1.1 Introduction: reason and salient of research
The
article by Oinana leonet et al. (2017) “Challenging Minority Language Isolation:
Translanguaging in a Trilingual School in the Basque Country” is about the isolation
challenges the minority languages are facing.
Therefore, the nexus of the article is to investigate translanguaging
acting as the pedagogical tool. In the other words, the Basque language is used
as the main language of instruction but it is considered as the minority
language within the chosen society. To further develop the research aim, the
research reports the attributes of pedagogical intervention on the ground of translanguaging
consequently aiming to develop language awareness, communication and academic
prowess and metalinguistic awareness.
Therefore, the research topic is whether the pedagogical strategies casted on
the translanguaging capable to maintain and revitalize Basque language?
The research is important since it second
language learning especially in learning institutions is important across
Europe due to globalization. Even though
a language may be used as main language in some context, it may be considered
minority language in the society. Furthermore, languages are always isolated
from each other. Therefore, the
introduction of the pedagogical translanguaging intervention aims to address
the isolation problem by ensuring it is compatible with the maintenance as well
as developing of the minority language.
1.2 What the research did
1.2.1 Sampling
The sample population consists of 63
participants. The participants
composition include the following Spanish (51.9%), Basque (21.2%) or both
Spanish and Basque (26.9%). The
participants were selected from the grade 5th and 6th
grade of primary school of a public school located in an industrial region and
having over 600 pupils and 60 teachers cutting across pre-primary and primary
education.
1.2.2 Data collection methods
Data was collected through interview and the
focus group. The focus group data
collection was administered through students being shown the pictures of the
linguistic landscape and also their own picture; then discuss the language found in the language sign within their
region as well the language they use among themselves in various oral and
written group undertakings. Therefore, in order to develop metalingustic
awareness, the focus group was required to analyze various shops and make their
comparison in three different languages. The three individual interview with each of
the teachers lasted between 32 minutes and 46 minute. The focus-group
discussion lasted 65 minutes.
1.2.3 Ethical
issues
The participants were required to sign
informed consent form stipulating the protocol of the research.
1.3 findings
1.3.1 Analysis
Teacher’s feedback indicates concerns on the
weakening of the Basque. Also, they were individual differences among the
teachers on the potential risk of translanguaging. Although, the feedback
further indicates that translanguaging pedagogies are a rich experience for the
development of the metalingustic awareness, the concern is that it should be
reinforced more than other languages.
Furthermore,
findings indicate that high value of language awareness undertakings on Basque
and other languages were paramount for the Basque language. Therefore, the act of according the Basque
language the same status as other language amounted to positive.
1.4 Things to consider
It
is evident that the implementation of the translanguanging pedagogies needs to
be narrowed down to fit a particular context to improve on the multingual
competences. By giving the full support of the minority language, it makes the
translanguaging pedagogies to be compatible. Finally, there is need to
introduce gradually translanguanging pedagogies. Also, it should be adapted to
the school pedagogies and their learning results should be assessed.
The
research delimit is that it was carried out in one school and findings were
limited to teacher’s feedback.
2.0 Critical analysis
2.1 Introduction
It is fair to say that according same status
to minority language potentially makes translanguanging pedagogies to maintain
and revitalize that language. The article by Oinana leonet et al. (2017)
“Challenging Minority Language Isolation: Translanguaging in a Trilingual
School in the Basque Country” discuss the Basque as the minority language and
how translanguaging pedagogies can be used to maintain and revitalize it. The
authors make the strong case by developing a research question that is tailored
made to address the research objective extensively. There are also strong and
excellent evidence to support the research claim throughout the article by
including citations where it is needed and prerequisite.
2.2 Literature theoretical analysis
As
mentioned earlier, the article evaluates Basque as the minority language and
how translanguaging pedagogies can be used to maintain and revitalize it. An
assessment of some of the strengths presented by the article is an indication
that the article is convenient for the target audience. For instance, the
article literature review is divided into parts which makes it convenient for
the readers to search for the information they needed. Also, based on the
research question, the reader can follow and pin easily the content in relation
to the research objective. In the nutshell, the article involves the evaluation
on how Basque language is reinforced using the schooling system. The second part evaluates of the dynamics of
the language separation and the translanguaging in relation to the Basque
language. Therefore, it makes it possible for the article to introduce the
pedagogical translanguaging and multingualism contexts to support the research
aim.
