Translanguagıng Approach In Wrıtıng Turkish as A Second Language: an Experımental Study

Abstract

It is a generative time in the study of language and literacy, and scholars in education have been seeking possibilities to exploit students’ linguistic repertoires as pedagogical sources in order to leverage their language proficiencies. Translingualism in applied linguistics is emerging in this context as a new approach, and the improvements that have been made in theorization about translingual practices need to be accordingly supplemented with translingual pedagogies. In response, this study offers a practitioner research study on teaching process writing in an international classroom in Turkey from a translingual perspective. Also, this study is based on the assumption that it is possible to learn from learners’ translanguaging strategies while they are developing their academic writing skills in Turkish. The study anticipates finding out whether the translingual pedagogy applied in academic writing classes would contribute to the writing skills of the students by helping them to reorganize and rearrange their multiple linguistic repertoires. Based on a classroom ethnography, this study describes the research methodology to examine the possibilities of studying the norms and facets of translingual writing process Qualitative data for this study were collected through think aloud protocols, follow- up interviews, field observations, and analysis of students' writing products over an academic semester. The collected data encompassed multiple forms and was categorized for analysis. Specifically, the persuasive essay outputs of seven plurilingual students were examined using Canagarajah's translanguaging strategies (recontextualization, voice, interactional, and textualization), alongside traditional qualitative coding methods. Despite challenges, findings highlight the potential of translanguaging strategies to enhance writing skills and foster sophisticated understanding of language learning. The study advocates for institutional support for teacher development in sociolinguistics and multilingualism, and calls for further research in diverse contexts to explore the potential of translanguaging in second language writing courses. The result of the study is expected to contribute to the existing translanguaging literature by offering multiple facets of a translingual writing classroom pedagogy application.