Language and Education

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“Did you watch the Disney parade?” pedagogical

translanguaging for evoking students’ perezhivanie
to integrate representations in linguistically
diverse science classroom

Kason Ka Ching Cheung & Kevin W. H. Tai

To cite this article: Kason Ka Ching Cheung & Kevin W. H. Tai (14 Oct 2024): “Did you watch the
Disney parade?” pedagogical translanguaging for evoking students’ perezhivanie to integrate
representations in linguistically diverse science classroom, Language and Education, DOI:
10.1080/09500782.2024.2413137

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2413137

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Language and Education
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2413137

“Did you watch the Disney parade?” pedagogical

translanguaging for evoking students’ perezhivanie to
integrate representations in linguistically diverse science
classroom
Kason Ka Ching Cheunga and Kevin W. H. Taib
a
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Education
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; bAcademic Unit of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of
Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Learning content subjects like science requires culturally and linguisti- Received 10 May 2024
cally diverse students to learn abstract representations. Previous studies Accepted 29 September
focused on how content teachers can use translanguaging to promote 2024
emotional engagement of students with homogenous cultural and KEYWORDS
linguistic composition. As students in culturally and linguistically Culturally and linguistically
diverse classrooms brought different emotive experiences to class- diverse students;
rooms, it was important for teachers to leverage semiotic resources to multimodal
evoke shared memory that reconcile backgrounds of different students. representations; science;
This bridged the gap between students’ lived experiences and learning translanguaging space
of abstract content representations. In the current case study involving
a seventh-­grade mixed medium of instruction (MMI) science classroom,
we examined how a science teacher capitalised on culturally and lin-
guistically diverse students’ shared emotive experiences to translate
across different representational levels in science. Drawing on the socio-
­cultural concept of perezhivanie, our findings showed that the science
teacher leveraged the class’s collective experience of watching the
Disney parade and linked it to water molecules moving around disso-
ciated salts in blackboard drawings. We argue for the importance of
reconciling lived experiences among students with diverse cultural and
linguistic background, in order to facilitate their equitable access to
content subjects.

1. Introduction
In applied linguistics, there are ample studies that investigate how translanguaging fosters
students’ learning of content knowledge in English medium of instruction (EMI) classrooms
(Sah 2022; Ou and Gu 2024). To foster culturally and linguistically diverse learners’ acqui-
sition of abstract content knowledge of science, it is necessary for classes to value and
consider the use of different languages as legitimate sources of meaning making. Under

CONTACT Kevin W. H. Tai [email protected] Academic Unit of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of
Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been
published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
2 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

fine-tuning policy in Hong Kong, schools are no longer classified into English-medium
instruction (EMI) schools or Cantonese-medium instruction (CMI). Teachers and school
leaders determine either Cantonese, English or a mix of Cantonese and English as the official
languages of instruction of content subjects (Poon 2013; Poon et al. 2013). There is evidence
that teachers can create a translanguaging space for a majority of students whose first lan-
guage is not English to support emotional engagement in learning content subjects in EMI
classrooms (Pun and Tai 2021). However, only a few studies have examined how a translan-
guaging space fosters emotive experiences in learning abstract content subjects, particularly
in mixed medium instruction (MMI) classrooms.
We argue that MMI classrooms accentuate the pedagogical value of translanguaging as
students’ different linguistic repertoires are valued and legitimised as the ‘official’ language,
particularly in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Translanguaging adopts a
heteroglossic language ideology and breaks the linguistic boundaries set in classrooms,
advocating the use of different modal and linguistic resources (Li and Lin 2019). Although
scholars argued that pedagogical translanguaging can facilitate multilingual students’ acqui-
sition of scientific languages (McKinney and Tyler 2019), there were still significant gaps
among students with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in science achievements over
decades (Aronson and Laughter 2016). Particularly in Hong Kong, EMI students had a
lower science achievement than CMI students owing to a lack of motivation (Yip et al. 2003;
Fung and Yip 2014). Also, owing to its different abstract representations (Cheung and
Winterbottom 2021, 2023), some students think that science is linguistically and culturally
irrelevant to them (Aronson and Laughter 2016). In this study, it is postulated that MMI
classrooms can create opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students to
express their linguistic resources. Such an expression can make students more emotionally
engaged in learning abstract content subjects.
In this paper, we draw on concepts of translanguaging, science education and the socio-
cultural concept of perezhivanie. Perezhivanie refers to how an individual interprets and
emotionally relates to a certain event (Roth 2007). We examine how teachers use different
linguistic and non-linguistic resources to evoke linguistically diverse learners’ shared emo-
tional experiences. This can facilitate students’ translation across different representational
levels in science, especially in biology and chemistry classrooms. As a research team com-
prising a science educator and a language educator, we here shed light on how pedagogical
translanguaging involves diverse representations specific to a subject domain. Our efforts
can drive pedagogical frameworks in facilitating subject teachers to incorporate translan-
guaging in their domain (e.g. chemistry and biology). Although the pedagogical affordance
of translanguaging in creating perezhivanie was studied in drama education (Galante 2022),
this study addresses how translanguaging facilitates linguistically diverse students’ integra-
tion across different scientific representations.