In
the literature review, strength lies with evident from the provision of the contextual
background regarding information covered.
In the coverage, the authors give the illustration of the short history
of the Basque language and where it has been widely utilized. The author addresses bias by examining the
dynamics of the Basque language. In other words, though Basque is considered to
be a minority language, its speakers are not confined to economic disadvantages
compared to the speakers of the majority language. Also, there is examining the ways in which
the translanguaging offers the learning opportunities in the Multingual School.
The provision of such vital information is integral to the reader to be able to
evaluate on the pedagogical uses of translanguaging and evaluates how these
items are prerequisite in the protection and development of the Basque
language.
Other than highlighting some of the strategies
that are useful in the protection and development of the Basque language has
the minority language, the article has also provide the link of reinforcing the
minority language using the multilingual
schooling environment. The presentation
of the arguments in such manners is
imperative for the readers to identify the challenges and the issues rose in
the article and how they are being addressed by the author. For example the
article highlights that Basque not only face the old challenges but also the
new challenges as the results of the
increasing constant with a myriad of the languages and therefore the new
situation has the potentialities of creating a threat for Basque.
The literature review is seen as useful since
the article provides all the information that would be useful to the target
audience. The article is targeting
teachers with the aim of providing them with new and useful information to use
translanguanging pedagogies for the purpose of protection and development of
Basque, a minority language to have the equal competencies with majority
language such as English and Spanish. Therefore, to build on the effectiveness
of the strategies employed; the author provides more literatures on the
concepts with the help of examples. This
manner of the arrangement and the evaluation of the article is an indication
that research was conducted before drawing the conclusion of the topic of
discussion. For example, there is widely incorporation of information from the
other studies to illustrate the research aims. For example one of the studies
was used to illustrate on the three dimension of the multilingualism concept (Cenoz and Gorter, 2011). The
approach is an indication of some of the qualities in the evidence used in the
article in an attempt to ensure the information provided is not vague and it is
valid. The author not only evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies to enhance
protection and development of the Basque language but also highlights some of
the practical situations and ethical issues that need to be evaluated to ensure
the entire process of the literature review is effective.
Although, the literature review in the article
presents several strengths evident from the presentation viewpoint. , its appropriateness
of the target group, the elimination of the bias aspects and the quality of the
evidence, there are factors that are prerequisite and should be included by the
author to improve the quality of the article. The authors of the article have
only provided general information of the strategies to be used in the
implementation of the translanguanging pedagogies to improve on the protection
and development of the Basque minority language. Although, this information is
useful to the reader, the article should attempt to build the strength of these
strategies by providing sufficient information. Such information would play a
significant role by ensuring the information collected from the other sources is
not only valid but also relevant in regard to the dynamics of the modern world.
2.3 Participants
The sampling technique is aspect of the
research which plays a critical role in the validity of the research outcome. The research has
utilized good sampling to ensure the effectives of the research conduction. The article has employed probability sampling
which is less expensive and consumes less time (Mishra et al., 2022). Therefore, it provides the validity of the
implementation of generalization for population of the selected sample
population. Quality sampling enables the article to enable the generalization
of the research problem. With a sample population of 63 students out of 600
students, a proper sampling enables the article to give valid results of the
problem of the population. Also, high number of the sample population increases
on the validity of the research findings since there is high proportion
representation of the research situation in the entire population.
2.3 procedures
2.3.1 Data collection
The data collection method is interview and focus
groups. On one side by the research employing interviewing as method of
collection of data it enables the accurate screening. The face to face interview enables an
accurate screening and evaluating the interviewee (Schaeffer et al., 2010). The individuals being interviewed are unable
to provide false information during screening question such as gender and race
in effect it increases the validity of the provided information. The duration
of 30 to 40 minutes should be ideal to maintain the focus of the interviewees.
