| Body | This activity is based on Cen Williams’ original use of the term translanguaging to describe the systematic use of two or more languages within the same language, and also inspired by an idea described by Jason Anderson.
Objectives: Students will be able to…
- scan for information in target language texts;
- synthesize information to present in a first language;
- synthesize information to present in the target language; and
- notice benefits and challenges of moving between two languages.
Modes: Interpretive, Presentational
Materials needed: Internet access, research graphic organizer, language reflection sheet
The Women’s World Cup will have its final match on July 7. Students will read articles to find a team, player, or event to profile. Half of the class will read articles only in the target language and write only in a first or classroom language; the other half will do their research in a first language and write their profiles in the target language. Following a discussion of their experiences with each method, students will switch which language they use for each part to write another profile.
Procedure:
- Create a bulletin board about the World Cup. Most of the bulletin board will be blank to begin with; students will be adding profiles.
- Everyone will read news highlights dealing with the World Cup, but only in a specified language.
- Here are a few resources:
- The official FIFA website is available in English, German, French, and Spanish; students can select their designated language before reading content. The team profiles pages are especially helpful
- Using Google News, scroll down to “Language & region” on the left side of the screen, and click on it; from here students can select the language they want to read in.
- Choose a country that speaks the target language, and find their team’s official website. For example, here’s the link to Brazil’s teams.
- Divide the class into two halves: the half that will research in the target language and report in an L1, and the half that will research in an L1 and report in the target language.
- Distribute the research graphic organizer to students. You may choose to translate it into different languages that the class will be working with.
- Students collect information in an Internet search.
- Following the research, each student will write a short profile to add to the bulletin board. This could be a short description of a player, a team, a match, or even a single play. Specifics for this assignment and scaffolding will depend on students’ proficiency levels.
- Next, ask students to discuss in small groups or as a class how it felt moving from one language to the other. How did the experience differ between the two halves of the class. Students can use the language reflection sheet to help them organize their thoughts.
- Now, repeat the entire research process, but this time the two halves of the class will switch which language they use for each part.
- Again, discuss students’ experiences moving between languages. What strategies do students plan to use in their next research task?
Note: In some settings, learners speak a variety of first languages. In some cases, you can substitute a shared classroom language (for example, if all of your Chinese students speak English even though some of them speak Spanish or French at home). In other cases, such as an ESL class with a wide variety of student first languages, you can have a widely multilingual bulletin board that reflects the diversity of L1’s.
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