2. Literature review
2.1. Translanguaging in linguistically diverse classrooms
Originating from the field of bilingual education, translanguaging describes various dis-
cursive practices in which bilinguals use different languages to make sense of their world
(García 2011). The use of ‘-ing’ suffix in the concept of ‘translanguaging’ emphasizes how
 Language and Education 3

meaning-making of languages is influenced by cultural, social and political contexts (García

and Leiva 2014; Mazak and Herbas-Donoso 2014). The positioning of translanguaging
differs from code-switching, borrowing, and code-mixing. In translanguaging, bilingual
educators advocate the entrenched use of dual languages instead of compartmenting the
use of two languages (García and Sylvan 2011).
As a pedagogical practice, translanguaging facilitates knowledge construction by going
beyond different named languages (e.g. Chinese or English) (Li 2014). Specifically, translan-
guaging encompasses a flexible use of multiple languages and modalities such as embodied
gestures and drawings (Li 2014). Teachers and students draw on their full semiotic repertoire
for meaning making (Blackledge and Creese 2017; Ollerhead 2019). In other words, inter-
action between students and teachers is not limited by the classroom language of instruction,
rather they draw on their semiotic resources to make meaning within a particular social
setting (Blackledge and Creese 2017). Translanguaging also creates spaces which bring
different cultural resources, beliefs, social identities and life histories of different speakers
together into harmony (Li 2014; Tai and Li, 2021).
There is an increasing interest in examining the pedagogical affordances of translan-
guaging in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms (Gómez Fernández 2019; Schissel
et al. 2021; Papadopoulos 2022). Although high-stake assessments require the use of a single
language, translanguaging can create a more inclusive teaching and assessment for multi-
lingual students to learn content knowledge in linguistically and culturally diverse class-
rooms (Schissel et al. 2021). Moreover, in these culturally and linguistically diverse
classrooms, students might not share the same first language with one another. Teachers’
use of translanguaging can help multilingual students transcend the boundaries between
everyday culture and culture of the subject (Tai 2024; Tai and Zuo, 2024). Apart from tran-
scending cultural borders, multilingual learners under a translanguaging pedagogy collec-
tively develop a stronger affective learning (Makalela 2018). Such a pedagogical approach
can capitalize multilingual students’ funds of knowledge and develop students’ social emo-
tion (Garrity et al. 2018; Kirsch 2018).

2.2. Translanguaging pedagogies in science classrooms

Although pedagogical translanguaging helps culturally and linguistically diverse students
learn content knowledge, the ways in which these students draw on multimodal and mul-
tilingual semiotic resources are specific to a particular subject domain. In drama lessons,
teachers laminate different linguistic and modal resources to facilitate empowerment and
volition (Galante 2022); in teaching physical exercises such as Japanese karate, teachers
orchestrate different semiotic resources to repeat and polish physical moves (Zhu Hua et al.
2019); in teaching online reading in English, teachers strategically alternate the use of Korean
and English to help multilingual learners monitor their reading processes (Song and
Cho 2021).
In science, there are variations in how teachers can use different semiotic resources to
help students acquire content knowledge in different domains, such as chemistry and biol-
ogy. Chemistry knowledge involves an integration between macroscopic, sub-microscopic
and symbolic levels (Johnstone 1982): the macroscopic level provides a theoretical description
of a chemistry phenomenon (e.g. salts dissolve in water); the sub-microscopic level provides
an explanation of macroscopic level at a molecular level (e.g. ionic bonds of salts break
4 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

down and bond with water molecules); the symbolic level uses mathematical formula, chem-
ical symbols and diagrams to represent the macroscopic phenomenon (e.g. H2O, NaCl).
Biological knowledge involves integration across macroscopic, microscopic, sub-microscopic
and symbolic representations (Tsui and Treagust 2012): the macroscopic level provides a
theoretical description of a biological phenomenon (e.g. a patient coughs because he catches
coronavirus); in the microscopic level, viruses are very small, and most of them can be seen
only by TEM (transmission electron microscopy); the sub-microscopic level explains how
biomolecules like DNA and proteins interact (e.g, a virus replicates DNA); the symbolic
level involves abstract representations such as genetic diagrams and metabolic pathways
(e.g. a Covid-19 infection map). As translation across different representational levels poses
challenges to all students (Cheung and Winterbottom 2021, 2023), science teachers in
culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms should facilitate students’ such translation
by mobilising different linguistic and modal resources.
Pedagogical translanguaging should not assume that linguistic mode is the main semiotic
resource. Different modalities can bridge L1 and L2 academic and everyday registers (Tai
and Li 2021). In a translanguaging intervention in a South African chemistry classroom,
the science teacher fostered students’ verbal repertoire in discussing the process of mixing
in Sesotho. This was then followed by instructing students translating their written answers
in Sesotho to English (Charamba and Zano 2019). As a chemistry topic, such translanguag-
ing scaffolds facilitated students’ translation across the macroscopic, sub-microscopic and
symbolic representations.

2.3. Translanguaging in evoking students’ perezhivanie in science classrooms

Teachers’ embodied communication connects cognition and emotions together (Kramsch
2006), such as evoking students’ collective memory. The concept of perezhivanie, which
refers to emotion and lived experiences (Vygotsky 1994), describes how the individual
emotional experience can be evoked through recalling collective memory of the class (Roth
2007). A student’s perezhivanie unifies collective and personal characteristics which are
inseparable from each other (Vygotsky 1994).
In our conceptual diagram (Figure 1), perezhivanie (collective and emotive experiences)
triggers the formation of translanguaging spaces. This facilitates translation across different
abstract representations. We use the word ‘representations’ instead of ‘languages’, as learning
content subjects like science involve various modalities. Although some studies explored
pedagogies of facilitating students’ translation across multiple representations (Prain and
Waldrip 2006, 2008; Tytler et al. 2013), there were not any that characterised translanguaging
pedagogies that brought together culturally and linguistically diverse students’ cognitive
and emotional experiences. We hypothesize that pedagogical translanguaging can activate
culturally and linguistically diverse students’ common perezhivanie in science lessons. Such
a domain-specific activation can facilitate students’ translation across different levels of
domain-specific representations (Johnstone 1982; Tsui and Treagust 2012).

