Teaching one in the presence of many: A design-based research study on developing a multilingual instructional sequence in a foreign language classroom in India
2021-06
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Teaching one in the presence of many: A design-based research study on developing a multilingual instructional sequence in a foreign language classroom in India
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2021-06
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Multilingual instruction takes many shapes and forms depending on the affordances and limitations of the context in which it is implemented. Because multilingual instruction is often context-specific, it has to be designed in collaboration with local stakeholders and developed through multiple implementations in the context. While the field of foreign language education is inundated with research on multilingual pedagogies, very few studies elaborate the process of how multilingual instruction in a certain context is developed. This dissertation study sheds light on the evolution of a multilingual instructional sequence that was created through a practitioner-researcher collaborative initiative at a German as foreign language school for adult learners in India.The dissertation traces the development of a multilingual instructional sequence which a research team consisting of local teachers, administrators and I designed together. Following a Design-Based Research methodology (McKenney & Reeves, 2013), the instructional sequence using which German grammatical features were taught was implemented three times in a beginner-level classroom. Following every iteration, data gathered from three vantage points namely learners’ perspectives, teachers’ perspectives and learners’ language performance served as feedback on the instructional sequence. Based on these data the research team redesigned the sequence. In this paper I detail the evolution of the multilingual instructional sequence through these three iterations and how feedback from various stakeholders informed the refinement of the sequence at every iteration.
A retrospective analysis (Gravemeijer & Cobb, 2006) of data from each of the three vantage points yielded useful insights into the interrelatedness of contextual features, learning processes and the learners themselves. Qualitative analysis of teachers’ perspectives suggested that they developed a deep understanding of the multidirectional connections between contextual internal processes and contextual external processes. Tracer analysis (Bismack, Arias, Davis, & Palincsar, 2015) of learners’ perspectives revealed that most of them perceived multilingual instruction to be advantageous to learning the target language. Finally, obligatory occasional analysis (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005) of learners’ language showed that their performance of the target grammatical features was more accurate in form-focused activities than in meaning-focused activities and that their performance varied depending on interlocutor and task.
At the end of the three iterations a quasi-experimental study was conducted analyzing the effect of multilingual instruction on learners’ metalinguistic awareness. Participants in control and experimental groups were given a translation activity, which they performed in pairs. Data from learners’ interactions during the translation activity and the stimulated recall session that followed were qualitatively analyzed to find out the number of times and the purposes for which participants mobilized their prior language knowledge. Findings show that while both groups leveraged their prior language knowledge, the number of times participants in the experimental group did so was greater. Experimental group participants also recognized cognates, false cognates and misinterpreted cognates more often than the control group. These findings suggest that learners who received multilingual instruction demonstrated greater cognate awareness than those who did not.
Findings from this study furthers our understanding of the theory and practice of multilingual instruction. Findings from the quasi-experimental study add to the field’s knowledge of the connections between the metalinguistic awareness of learners and multilingual instruction. The design principles discussed at the end of the dissertation and the processual focus of the study itself are intended to serve as a blueprint and offer support in developing similar instructional sequences and/or activities in other contexts.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2021. Major: Education, Curriculum and Instruction. Advisor: Diane Tedick. 1 computer file (PDF); xiv, 261 pages.
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Gopalakrishnan, Anuradha. (2021). Teaching one in the presence of many: A design-based research study on developing a multilingual instructional sequence in a foreign language classroom in India. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/224678.
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