Stephanie Chai is a senior research associate at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University. She has led and assisted in various research and administrative tasks for projects within the Centre for Research in Child Development. Her current research interests include early education, curriculum and assessment, school readiness, and inclusion. Additionally, she explores novel research methodologies and adopts critical or sociocultural theories to shed new light on issues. She is involved in upcoming publications Reconceptualizing Readiness: Exploring Parental Conceptualization of Primary School Readiness through their Perspective of ‘Ready Schools’ (in preparation) and A mixed methods evaluation of an ecological systems approach for supporting young children from low-income backgrounds in Singapore (accepted in Asia-Pacific Journal of Education). Through her research and professional activities, Stephanie seeks to make significant contributions to her field. 

Uncovering Mother Tongue Language Teachers’ Pedagogical Strategies in Singapore: A Translanguaging Approach to Bilingual Preschool Education

Background. Translanguaging offers a practical approach to studying instructional strategies in dual-language and multilingual education settings. It challenges traditional language separation and provides a theoretical framework for understanding multilingual instruction in mixed-language environments. 

Method. As part of the NIE REEDS Study, data were collected from 97 preschool Mother Tongue Language (MTL) teachers via an online survey containing both closed and open-ended questions. These teachers taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay, or Tamil to children aged 3 to 6 years (N1 to K2 grades) at various preschools across Singapore. The survey, conducted using Qualtrics, gathered teachers’ ratings on how often they find that the MTL they use is difficult for children to understand and their open-ended responses on how they would cope in such situations. An inductive and deductive thematic analysis was performed to identify themes and sub-themes related to MTL teachers’ pedagogical strategies. 

Results. Based on the data and literature, a preliminary coding scheme was developed to examine the pedagogical strategies employed by MTL teachers. Findings highlight the adaptability and resourcefulness of MTL teachers in Singapore, who use both monolingual and bilingual strategies to support children’s additional language development. Common bilingual strategies include translating to English, explaining in English, sensorimotor scaffolding, co-teaching, language brokering, and differentiated instruction. 

Conclusion. This study demonstrates how adopting a translanguaging lens uncovers nuanced and previously unnoticed pedagogical strategies used by MTL preschool teachers to facilitate mean-making and inclusion for children from diverse language backgrounds and competencies. Practical recommendations are provided to enhance existing language pedagogical strategies and promote responsible translanguaging practices.