Looking into multimodal translanguaging in CLIL: a case study in the Basque Country

In recent years, the inherent benefits of translanguaging have been demonstrated on the basis of the mutual dependence of cognition and flexible language use. In the case of CLIL, several authors have embraced translanguaging because it integrates languages and supports the use of a wide range of interactional resources. The CLIL teacher's multilingual competence and the employment of non-linguistic communicative modes in science teaching promote authentic equitable learning experiences. However, the CLIL teachers' multimodal discourse has not yet received much attention in multilingual contexts. The aim of this study is to analyse the discourse of three CLIL teachers in Primary Education following a multimodal mixed method approach with a linguistic annotator [ELAN. 2024. “Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics”. V. 6.8 [Computer software]. The Language Archive. https://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan]. The selection of multilingual episodes of interaction and posterior annotation of linguistic and non-verbal modes facilitates a multimodal microanalysis contextualised in a Basque public school (Spain). Our study shows how the use of Spanish and Basque complemented with gestures and other non-linguistic semiotic modes can promote learners' participation. It further highlights the communicative strategies needed to express particular discourse functions, while underlining the relevance of multilingual and multimodal awareness.