arrangements, assessment, language support for different groups of
pupils, liaison with home/community, training;- non-participatory observation in class, focusing on the language profile
of the pupils in class, the language(s) of the teacher when addressing the
entire class/ groups/ individuals, the language(s) used by pupils with the
teacher/amongst each other in small groups/conversing as individuals,
language teaching, reasons why the teacher /pupil change language in
lessons, language arrangements in classrooms.
Results
Typology of language arrangements within bilingual
schools in Wales
A key part of the classroom observation was to classify each of the hun-
dred lessons in terms of the language arrangements adopted by the teacher
for pupil learning. In this study the language arrangements observed in class-
rooms can be categorized into the following groups:
(i) predominantly monolingual usage for bilingualism (e.g. monolingual
use of one language – L1 Welsh);
(ii) concurrent usage of two languages for bilingualism (e.g. translanguaging);
(iii) blend of monolingual usage and concurrent usage of two languages for
bilingualism (e.g. support for Welsh L2 learner in a predominantly
monolingual Welsh medium lesson).
Most of the language arrangements observed in this study can be identi-
fied as instances of ‘translanguaging practices in bilingual classrooms’
(García, 2009a: 311). It was difficult to unravel and categorize the language
arrangements in some classrooms as there are not always clear-cut boundar-
ies separating the various types of flexible language use, for example, code-
switching was evident in instances of translating and translanguaging.
Furthermore, García (2009a: 309) explained that ‘immersion bilingual teach-
ing always contains bilingual elements and examples of translanguaging can
be found in all types of programs that use immersion bilingual teaching.’
While categorising the use of two languages is not straightforward, lessons
tended to use a particular language arrangement that could be defined and
counted. Thus the categories used were:
- teaching predominantly monolingually for bilingualism (in various con-
texts including L1 Welsh, L2 Welsh, combination of L1 and L2 Welsh in
the same classroom), - translanguaging,
Language Arrangements within Bilingual Education 149