Plurilingual Outcomes in Plurilingual CLIL Settings: A Case Study of Translanguaging in Secondary Education in Latvia

Resumen

Over the past two decades, linguistic policies affecting primary and secondary education worldwide have promoted plurilingualism in school settings (Council of Europe, 2006; UNESCO, 2000). As a result, and specifically in the European continent, bi-/plurilingual schools are now commonly found. However, they are facing a two-fold challenge: Teaching different languages, but also teaching through different languages. In consequence, and to facilitate these processes, many schools have adopted the Content and Language Integrated Learning approach (CLIL), often considered as “THE so-called current solution to FL teaching and learning in the EU” (Bruton, 2013, p. 287). This chapter describes a study conducted within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 2016-1-ES01-KA201-025491 project at a plurilingual school in Riga (Latvia), where the CLIL approach is used in secondary education. The History teacher and her students use Latvian, Russian, and English interchangeably integrating them in the content matter. The chapter explores the plurilingual outcomes of a task carried out inaHistory class by students of year 8 (n=52) and their use of translanguaging as a tool to make and convey the meaning required to complete a written task successfully. The CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators (Celic & Seltzer, 2013) is used to analyze translanguaging strategies. The results of this analysis are complemented by the answers to a questionnaire administered to the participants (Gullberg & Indefrey, 2003), which provides information on their linguistic backgrounds. The findings show students in secondary education as strategic learners that use translanguaging as a tool to convey meaning inplurilingual academic settings. In conclusion, teaching translanguaging strategies could help secondary teachers facilitate content learning in similar plurilingual teaching conditions.