3. The present study

We examined how a science teacher, Richard (denoted by pseudonym), leveraged different
semiotic resources to activate multilingual students’ perezhivanie in a MMI classroom. Such
an activation could potentially help students integrate across different representational
 Language and Education 5

Figure 1. A conceptual diagram illustrating how perezhivanie evokes shared memory in a translan-
guaging space and fosters an integration of various levels of representation.

levels. In this case study, we explored how Richard co-constructed meaning across repre-
sentational levels in a chemistry lesson and a biology lesson through evoking students’
emotional and lived experiences. The following research questions guide the present study:

a. How did Richard mobilise a range of modal and linguistic resources to facilitate culturally
and linguistically diverse students’ integration of different scientific representations?
b. How did his pedagogical translanguaging activate students’ common perezhivanie in
different domains of science (e.g. chemistry and biology)?

4. Methodology
An instrumental case study was used to gain insights into a particular issue or a phenom-
enon (Thomas 2011). This study was instrumental because it provided a deeper insight into
how pedagogical translanguaging could evoke culturally and linguistically diverse students’
perezhivanie in a MMI science classroom.

4.1. Participants and setting

Data of this study drew on a large-scale research project which examined multilingual
students’ meaning making of the nature of science. This case of a seventh grade classroom
(aged 12 to 13), which consisted of 26 students with linguistically diverse backgrounds,
was sampled purposefully (Patton 2023). This was because this classroom allowed students
to use both Cantonese and English for the official oral language of instruction. Hence,
owing to the flexibility of using language of instruction, the class was considered as adopt-
ing MMI (Poon 2013; Poon et al. 2013). The reason for allowing students’ flexible use of
languages in classes was that students were from different nations, including 4 students
from Pakistan, 2 students from the UK, 3 students from Philippines, 1 student from
mainland China and the remaining were local students. The science class was taught by
Richard who had three years of teaching experiences. Richard received a double-degree
6 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Bachelor of Education (major in biology education) and Bachelor of Science (major in

biological sciences) during which he attended a course related to language and literacy in
science. Previous work (Cheung et al., in revisions, 2025) has acknowledged how Richard
created different translanguaging spaces for teaching and learning of epistemology of
science, while the current work focused on how Richard facilitate students’ learning across
different domain-specific representations.

4.2. Data collection

The first author carried out lesson observations across five lessons in this classroom from
October 2022 to December 2022. A camera was positioned at the back of the classroom
which focused on the teacher’s embodied instruction and captured teacher-student inter-
action. The topic, content and duration of the five lessons is listed in Table 1 which spans
across two different topics: fair testing and water. These two topics are situated in the first
two topics within the local junior science curriculum in Hong Kong (CDC 2017). In the
topic of fair testing, Richard used different examples to help students conceptualise concepts
of variables, including independent variables, dependent variable and controlled variables.
In the topic of water, Richard explained the properties of water, such as dissolving, evapo-
ration, boiling and melting.
Instead of including all lesson episodes, we chose representative extracts. Representative
extracts need to demonstrate similar and deviant instances of particular interactional phe-
nomenon (Ten Have 1990). In this paper, we analysed two representative classroom episodes
in which Richard evoked collective lived experiences to facilitate students’ translation across
representational levels through diverse linguistic and modal resources. Lessons 2 and 5
were chosen because they demonstrated how Richard could facilitate such translations in
biology and chemistry domains respectively. The chosen extracts were discussed among
both authors, including one science educator and another language educator.

Table 1. The curriculum units of the classroom case mediated by Richard.

Lesson Topic Content Duration
1 Fair testing • Richard introduced the concept of independent variable, dependent 45 minutes
variable and controlled variable.
• Through manipulating the variables, students tested the strength of
tissues of different brands using weights.
2* Fair testing • Richard explained the structure and function of bacteria. 1 hour 30 minutes
• He then reinforced the concept of independent variable, dependent
variable and controlled variable.
• Through manipulating variables, students examined the relationships
between temperature and bacterial growth in an agar plate.
3 Water • Richard engaged students in organising and analysing a table showing 45 minutes
temperature against different time points.
• Richard engaged students in plotting a graph of temperature of water
against time to identify the boiling point and melting point
4 Water • Richard explained how humidity affects the rate of evaporation. 45 minutes
• He engaged in students drawing the molecular level of how humidity
affects the rate of water evaporation.
5* Water • Richard explained the concept of dissolving. 45 minutes
• He then engaged students in interacting with the PhET simulation of
how salts dissolve in water. By doing so, students can develop a
molecular view of how salt compounds dissociate and form hydrogen
bond with water molecules.
*
Selected episodes presented in this paper.
 Language and Education 7

4.3. Data analysis

The analysis began with documenting teaching purpose, classroom interactions, commu-
nication approach and teaching interventions of the two lessons (Mortimer and Scott
2003). Afterwards, we conducted multimodal discourse analysis (Norris 2004). Our anal-
ysis situated gestures and actions within a framework that focused on a verbal discourse,
with each turn defined as the start of verbal utterance to the end of verbal utterance. The
extract was organised into four columns: turn, speech and actions, representational levels,
and modal and linguistic resources. For speech and actions, we documented each lesson
episode in a turn-by-turn manner. For representational levels, we analysed according to
Figure 1 which stated the representational levels in chemistry and biology. Also, for modal
and linguistic resources, we examined whether Richard and his students used gesture,
visual or drawing to illustrate the meaning across representational levels, as well as using
either Cantonese or English to verbally communicate domain-specific meaning. The tax-
onomy of gesture was modified from Williams (2020) because it encompassed deictic,
emblem, iconic and metaphoric gestures. Deictic gesture refers to pointing in concrete or
abstract forms; emblem refers to the expression of precise meaning as clear as spoken
words within the cultural and linguistic contexts; iconic gesture refers to concrete processes
and materials; metaphoric gesture refers to movement in order to assign properties to
abstract forms.