In this situation, the interviewee is in control of over the interview and keep
the interviewee focused and to be on the track to completion. However, these approaches
also possess some of the challenges to the article. Due to requirement to grant
every participants same interviewing time, it limit the sample population. It can be noted that the size of the sample
population is limited to the size of the interviewing population, the area in
which the interview is conducted and the number of the qualified individuals
within the selected population.
On
the other side, the research as employed focus group as the other method of
data collection. To begin with, focus group enables the research to collect
data quickly. Size the focus group can involve up to 10 people, the research
has the advantage of gathering valuable information within the stipulated 65
minutes. Therefore, since the article manages to gather valuable insights
within a short time it improves the quality of research paper focus quickly
shifts to analysis and interpretation of the collected information.
However,
the approach has it challenges in regarding the well-being of the research. By
the article employing focus group then it may not get valid information since
they may not be true representation of the population (Acocella et al., 2012). Within the focus group spectrum it is
always difficult to achieve and assemble a true societal representation. Thus,
it is more likely that regroup may only a small portion of the target
population. Notably, it is better to use the results of the focus group to feed
into the supplementary research rather than relying on the outcome as the main
source of the information. Therefore, with the unreliability of the data from
the focus group, the validity of information is on the downward trajectory.
2.4 results
The findings are divided according to the
interview and make it easy to develop conclusion and other research elements. For
the readers it is easy to correlate each of the interview outcomes with the
research problem to help in drawing the article quality. This is further aid by grouping the results
based on the categories of the sample population to give precise and clear
findings of the research.
The
article has only provided the description analysis within the statistical
representation. The lack of statistics
becomes it difficult to draw valid conclusions. Notably, the use of statistics
allows evaluation of claims based on the provided evidence and plays a vital
role in differencing between the reasonable and dubious conclusions (Queirós et al., 2017). This is because there is interpretation
based on the collected information to form arguments for discussions. When the interpretation is conducted
correctly, they tend to produce accurate results. Therefore, since the article
has not included the statistical analysis it is difficult to account for the
uncertainty and error in the results. Also, it is difficult to account whether
all the aspects of the study were followed the appropriate methods to results
to trustworthy outcome.
On
one side, the discussion of the results of the findings is precise and short. This
aspect provides the reader with the easy time to find the key points and
claims. A short discussion segment enables the reader to further avoid reading
unnecessary information that is unrelated to the research objective. The discussion part has removed the element
of biasness by addressing on the research limitations. The inclusion of
limitation information is useful to future topics related to the article’s
topic.
On
the other side, the analysis of the outcome of the research is shallow and need
more information to connect between the research problem and conclusion. The article
has only tried to give overall analysis of the findings without providing the
statistical data to support the argument. This weak argument has the potential
to reduce on the quality of the research paper.
Furthermore, the information in the segment has not been supported by
the information from the order studies.
2.5 Conclusion
The article elicit mixed-reactions in terms
of its quality to address the use of
translanguanging pedagogies to
improve on the protection and development of the Basque language to enhance its
competencies to be in the same level with main language such as English and
Spanish. To begin with the article is well structured and it has systematically
organized all the segments form the abstract to the conclusion. There is to
some considerable extent provision of sufficient discussion in some of the
major parts such as the literature review and introduction. However, there is
limited utilization of the high-frequency words since the paper did not employ
the statistical analysis.
In the nutshell, the paper is persuasive and informative. In other words, there is development of a concept that is gaining momentum in the contemporary world due to globalization.
References
Acocella,
I., 2012. The focus groups in social research: advantages and
disadvantages. Quality & Quantity, 46(4), pp.1125-1136.
Cenoz,
J. and Gorter, D., 2011. Focus on multilingualism: A study of trilingual
writing. The Modern Language Journal, 95(3),
pp.356-369.
Mishra,
S.B. and Alok, S., 2022. Handbook of research methodology.
Queirós,
A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative
and quantitative research methods. European journal of education
studies.
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