Literacy
"Incorporating translanguaging in instruction offers possibilities not only for promoting academic achievement but also for developing students' proficiencies as strategic users of language".
- Mark B. Pacheco and Mary E. Miller, 2016
Student Voices Shining Through: Exploring Translanguaging as a Literary Device
by Ann E. Ebe with Charene Chapman-Santiago
This article examines how an 8th grade teacher, Mrs. Chapman-Santiago, engaged her linguistically diverse 8th grade class in a study of translanguaging as a literary device using a culturally relevant class novel. Some of the heritage languages spoken in the classroom were Arabic, Bengali, French, Fulani, Haitian Creole, and Spanish. The authors make a case for using published work by authors that use translanguaging as a literary device as mentor texts that, in turn, influence students to use translanguaging in their writing. In addition, there were many other ways translanguaging was incorporated across this lesson. Translations for instructions were provided in all the student’s heritage languages, students were grouped according to the language they spoke so discussions could flow between their heritage language and english, and, lastly, shared reading was used as a tool. The authors also reflected on the many benefits of using translingual pedagogies in the classroom including exposing students to diverse languages and cultures, viewing others’ heritage languages as assets instead of deficits, and strengthening home-school connections.
Critical Questions:
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Ebe and Chapman-Santiago make a point in the article that it is important to be aware of the linguistic abilities of all the students in the classroom. How do we make sure that the monolingual student who only speaks english, the emergent bilingual who is not comfortable flowing between two languages yet, and the bilingual student, all feel comfortable and confident in the task assigned to them?
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In the article students were grouped together according to the heritage language they speak. What would discussions look like when this isn't feasible and there are only single speakers of a particular language in a class?
What does this look like in the classroom?
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As teachers, we must be aware of all students' linguistic abilities in the translanguaging classroom, whether students are monolingual or at various stages of bilingualism.
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Use culturally relevant books that students can relate to and draw on students' background knowledge and experiences.
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Use mentor texts that model the use of translanguaging as a literary device and use the text to study the craft of using it in students’ writing pieces.
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Provide translations for instructions in the heritage languages represented in the classroom.
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Group students according to the heritage language they speak so that discussions can allow and foster translanguaging and the use of all their language repertoires.
Making Meaning Through Translanguaging in the Literacy Classroom
by Mark B. Pacheco and Mary E. Miller
In this article, the authors reflect on their work, over four years, with elementary school teachers in classrooms with very diverse study bodies. Though the majority of these teachers do not speak their students' heritage languages, they were observed for how they incorporated students' languages in their literacy instruction in productive and innovative ways. In the first classroom, the authors observed the teacher using community literacy activity to bridge the textual world of students’ lives outside of school with their lives inside the school. She used heritage language newspapers to study and use text features to help make sense of informational texts. In the second classroom, a second grade classroom, nearly all of the emergent bilingual students spoke Spanish as a heritage language. The teacher used small-group guided reading instruction to help students strengthen their abilities to summarize English texts. She strategically paired emergent bilinguals with students who mostly speak Spanish only. The summaries and book reports produced were in their heritage language and english. The third classroom, a preschool classroom, was composed entirely of emergent bilinguals who speak several languages. This class participated in a research project on composing dual-language e-books on iPads. When complete, e-books were saved to the iBooks library, where children could read and listen to their own books and peers' books.
Critical Questions:
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How can teachers ensure that the assignment is equitable in classrooms that have students who come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds?
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For schools and classrooms that do not have access to one-on-one devices, or any devices for that matter, how could we still create and support a context that allows for these multimodal activities to happen to foster translingualism?
What does this look like in the classroom?
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Incorporate multimodality as a tool to implement community literacy activities.
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Have students use digital or disposable cameras to take pictures of the places they frequent and the people they see in their community to create dual language ebooks.
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Encourage students to say words in their heritage language as they discuss these pictures in their context.
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Use apps such as Drawing Pad, Book Creator, and iBooks to create these ebooks.
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Use heritage language newspapers available in the community to study textual features.
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Use groups and pairings strategically so that all students can be positioned as experts in some way and can benefit from their partnerships.
“I write to show how beautiful my languages are”: Translingual writing instruction in English-dominant classrooms.
by Angie Zapata and Tasha Tropp Laman
The authors in this article conducted a cross-case analysis across three classrooms. The first context was that of a writing workshop in a third grade ESL classroom with predominantly latino/a students with only one student who speaks and writes in Arabic. The second context is that of a linguistically diverse 4th grade ESL classroom. Lastly, the third context is a second grade English-dominant classroom where students speak eight different languages. The authors identified three principles of instruction to support translingual approaches to writing in the elementary classroom— teachers need to value and leverage community resources for writing, teachers serve as linguistic resources and models for translingual writing, and, finally, teachers share linguistically diverse literature as models of writing.
Critical Questions:
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In the article, modeling was framed as one of the key ways in which teachers can show and encourage students to incorporate translingualism in their writing. How might we do this successfully while making sure we are not imposing our beliefs on the children as expectations for writing?
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Another key finding in this article was inviting family and community members into the classroom to share cultural and linguistic practices. How can teachers make sure these opportunities for involvement are equitable? How may we reimagine them when family members may have various commitments that may not lend themselves well to school hours?
What does this look like in the classroom?
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Teachers need to be aware of the placement of heritage language texts and the English language texts. If the english language text always comes before the home language, what messages of linguistic and cultural superiority may we be sending to the students?
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Create a collection of linguistically diverse texts in the classroom library, that reflect students’ heritage languages and literacies.
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Have students self select literature for independent reading.
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Use these as mentor texts in the curriculum so that they may open conversations about students and their communities.
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Inviting family and community members to step in as experts and valuable resources to teach about various cultural and linguistic practices.
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Teaching reading strategies such as listening for cognates,
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Positioning students as experts by asking them to translate for peers. making meaning from photos, illustrations, and gestures.
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Teachers can model the writing process and the use of translanguaging for students by sharing and talking through their own draft and responding to students' comments.
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Teachers can share their linguistic history so that students might similarly embrace their own cultural and linguistic knowledge, and view them as assets.
Additional Questions:
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Reading these three articles and familiarizing myself with the translanguaging process has made me more curious about building metalinguistic awareness. How are we building metalinguistic awareness of the languages in our community among our students?
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Where in our curriculum and instruction are we already teaching translingual approaches to students? And if we aren’t, then where in our curriculum could we introduce and incorporate these?
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What are some multimodal translingual texts that are available other than printed books and picture books?
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How do we make translanguaging practices more accessible and include non-verbal languages as well?