5. Findings
5.1. Structure and function of bacteria
This episode in lesson 2 began with Richard who introduced the structure of a bacteria.
Prior to this episode, students held a misconception that a bacterial cell was small and
harmless. To respond to students’ misconception, there were two instances where Richard
drew on emotional experiences from students from culturally linguistically diverse back-
ground. Firstly, in turns 1 to 4 (Table 2), Richard reminded students about his absence for
a very long time owing to his coronavirus infection. He then linked coronavirus infection
to the main topic, bacterial infection. In turns 5 onwards (Table 3), to explain the harmful-
ness of bacteria in relation to its structure, Richard used the analogy of Japanese manga,
Attack on Titan, to describe the function of a bacterial cell wall.

5.1.1. Episode 1: Size and harmfulness of bacteria

In turn 1, Richard told students ‘搞清楚先。’ (tr. Make it clear first) in Cantonese, with his
right palm facing the students to emphasize the importance of being clear that there was
not any relationship between the size and harmfulness of microorganisms. To cater for
linguistic diversity in the classroom, Richard strategically used both Cantonese (‘佢既結
構簡單唔代表佢無害。’ (tr. Although its structure is simple, it does not mean it is harmless.))
and English (‘It’s simple doesn’t mean it is harmless.’) to emphasize that the small size of
organisms did not mean that they are harmless. Such verbal discourse was supported by
moving his opened right palm away from him and back to his body (Turn 2). This emblem
signalled multilingual students to pay attention his speech in both languages.
8 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Following that, Richard used embodiment to evoke students’ collective memory of his
absence due to covid infection. The embodiment also supported his verbal communication
of the microscopic size and harmfulness of a bacterium. He used iconic gesture by touching
his right hand’s thumb with his right hand’s index finger to illustrate the concrete size of a

Table 2. Episode 1: Size and harmfulness of bacteria.

Level of Modal and linguistic
Turn Speech and actions representation resources
1 T: 搞清楚先。(tr. Make it clear first.) (+T opens his right CN/emblem
palm facing the students)

2 T: It’s simple doesn’t mean it is harmless. (+T moves his Microscopic CN/EN/emblem
opened right palm away from him and back to his
body) 佢既結構簡單唔代表佢無害。(tr. Although
its structure is simple, it does not mean it is
harmless.)

3 T: 即係佢細 (tr. That means it’s small) (+T’s right Microscopic CN/Iconic
hand’s index finger touches his thumb) 唔代表佢
無害。(tr. doesn’t mean that it is harmless)

4 T: 好似我 (tr. Just like me) (+T opens his right palm Macroscopic EN/CN/Deictic
and move his right palm towards himself)上個禮
拜咁中左 covid 咁 (tr. I got Covid last week),
[S sitting at the right front moves her hands]

5 T: 佢好細粒 (tr. It is tiny.) (+T’s right hand’s index figure Microscopic EN/CN/ Iconic
touches his thumb with his right hand facing
upwards) 但唔代表佢無害。搞清楚呀 (tr. but
doesn’t mean it is harmless, make it clear.),
simplicity doesn’t mean harmless, ok?
 Language and Education 9

Table 3. Episode 2: Function of bacterial cell wall.

6 T: 好啦。我地睇一睇細菌既結構啦 (tr. OK! We can see Microscopic CN/Deictic/PPT visual
the structure of the bacteria.) (+T walks to the
screen and use his red blackboard pen to point at
the written bacterial structure in PPT slide) 其實同
我地細胞既結構係大同小異既。呢度我唔詳細講
著啦。(tr. Actually it is not very different from the
structure of our cell. I don’t talk about it right now.)

7 T: 最主要我地最外層. (tr. The most important is the Microscopic CN/Deictic

external layer.) (+T moves his red blackboard pen
around the cell wall on the picture of bacteria).

8 T: (+T raises his right hand up) 好啦。有無有睇進擊的 Macroscopic CN/emblem

巨人? (tr. OK! Have you watched Attack on Titan?)

9 S: 有有有。(tr. yes yes yes.) (inaudible) CN

10 T: 一開頭啲人保護自己既城牆 (tr. At the beginning Macroscopic CN
people are building their own defense wall) (+T
raising his right hand and uses his red whiteboard
pen and move clockwise) 就起左啲咩? (tr. What
did they build?)

11 S: 城牆囉! 瑪利亞城牆!(tr. Wall! The Maria’s wall!) Macroscopic CN

12 T: The Maria’s Wall. (+T raising his right hand and uses Macroscopic EN/Iconic
his red whiteboard pen and move clockwise)

(Continued)
10 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Table 3. Continued.
13 (+S sitting at the front clapped her hands and felt Macroscopic EN
excited) So what is the function? (+T opens his right
palm facing upwards and move his arm towards
students)

14 S: Err… to protect the… to protect the (inaudible) Macroscopic EN

15 T: 係啦佢唔想俾啲巨人入侵呀麻。(tr. Yes. She doesn’t Macroscopic EN/CN/Iconic
want the giant to attack.) OK? They doesn’t want(.)
They doesn’t want the giant to attack. So (.) (+T
raising his right hand and uses his red whiteboard
pen and move clockwise) They will have a very thick
protective layer.

