Abstract
In the multicultural English as a Second Language classroom, students should engage with each other’s cultures with a purpose of honing intercultural competencies and negotiating meaning in a setting where English is the common language. Using the online tool Twine, in fall 2024 twelve ESL students at a midwestern university in the USA, representing five languages, participated in a translanguaging project aimed at metacognitive development, reflection and action around poetry in their native language. Cura personalis, the education of the whole person, guided the action research. Students selected a short poem from their literary tradition and read it to classmates. First, listeners used a “Wheel of Emotions” with adjectives in English, to describe what the reading of the poem in its native language evoked. Second, the interlocutors explained what the poem evoked to them, without resorting to a literal translation for the audience. Finally, using dictionaries and Twine, students created English translations of their poems with multiple alternatives for each word/expression, resulting in an interactive experience for the user. Student feedback supports the conclusion that the project created meaningful learning for students, by supporting personal connections, giving students agency and options for using their creativity in a relevant and applicable project. Students learn about their own culture, and about those of their classmates. Students reveal the polysemic nature of poetic interpretation/translation and, figuratively, the polysemic nature of questions raised in the Humanities. The study’s findings are limited by the small number of participants but point the way to future research.
Presenters
Ana ConboyAssociate Professor, French, Languages and Cultures, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, Minnesota, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
KEYWORDS
Pedagogy, English as a Second Language, Translanguaging, Intercultural Communicative Competence
