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Noel Dassanayake

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka

 

Abstract

Despite the dramatic shifts language teaching approaches have undergone over the globe in the recent past, pedagogy of second and foreign languages in Sri Lanka have largely remained resorted to traditional immersion education which accommodate limited consciousness towards the socio-linguistic and cultural dimensions of non-native learners and teachers. The present study is an evaluation of the prospects of employing translanguaging for teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan learners. The study is supported by empirical data of both qualitative and quantitative nature obtained from 65 informants in a higher education context in Sri Lanka. Findings of the study indicate that conservative monolingual approaches, largely triggered by hegemonic colonial ideologies and practices, are proven futile in modern-day Sri Lankan multilingual setting. The discrepancies of global textbooks coupled with absence of localized textbooks, minimal learner engagement triggered by total immersion and alienation within distant dominant cultural ideology of target language, have resulted in an indifference towards the dynamics of leaners’ native language repertoire. Based on existing literature on similar settings, the study perceives that the potentials of tranglanguaging extends beyond mere linguistic competence and has the aptitude to promote learner autonomy, harmonious existence, inclusive learning and decolonized mindset.

 

Keywords

Translanguaging, multilingualism, teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Sri Lanka, native language repertoire

 

斯里兰卡中文超语教学的批判性评估：母语使用与语言观念

 

诺尔

萨巴拉加穆瓦大学，斯里兰卡

 

摘要

尽管近年来全球语言教学方法发生了巨大变化，斯里兰卡的第二语言和外语教学仍然主要依赖于传统的沉浸式教育，这种方法对非母语学习者和教师的社会语言学和文化维度关注有限。本文对在斯里兰卡的中文教学中使用超语现象的前景进行了评估。研究通过从斯里兰卡高等教育背景下的 65 名受访者中获得的定性和定量实证数据支持。研究结果表明，由殖民霸权意识形态和实践推动的保守单一语言教学方法在当代斯里兰卡的多语言环境中已被证明是无效的。全球教材的不一致性、缺乏本土化教材、全沉浸式教学引发的学习者参与度低以及目标语言所代表的遥远的主流文化意识形态的疏离感，导致了对学习者母语能力动态的忽视。基于现有的类似环境的文献研究，本研究认为超语现象的潜力不仅限于提高语言能力，还具有促进学习者自主性、和谐共处、包容性学习和去殖民化思维的能力。

 

关键词

超语实践，多语言能力，对外汉语教学，斯里兰卡，母语知识