16 T: 咁所以啦。(tr. So that’s why.) (+T pointed at the cell Microscopic CN

wall of the diagram of bacteria) 喺細菌都找到類
似兩個結構既。就係細胞壁同細胞膜。(tr. You can
find the two similar structures in bacteria. They are
cell wall and cell membrane.)

17 咁當然佢地function有唔同啦, 我地唔詳細講著啦。 Microscopic EN/CN/Deictic

細菌外圍就會有cell wall, 然後就會有cell
membrane 既 (tr. Of course their functions are
different. We don’t say it in detail. Bacteria has its
own cell wall, then it has cell membrane.) (+T uses
his left index finger to move around the cell wall of
the diagram of bacteria in anticlockwise direction)。
咁係咪每個人可以隨便入去同出去? (tr. Is that
everyone can go inside very easily?)

18 S: 唔可以。(tr. Of course not.) CN

Notations: EN-English; CN- Cantonese.
 Language and Education 11

bacteria (Turn 3), creating a shared imagery of the size of bacteria (Turn 3). Such iconic
gesture was juxtaposed with his Cantonese speech (‘即係佢細 (tr. That means it’s small)
唔代表佢無害。(tr. doesn’t mean that it is harmless)’). After illustrating the small size of a
bacterium, he used a deictic gesture by opening his right palm and moving his right palm
towards himself, coupled with his Cantonese talk that 好似我 (tr. Just like me) 上個禮拜
咁中左 covid 咁 (tr. I got Covid last week) (Turn 4). His deictic gesture linked the micro-
scopic explanation of harmfulness of a micro-organism to his macroscopic body. Such a
linkage also recalled students’ memory that he got sick and was absent for nearly a week.
This triggered the White girl sitting at the right front to move her pair of hands and respond.
Following that, Richard strategically used both Cantonese (佢好細粒 (tr. It is tiny.) 但唔
代表佢無害。搞清楚呀 (tr. but doesn’t mean it is harmless, make it clear.) and English
(‘simplicity doesn’t mean harmless, ok?’) to relate the function of a bacterium to its size
(Turn 5). This verbal talk was supported by his iconic gesture to illustrate the tiny size of a
bacterium, with his right hand’s index finger touching his thumb with his right hand facing
upwards.
From this instance, Richard strategically used a range of gestures (emblem, iconic and
deictic) as well as linguistic resources to evoke students’ collective memory about his absence
due to Covid-19 in the previous week. The teacher’s coronavirus infection was a collective
and shared memory among multilingual students whose linguistic and cultural repertoires
vary. The alternate use of emblem, iconic and deictic gestures bridged linguistically diverse
students’ understanding of macroscopic (Richard’s covid sickness) and microscopic phe-
nomenon (bacteria being small and harmful), together with an emphasis on ‘simplicity’
and ‘harmful’ in both Cantonese and English. Such a strategic use of modal and linguistic
resources facilitated embodied cognition (Pande and Chandrasekharan 2017) that encom-
passed biological self-explanations across macro and micro levels (Chi et al. 1994).

5.1.2. Episode 2: Function of bacterial cell wall

This episode (Table 3) was unfolded by Richard who used Cantonese to direct students’
attention to the visual structure of a bacterium in the PowerPoint slide (Turn 6). He then
highlighted the importance of an external layer in Cantonese while moving his red white-
board pen around the cell wall of the bacteria shown in the PowerPoint slide (Turn 7). Such
a deictic gesture supported Richard’s verbal speech in relation to the location of the bacterial
cell wall.
In turn 8, Richard evoked culturally and linguistically diverse students’ lived experience
by mentioning the Japanese manga, Attack on Titan, in Cantonese (‘好啦。有無有睇進擊
的巨人? (tr. OK! Have you watched Attack on Titan?)’). He raised his hands, inviting all
students to participate in the discussion of the function of bacterial cell wall. This shifted
the focus from microscopic structure of bacteria to macroscopic analogy of brick wall in
Attack on Titan. Students immediately expressed in Cantonese that they had watched it
(Turn 9). This evoked students’ collective lived experience of watching Japanese manga. In
turn 10, Richard continued probing into students’ understanding by asking ‘一開頭啲人
保護自己既城牆 (tr. At the beginning people are building their own defense wall) 就起左
啲咩? (tr. What did they build?)’. His verbal question was coupled with his iconic gesture
of moving his red whiteboard pen clockwise to create an imagery of the brick wall (turn 11).
The students responded in an exciting manner by saying ‘城牆囉! 瑪利亞城牆! (tr. Wall!
The Maria’s wall!)’ (turn 12). Students’ answers were reassured by Richard in English, ‘The
12 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Maria’s Wall’ (turn 13), coupled with the same iconic gesture of moving his whiteboard
clockwise to his side. Richard’s strategic use of multimodal resources created an equitable
opportunity for participation of all students. This facilitated students’ translation across
analogical representation of The Maria’s Wall and the microscopic bacterial wall.
Students’ collective emotion was aroused by Richard’s recalling students’ shared experi-
ences of watching Attack on Titan. This was supported by the front girl whose first language
is English who clapped her hand (Turn 13). Richard then explained in both English and
Cantonese that the main character in the Japanese manga, Maria, built the brick wall to
prevent the giants from invading the city. His raised right hand moved around his white-
board pen clockwise to iconically gesture the Maria’s wall (Turn 15). He then strategically
used Cantonese to bridge the macroscopic analogy of the Maria’s wall to cell wall in bacteria
(Turns 16 and 17), with some key structures being emphasised in both English and Chinese.
Such verbal speech ensured that students with linguistically diverse backgrounds can grasp
the correct terminologies of the bacterial structure at a microscopic level.
The above episode demonstrated perezhivanie where linguistically diverse students’ emo-
tive sense of microscopic structure of bacteria was evoked by Richard’s analogy of the Maria’s
wall in the Japanese manga, Attack on Titan. Biological knowledge offers learning barriers
to students because they cannot see the structures of cell using bare eyes (Vijapurkar et al.
2014). Through harnessing perezhivanie, Richard’s use of a range of modal and linguistic
resources attempted to create emotionally connected experiences (Michell 2016; Veresov
2016) for all students to link structure to function of bacterial cells as well as visualising the
structure of bacterial cells.

