language portraits has proved valuable for both theory and practice, demonstrating promising research potential. \
KEYWORDS: translanguaging, multilingualism, linguistic homogeneity, language portraits, foreign language teaching |
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