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Presentation

Language learning in interaction with digital tools: Insights from the concept of digital translanguaging

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Recent advancement of digital technology has transformed the traditional ways of learning languages. Some digital tools have provided multilingual facilitation, creating a translanguaging space to construct linguistic knowledge in a preferred language (L1/target language (TL)). However, CALL research has largely been influenced by traditional SLA research that views languages as separate linguistic systems. Such a view considers languages other than the target as a deficit to be eliminated/suppressed. This study examines the potential of “digital translanguaging” as a concept to examine the interplay of languages in ways that blur boundaries between not only linguistic but also linguistic and digital meaning making resources in learners’ repertoire. Data consist of writing samples from five multilingual participants, video recordings of their writing process, and stimulated-recall- interviews conducted with them. The findings show how digital tools (online translators, bilingual dictionaries) combined with multilingual resources can be a powerful contributor to negotiate and co-construct new rules and lexical meanings of a TL. We demonstrate how the integrated view of language helps us understand the resourcefulness of multilingual students challenging deficit assumptions. We argue how seeing these resources as interconnected is significant for a shift from a deficit- to resource-based perspective in CALL.

  • Tharanga Koralage

    Tharanga Koralage is lecturer in Languages and Literacies Education at the University of Melbourne. She is teaching M. TESOL, and M. Ed courses at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Her research interests include second language writing, digital translanguaging, and technology-integrated language teaching and learning. tkalehepandi@unimelb.edu.au