5.2. Dissolving of salts

In this episode (Table 4), Richard wanted to advance students’ sub-microscopic understand-
ing of the macroscopic phenomenon, dissolving salt in water. The episode unfolded by the
teacher saying in Cantonese that he would delve deeper into the topic. He drew a square
and a triangle (representing sodium and chloride ions respectively) using a white chalk on
the blackboard (Turn 1). He also used his left thumb and middle finger to point at the
square-triangle complex (Turn 2). Following that, he labelled ‘salt’ above the square-triangle
complex and explained in both Cantonese and English that ‘This is a salt which is in solid
form. 即係固體既狀態先既。(tr. This is in solid form.)’ (Turn 3).
In turn 3, Richard bridged students’ understanding of the macroscopic view of salt to
the symbolic representation of water. He asked in Cantonese, ‘咁咩叫溶解呢?咁你知我
地水既化學符號係咩呀? 化學式係咩? (tr. Then what is dissolving? Do you know what is
the chemical symbol of water? What is the chemical formula?)’ (turn 3). However, the student
could not recall the formula of water (turn 4), so Richard wrote ‘H2O’ (turn 5). The symbol
‘H2O’ explicitly drew students’ attention to the symbolic representation of water. He then
noticed students did not pay attention, then he closed his left hand and pointed at the ‘H2O’
symbol and verbally requested students to focus on the water formula (Turn 6). As some
students were confused about what ‘H2O’ means, other students helped by saying that ‘唔
係呀。水來架呢個。(tr. No! It is water molecule.)’. Richard’s verbal Cantonese and the drawn
‘H2O’ symbol became a foregrounding mode (Kress et al. 2001) from turns 4 to 7. ‘水’
(water) is an everyday Cantonese word that was familiar to students, so Richard mentioned
this word in Cantonese to facilitate students’ understanding of the symbol ‘H2O’.
 Language and Education 13

Table 4. Episode 3: Dissolving of salts.

Level of Modal and linguistic
Turn Speech and actions representation resources
1 T: 講深少少啦。假設無咁深, 假設一粒鹽呢佢係一個 Sub-microscopic CN/Drawing in white chalk
正方形同一個三角形形成既。(tr. Let us discuss
deeper. Imagine this is not that difficult. Let’s
assume that a salt compound is formed by a square
and a triangle.) (+T picked up a white calk to draw a
square and a triangle on blackboard)

2 T: 好啦呢個係一個係一粒鹽既狀態。(tr. Yes. It is the Sub-microscopic CN/Iconic gesture

status of a single salt compound.) (+T opens his left
thumb and middle finger to point at the square-
triangle complex)

3 This is a salt which is in solid form. 即係固體既狀態先 Macroscopic CN/EN/Drawing in blue

既。(tr. This is in solid form.) (+T wrote ‘salt solid’ Symbolic chalk
above the drawn square-triangle complex) 咁咩叫
溶解呢?咁你知我地水既化學符號係咩呀? 化學
式係咩? (tr. Then what is dissolving? Do you know
what is the chemical symbol of water? What is the
chemical formula?)

4 S: 咩O咩咩咩? 我唔記得左。(tr. What O what what Symbolic CN/EN

what what? I don’t remember.)
5 T: 係啦。 你地未學既。 好啦聽住。 睇住 (tr. Ok! You Symbolic CN/EN/ Drawing in blue
haven’t learnt it. OK! Listen!) (+T picked up a blue chalk chalk
and wrote ‘H2O’ on the board) 呢個 (tr. this), H two O。

(Continued)
14 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Table 4. Continued.
Level of Modal and linguistic
Turn Speech and actions representation resources
6 T: Student X, 望住。(tr. Look!) (+T used his closed left Symbolic CN/Deictic gesture
hand to point at ‘H2O’)

7 S: 唔係呀。水來架呢個。(tr. No! It is water molecule.) Symbolic CN

8 T: 好啦。咩叫溶解呢? 你可以諗啦其實佢痴埋左一 Sub-microscopic/ CN/Deictic
舊既。(tr. OK. So what is dissolving? You can think Macroscopic
like that they stick together.) (+T opened widely his
right thumb and index figure and pointed to the
square-triangle complex) 咁溶解係咩意思? 平時
我地要肉眼睇係咩色呀? 鹽係咩顏色呀? (tr. What
is the meaning of dissolving? Normally what is the
colour of salt when we see it with bare eyes? What is
the colour of salt?)

