BEIS Newsletter - April 2017 (Plain Text Version)
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ARTICLES THE PROMISE OF TRANSLANGUAGING AS PEDAGOGY FOR EMERGENT BILINGUALS: A LANDSCAPE REVIEW
In the last few decades, the demographic landscape of students in the United States has changed drastically. “One in five students in the United States is the child of an immigrant” (Capps et al., 2005). English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing student population across the country, increasing 60% in the past 10 years, as compared with the 7% growth of the general student population (Grantmakers for Education, 2013). Moreover, ELLs are not homogeneous. Although more than 70% speak Spanish, as a group, ELLs speak nearly 150 languages other than English, coming from diverse cultural, racial, and educational backgrounds (Baird, 2015). To emphasize the potential of these students to become bilingual and biliterate instead of only focusing on the learning or absence of English, I hereinafter refer to them as emergent bilinguals. While the population and diversity of emergent bilinguals continue to increase, the privileging of English in U.S. language education policy have had a negative impact on their education. Spaces for bilingualism in education have shrunk due to English-only curriculum and the pervading atmosphere of high-stakes testing (e.g., Escamilla, 2006; Hornberger, 2006), which refuses to acknowledge their language resources and shuts down opportunities for the development of multilingualism (García & Kleyn, 2016). This is despite the fact that time and time again, research has demonstrated that using students’ home language facilitates better understanding of new content and further leads to stronger academic outcomes (Collins, 2014; Rolstad, Mahoney, & Glass, 2005; August & Shanahan, 2006). To this end, translanguaging provides a viable approach to support bilingualism and biliteracy and to make the rigorous standards-driven curriculum more accessible to emergent bilinguals, “leveraging the students’ full language repertoires to teach and assess, and enabling a more socially just and equitable education for bilingual students” (García & Kleyn, 2016, p. 17). Translanguaging Theory in Education The theoretical orientation undergirding this paper is García’s (2009) translanguaging theory in education. Before elaborating on that, I will present a brief review of the development of the translanguaging concept. Welsh Origins of Translanguaging The term translanguaging, “trawsieithu,” was first coined by Cen Williams (a well-known Welsh educationalist) to respond to the call for Welsh revitalization in the 1980s. It refers to a pedagogical practice in which students are asked to deliberately switch the language mode of input and output in bilingual Welsh/English classrooms:
Williams (2002) suggests that translanguaging often uses the stronger language to develop the weaker language, thus contributing toward a potentially relatively balanced development of a child’s two languages. It is a strategy for retaining and developing bilingualism rather than for the initial teaching of second language (which means translanguaging is more appropriate for children who have a reasonably good grasp of both languages, and may not be valuable in a classroom when children are in the early stages of learning and developing their second language). In 2001, a close colleague of Williams published a piece on translanguaging in the third edition of Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and thus launched the term internationally (Baker, 2001). He discusses four potential educational advantages to translanguaging, further arguing for the importance of the concept as a pedagogical practice.1 The Development of Translanguaging Theory: Ofelia García Since then, the term translanguaging has caught the imagination of expert North American educationalists. In particular, Ofelia García valuably extended the concept of translanguaging beyond pedagogy: “languaging” captures the dynamic process of using language to make meaning, to gain understanding and knowledge, to shape experiences, and to communicate with others. The “trans” nature of languaging further describes the natural communicative practices of bilinguals who move between their languages spontaneously, flexibly, and pragmatically to make sense of their bilingual worlds (García, 2009). Some people may argue that translanguaging is just another version of code-switching. However, translanguaging is epistemologically different from code-switching. Code-switching takes an external, monolingual view of looking at bilinguals’ language behavior of switching back and forth between two separate, named language systems (i.e., the first language and the second language). Translanguaging, on the other hand, takes an internal, multilingual view of looking at bilinguals’ language behavior in which what is recognized is one complex, dynamic, unitary linguistic repertoire that bilinguals themselves appropriate surreptitiously and strategically to acquire, understand, and demonstrate knowledge (see a full discussion in Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015). Translanguaging in Instruction In accord with the Welsh educational origins of translanguaging, García further argues that translanguaging could be a most effective means to enhance a pupil’s cognitive, language, and literacy abilities, centering not on languages but on the observable, natural communicative practices of bilinguals. Translanguaging in instruction is not random or haphazard but strategic. In the translanguaging education model,
