Translanguaging practices used by lecturers in first year classrooms at a public university in Zambia.
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Date
2024
Authors
Mungala, Ruth M
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to analyse the translanguaging practices used by lecturers in first year classrooms at a public university in Zambia. The study was guided by three objectives as follows : to analyse the translanguaging practices lecturers use in their lectures at a selected public university in Zambia, to establish the students’ perceptions towards translanguaging practices lecturers use in their lectures at a selected public university in Zambia and to determine the challenges lecturers face when using translanguaging practices in their lectures at a selected public university in Zambia. The study used qualitative descriptive research design and the population was drawn from all first year students who were attending lectures in literacy and language at a public university and all the lecturers. The study sample included three classes of literacy and language education. This catered for 20 students who were in the first year and 5 lecturers were also sampled from the literacy and language department at the university totalling to 25 participants. Data was collected using interview guide, a focus group discussion guide and observation checklist. Data was analysed thematically. The study found that the translanguaging practices included code switching between English and the Zambian local languages, content translation between English and the Zambian languages, giving examples using the local languages, code mixing when explaining concepts in the lecture rooms and allowing students to use their local languages when explaining some content in lecture room. However, some lecturers believed that students should only use English because that is what the government policy states hence they did not allow translanguaging in their lessons. The second objective found that students appreciated the lectures being delivered in the local language, they also appreciated the practice of allowing students to explain concepts in the local languages, code switching and code mixing. In short, both students and lecturers had positive perceptions towards the use of translanguaging practices at a public university. Lastly, the challenges included a complex multilingual environment in classrooms where students came from more than 20 different languages, some students did not understand the university community language, Nyanja, effectively, translation was involving two or more languages which became time consuming and code mixed and code-switched languages did not make meaning to few students who did not have the knowledge of such languages. It can be recommended that universities should come up with flexible language policies which will facilitate content understanding in the multilingual lecture rooms since the students are multilingual. This will help the students find their learning flexible and interesting since the knowledge barrier will be broken as well as the language barriers.
Key words: translanguaging practices, literacy and language lecturers, public university in Zambia.
Description
Thesis of Master of Education in Literacy, Language and Applied Linguistics.
Keywords
Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION::Languages and linguistics