9 S: 白色囉。(tr. white.) Macroscopic CN

10 T: 透透地白白地色。好啦, (+T opened his right hand Macroscopic CN/EN/emblem
palm and extended his right arm) 當佢溶解
dissolve in water 左之後係咩顏色?

11 S: 無色呀。(tr. colourless.) Microscopic CN

12 T: 係啦你睇唔到既。It’s colourless. 你睇唔到任何野 Macroscopic CN/EN/Iconic
既。(tr. Ok. You didn’t see it. It’s colourless. You can’t
see anything?) 當佢 dissolve 既時候 (tr. When it
dissolves), you cannot see anything right? (+T
opened his right palm, facing away from him and
shake his right palm)

(Continued)
 Language and Education 15

Table 4. Continued.
Level of Modal and linguistic
Turn Speech and actions representation resources
13 咁點解啦? (tr. But why?) (+T picked up his right chalk) Submicroscopic CN/Drawing in white chalk
當佢溶解既時候, 原來呢, (+T drew a right square)
真係將佢分開左既。(tr. Actually, they are really
separate from each other.)

14 T: (+T picked up his blue chalk) 原來有啲水, 痴住左係 Submicroscopic/ CN/ Drawing in blue chalk
側邊, 痴住左係正方形側邊 (tr. Actually, there are Symbolic
some water (molecules) sticking on the side, sticking
on the side of the square) (+T drew ‘H2O’ near the
square.)

(+T picked up his white chalk and drew a triangle with

some distance from the square) 舊三角形都係一樣
呀。(tr. The triangle is the same.)
15 Submicroscopic/ CN/EN/Drawing in white
Symbolic chalk

(+T picked up his blue chalk and drew ‘H2O’ near the
triangle) 周邊又係有啲水, 痴住左佢, 好似架花車,
你個日咪有去迪士尼既, 你地有無去睇 parade 呀?
(tr. there are water molecules surrounding, sticking it.
It is just like the parade cart. On the day you have
gone to the Disneyland. Did you watch the parade?)
16 S: 無。(tr. No.) [S: 無。(tr. No.)] CN
17 T: 無? (tr. No?) CN
18 S: 我地走左去玩U形。(tr. We have gone to play the EN
U-shaped roller coaster.) [S: 有有有! (tr. Yes yes yes.)]
(Continued)
16 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

Table 4. Continued.
Level of Modal and linguistic
Turn Speech and actions representation resources
19 T: 咁你見到佢係度跳舞, 哈哈哈。係度圍住個花車, Microscopic EN/CN/Iconic
(tr. Then you saw that they were dancing, hahaha,
surrounding the parade cart) what is dissolve , 其實
係啲水周邊圍住啲鹽既正方形同三角形既部份
(tr. Actually it is surrounding the salt)。(+T used his
right index figure to move anti-clockwise around
the square (part of the salt)) 佢地兩粒先加埋一粒
鹽 (tr. A salt comprises two pieces), when it is
dissolve, we break it down. 佢要消耗啲咩呀?
(tr. What does it need to use?)

20 S: 水。(tr. Water) Microscopic CN

After bridging across macroscopic, sub-microscopic, and symbolic representations,

Richard helped students link the process of dissolving to the change in colour of salt (Turns
8 and 10). Students answered the colour of salt (Turn 9) and the colour of salt solution (Turn
11) in Cantonese. Cantonese was used here as it was more familiar for most students to use
everyday language to describe their daily material observations of the colour of salt and salt
water. After drawing another square-triangle complex (turns 13-14), Richard then continued
to visualise how water bonds with dissociated salt ions by drawing ‘H2O’ next to the
square-triangle complex (Turns 14 and 15). Drawing becomes the foregrounding mode
between turns 13 to 15 as the teacher would like to visualise how the symbolic representation
‘H2O’ stuck to the square-triangle complex.
Afterwards, Richard tried to recall students’ collective experiences by asking, ‘周邊又
係有啲水, 痴住左佢, 好似架花車, 你個日咪有去迪士尼既, 你地有無去睇 parade 呀?
(tr. there are water molecules surrounding, sticking it. It is just like the parade cart. On the
day you have gone to the Disneyland. Did you watch the parade?)’ (Turn 15). The class had
been to the Disneyland the week before. At first, some students expressed that they had not
watched the parade (turn 16) which was then suspected by Richard (Turn 17). Eventually,
some students recalled the experience saying ‘有有有! (tr. Yes yes yes.)’ in Cantonese, with
other students were expressing that they went to play the U-shaped roller coaster (Turn
18). Strategically, Richard recalled students’ collective imagery of people dancing surround-
ing the parade cart in Cantonese, ‘咁你見到佢係度跳舞, 哈哈哈。係度圍住個花車 (tr.
Then you saw that they were dancing, hahaha, surrounding the parade cart)’. By capitalising
such collective experience, Richard used both Cantonese and English to explain dissolving.
He explained that water surrounded the dissociated salt compounds, ‘what is dissolve’ ‘其
實係啲水周邊圍住啲鹽既正方形同三角形既部份 (tr. Actually it is surrounding the salt)’.
 Language and Education 17

His bilingual explanation was further supported by his thumb moving anticlockwise of a
drawn square representing a part of a salt compound. To check for student’s understanding,
the teacher further asked in both Cantonese and English what broke down salts into ions.
A student correctly pointed out ‘水’ (tr. Water).
From the above episode, Richard explicitly drew students’ attention to macroscopic,
sub-microscopic and symbolic representations by using different colours of drawing on
blackboards. Through verbal talk in both Cantonese and English and iconic gesture, he
then bridged the drawing to evoking students’ perezhivanie by recalling students’ embodied
experiences of Disney’s parade. This pushed linguistically diverse students further in trans-
lating across different representational levels in chemistry. He then consolidated students’
embodied experience of the Disney parade by using his index finger to move anticlockwise
around the square that represented part of a salt compound. The analogy could have been
explored further to enhance learning in this context.

