Australian universities need to do more than pay lip service to multilingualism

More than 16,000 new schoolteachers graduate from Australian universities every year. Each of them must meet a range of professional standards, including knowing how to teach students from “diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds”. This is important considering that 38 per cent of Australia’s school students come from language backgrounds other than English. Naturally, new teachers are enthusiastically urged to “embrace” children’s diverse languages and cultures in the classroom. In reality, however, few new teachers graduate knowing how to do this in practice.

Developing culturally and linguistically competent student teachers should be something Australian universities are very good at. After all, almost a quarter of our students come from overseas. Yet, standard Australian English-only norms and practices remain the status quo on our campuses, according to research from Curtin University. Multilingual students’ language abilities are, at best, ignored and, at worst, openly discouraged, meaning they are vulnerable to academic and social discrimination. Many students go as far as to actively hide their multilingual abilities, so they can blend in with the monolingual English mindset.

The potential of translanguaging

Translanguaging offers a powerful way to teach student teachers about cultural and linguistic diversity. It represents a total shift in the way we understand, use and teach language. A teacher who uses translanguaging creates a learning environment that celebrates and includes multiple languages, even when English remains the main language of teaching. It benefits both multilingual and monolingual student teachers. Multilingual students get language support and feel more included in the classroom, while monolingual English students get to learn more about different cultures and languages, and the challenges of learning through English when it is not your first language.

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This approach does not come without its challenges. Both monolingual and multilingual students and lecturers have to confront deep-seated beliefs about English as the dominant language. And then there is the pragmatic hurdle: just how does one do translanguaging at university?

What does translanguaging look like in university classrooms?

One practical translanguaging strategy is to run multilingual group discussions in tutorials. Students who can discuss new knowledge and ideas in their first language (L1) will be able to reason and argue more confidently, without having to struggle with language barriers. Using what they already know in their L1 will help them to understand new theories and concepts more easily.

But what if lecturers aren’t fluent in students’ first languages? They don’t need to be. They simply need to adopt a translanguaging stance, by making space for students’ multilingualism and ways of understanding and embracing and valuing all the languages they speak. This creates a classroom environment in which students can access the languages in which they think most logically and effectively.

Another approach is to provide textbooks, journal articles and multimedia resources in students’ first languages as well as in English. This will help them to grasp and consolidate new knowledge in their L1 before having to write about it in English. In this way, they build their language skills at the same as improving their academic performance. Reading and studying materials in multiple languages can also help to improve students’ critical thinking as they compare how knowledge is developed and expressed in various cultures. For example, how are Aboriginal ways of knowing in mathematics different from Western understandings? Why is English writing often direct, linear and structured when Chinese writing is more poetic and metaphorical? Considering these types of questions helps students to develop intercultural competence, a vital 21st-century skill.

Finally, and perhaps most controversially, universities can use translanguaging as a tool for assessment and evaluation. This could mean providing exam or essay instructions in multiple languages or allowing students to answer sections of an assessment in a language in which they can best demonstrate their understanding. In the same way, students could be offered a choice of assessment modes, such as multimedia or oral presentations, rather than only written work. Multilingual university assessment practices are already used in countries such as Belgium, South Africa and Canada.

Re-evaluating standard Australian practices and norms

Whether or not Australian universities choose to use translanguaging, it is clear that they need to at least re-evaluate their English-only practices if they want to develop culturally responsive teachers. Our students bring rich cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge to our campuses, yet these are rarely tapped by university lecturers. Their over-reliance on standard Australian English practices and norms prevents all our students from benefiting from genuine intercultural exchange and learning.

One of the world’s wicked problems is inequality in education. Australian universities, with their increasingly multicultural student populations, are well poised to address this problem, provided they don’t underestimate the role of language in both promoting and preventing access to education. Translanguaging offers a concrete solution towards welcoming, supporting and nurturing the diverse cultures and languages of our students.

Sue Ollerhead is a senior lecturer in language and literacy education, and the programme director for secondary education (undergraduate) in the School of Education at Macquarie University, Australia. She is co-editor of peer-reviewed publication TESOL in Context.

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