6. Discussion and conclusion

This study provided an in-depth analysis of a science teacher in an MMI classroom that
addressed the two research questions. Regarding the first research question, Richard stra-
tegically leveraged different semiotic resources to facilitate students’ integration across
representations of bacteria (episodes 1 and 2) and water (episode 3). For the second research
question, Richard mentioned his Covid-absence (episode 1), Japanese manga (episode 2)
and the Disney parade (episode 3). This facilitated linguistically and culturally diverse
students’ integration across scientific representations. The contributions to theories and
practices were further elaborated below.

6.1. Modal and linguistic resources

We identified how teachers orchestrated different semiotic resources. Such an orchestration
facilitated linguistically diverse students’ equitable meaning making of different represen-
tational levels in science. Previous research on translanguaging in science classrooms mostly
focused on how students manipulated objects to make sense of macroscopic phenomenon
(Williams 2020; Pun and Tai 2021). In episode 1, Richard mentioned a macroscopic phe-
nomenon that he got sick from Covid-19. Afterwards, he bridged students’ understanding
to the microscopic level that small-size microorganisms could also cause sickness. Similarly,
in episode 3, Richards firstly mentioned the macroscopic observation of colour change
when salt dissolves in water. Afterwards, he drew a pair of square and triangle to represent
sub-microscopic view of salts. He then wrote the symbol ‘H2O’ to illustrate how water
surrounded salt compounds. Throughout the blackboard illustration, Richard used gestures
(iconic and deictic) and multiple languages (Cantonese and English) to help students trans-
late across representational levels. He carefully orchestrated the sequence of articulating
various chemical representational levels, while the use of multiple languages allowed lin-
guistically and culturally students’ equitable meaning making of chemistry knowledge. To
enrich the Lin and Lo (2016)’s rainbow diagram on bridging between everyday words and
academic words, the articulation and translation of representational levels in linguistically
diverse classrooms are crucial in students’ meaning making of scientific knowledge.
18 K. K. C. CHEUNG AND K. W. H. TAI

6.2. Perezhivanie as a precursor for integration across representational levels

Previous studies showed that EMI teachers used translanguaging to construct playful talk
with students during learning of content knowledge (e.g., Pun and Tai 2021; Tai and Li
2021). However, as MMI legitimised various linguistic and cultural resources, our empirical
findings demonstrated that pedagogical translanguaging in MMI classrooms needed to
capitalise on shared memory such as class trips and popular culture. Therefore, culturally
and linguistically diverse students can emotionally relate these experiences to the abstract
content knowledge. In episode 1, Richard mentioned that he had been absent for a week
due to coronavirus infection. This triggered his students’ emotional responses. Also, in
episode 2, when Richard mentioned about the Japanese manga, the British girl clapped her
hands excitingly. This led to students’ emotional engagement on learning the structure and
function of bacterial cell wall. Moreover, in episode 3, mentioning the class trip to the
Disneyland triggered students’ collective responses on whether they have played different
facilitates in the Disneyland. Thus, this facilitated students’ analogical meaning making of
the sub-­microscopic view of dissociation of salts. This is concurrent with the study that
pedagogical translanguaging can elicit students’ collective memory in drama lessons
(Galante 2022). Thus, we further demonstrated the potential of pedagogical translanguaging
in relation to perezhivanie in science classrooms.
From our interpretation, only if teachers evoke students’ collective memory, translan-
guaging will be effective for facilitating students’ integration of abstract scientific represen-
tations. In the rainbow diagram proposed by Lin (2012), visuals and modalities can bridge
L1 and L2 academic and oral ‘registers’ in EMI classrooms (Lin and Lo 2016). Such a rainbow
diagram could have included shared memory in culturally and linguistically diverse con-
texts. Our revised diagram in Figure 1 was empirically demonstrated across different
domains of science (chemistry and biology) in culturally and linguistically diverse class-
room. Meaningful science learning requires students’ translation and integration across
different levels of representations (Cheung and Winterbottom 2021, 2023). For example,
in a biology lesson, Richard strategically evoked his covid absence to bridge students’ macro
understanding of symptoms of infection to their micro understanding of the size of bacteria.
Moreover, the analogy of the Disney parade bridged students’ macro understanding of
dissolving salt to their sub-microscopic understanding of water bonding with dissoci-
ated salts.

6.3. Implications and future research directions

Our work prompts further interdisciplinary research on developing a translanguaging ped-
agogical framework that capitalised on students’ emotive experiences in integrating across
representations within content subjects. Our findings were based in two cases of how a
subject teacher activated culturally and linguistically diverse students’ lived experiences
while relating these to translation across different representation levels. Hence, there could
be more analogical cases studied by teachers and researchers. Such examinations could
identify the ways of facilitating students’ meaning making across representational levels.
Although this study did not use pre- and post- test to examine the effectiveness of translan-
guaging pedagogy with perezhivanie, future research could use an experimental design to
examine the impact of this pedagogy on students’ science learning outcomes.
 Language and Education 19

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Kevin W. H. Tai http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2098-8082

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