García, Johnson, and Seltzer (2016) identify three dimensions that are at play in instruction that uses translanguaging: teacher’s stance, design, and shifts (see Table 1). Table 1. Three Dimensions of Translanguaging in Instruction
Source: García, Johnson, and Seltzer (2016). Purpose To understand and further figure out how the translanguaging theory in education (García, 2009) might best be applied in K–12 classroom contexts for teachers and researchers, this literature review aims to chart the landscape of current efforts and initiatives of putting translanguaging theory into instructional practice. It is guided by the question: What are some current practices of applying translanguaging as pedagogy for emergent bilinguals in the United States? Methodology This literature review specifically draws upon six empirically grounded ethnographic case studies (See Table 2 emanating from the CUNY-NYSIEB2 project, which are documented in the book Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments, edited by García and Kleyn (2016). These six representative case studies were selected according to the following parameters: (1) studies with direct relevance to the topic (with a specific pedagogical framework of translanguaging); (2) studies conducted only in the United States, given the particular policy context considered in this review; (3) studies focusing on K–12 education, specifically from the elementary to high school level (i.e., excluding studies involving early childhood, postsecondary, or adult learners); and (4) empirical studies only. Generally speaking, the primary focus of the City University of New York – New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (CUNY-NYSIEB) project is to improve the educational outcomes for emergent bilinguals. Participants in this project recognize multilingual students and their teachers as natural translanguagers and engage them in the development of an approach to teaching and learning centered on translanguaging. The six case studies are varied by age group, type of students, subjects, programs, and teachers. Each endeavor of adopting translanguaging approach in classrooms, with their own merits and drawbacks, suggests promising avenues to implement translanguaging as pedagogy for emergent bilinguals. Table 2. A Brief Overview of the Six Case Studies Source: García & Kleyn (2016) The Current Landscape of Translanguaging in Practice The translanguaging approach, which starts where the student is and builds on what the student brings, engages the complete repertoire of emergent bilinguals and develops bilingualism through interaction with others and texts with multiple language features, while also showing them how to perform according to the social norms of using languages. In the following section, the current findings will be presented according to different content areas: English language arts, social studies, and science. Translanguaging in English Language Arts There are three case studies in this category (Ebe, 2016; Kleyn, 2016; Seltzer & Collins, 2016); they share similar translanguaging pedagogical strategies though they differ in grade levels and classroom contexts. All of the case studies utilize translanguaging as a scaffold in a variety of forms to engage students’ interaction with the new vocabulary, concepts, and directions.
In addition, the three teachers chose culturally relevant texts that resonate with students’ background purposefully. For example, Ms. Chapman-Santiago selected a poem from a novel about a young girl who leaves Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and comes to the United States, and the poem itself adopted translanguaging as a literacy device (the author used Vietnamese words in certain places). Likewise, Ms. Angeles chose three poems about immigrant students’ school life. As students read the texts, they made strong connections between the narrators and people they knew—their families, friends, and classmates. Having so much to say pushed students to use all of their linguistic resources to “talk back” to the poems and make their ideas understood to one another. The use of culturally relevant texts not only enhances students’ active participation, comprehension, and proficiency, but also it goes beyond scaffolding—it is a way of releasing their voices and enabling them to bring their whole selves into the classroom (García & Leiva, 2014). In the case studies, students engaged in translanguaging in both intra- and interpersonal ways to express their emotions (e.g., feelings of anger and frustration) and connect with and support their peers. Through establishing the network of supportive peers, students developed a sense of belonging and membership in the social order of the school (Johnson, Crosnoe, & Elder, 2001). All of the three classrooms cultivated translanguaging as the discursive norm of the students in the class. For the two transitional bilingual education program cases, the fluidity of translanguaging provided a safe haven for all languages instead of policed language zones. The freedom students were offered to bring in their language practices and to use their bilingual voices opened up spaces for learning both content and languages. For the mainstream classroom, the class became comfortable with hearing a variety of languages during sessions in which students developed empathy for others, and a linguistically inclusive classroom environment was formed. Moreover, the monolingual teacher, Ms. Chapman-Santiago, stressed that a teacher in a translanguaging classroom need not be bilingual. Instead, they must be colearners, discovering and learning from their students. In that way, bilingual students are empowered. Overall, here are some recommendations for ELA teachers:
Translanguaging in Social Studies There are two cases in this category. The topics students learn about in social studies lend themselves to connection to cultures and languages. In Woodley’s (2016) case, the teacher, Mr. Brown, introduced upper elementary school children in a mainstream class to slavery in the United States, whereas in the case of Collins and Cioè-Peña (2016), the teachers, Mr. Vásquez and Ms. Arias, had middle schoolers in their transitional bilingual education program explore the Declaration of Independence. Both topics require in-depth understanding of the history of the United States, which posed challenges especially for students who have been part of an education system in a different country, where they were exposed to different histories and perspectives. The teachers in both cases allowed the students to make cross-cultural connections through using translanguaging in class. For instance, Mr. Brown gave space for bilingual students to make connections to oppression that occurs in their home country, while Mr. Vásquez and Ms. Arias let students make connections to key documents and laws in their countries of origin. The significance of translanguaging lies in that, “translanguaging is both the reflective mirror bringing students’ worlds into the classroom and a window into new perspectives and multilingual/multicultural awareness” (García & Kleyn, 2016, p. 95). Additionally, the inclusion of multilingual/multimodal resources really expanded students’ learning capacity. In Collins’s and Cioè-Peña’s (2016) case, the teachers used a BrainPop video, first shown in English and then in Spanish, to contextualize the work around the Declaration of Independence. The students were also shown a painting depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as well as a picture of the original document to differentiate primary and secondary sources of information. By using multilingual/multimodal texts, the teacher was able to give students multiple points of access for them to participate and engage with the content, the materials, and their peers. Meanwhile, the use of multilingual, multimodal texts facilitated students’ abilities to work collaboratively in multiple languages. In summary, here are some recommendations for social studies teachers:
Translanguaging in Science Research of translanguaging as pedagogy in science and math classrooms is scarce. Among the six case studies, there is only one specifically addressing science. The case study of Espinosa and Herrera (2016) depicted a middle school science classroom (a dual language bilingual education program) where students are learning about different states of matter. It uncovered how students and their teacher utilize their bilingual resources in a minoritized language-medium classroom where Spanish is the language of instruction (instead of the usual English-language majority classroom). The teacher, Ms. Montoya, employed translanguaging to invite her students to speak and write in the language of their choice. First, she asked students to identify cognates and false cognates of key words/terminology of that science lesson. She gave the students space to use their entire language repertoire to construct meaning and scientific concepts. Also, she provided support through multimodal translanguaging and hands-on experiments with realia, gestures, and actions to maximize meaning. Finally, she used teacher translanguaging to confirm, restate, and build on what students say, positioning the students as scientists. For Ms. Montoya, translanguaging is not only an approach to support students whose English practices are emerging, but also those who are reclaiming a minoritized language. Conclusions Through reviewing current practices of applying translanguaging as pedagogy across content areas in different types of classrooms, several common themes have emerged:
However, the implementation of translanguaging as pedagogy in content-area classrooms still faces challenges: (1) In mainstream classrooms, it is important to consider how to include monolingual students or empower monolingual teachers/administrators, monolingual peers, or students who are at the early stages of bilingual development. Students with no or limited bilingualism may feel uncomfortable during a lesson that includes translanguaging. (2) Administrative support and leadership at the school level (or higher) is instrumental in developing a sense of purpose, maintaining a spirit of unity, and achieving the translanguaging goals. “Translanguaging practices are often constrained by the socioeducational and sociopolitical circumstances in which schools operate” (García & Kleyn, 2016, p. 2). Garcia and Sylvan (2011) suggest that translanguaging best operates in a context where seven principles are engaged: celebrated heterogeneity in language, collaboration among teachers and students, learner-centered classrooms, language and content integration, inclusive plurilingual use from students, experiential learning, and local autonomy and responsibility. Lastly, given the body of work in this field is still inadequate, especially empirical studies, some future research directions are provided here: (1) translanguaging as pedagogy in mathematics classrooms; (2) translanguaging as pedagogy in other educational contexts, such as higher education institutions; (3) the role of the teacher’s background in adopting translanguaging as pedagogy in instructional practices; (4) the effect on students’ achievement outcomes; (5) large-scale studies other than ethnographic case studies. Translanguaging is more than responsive or relevant to the cultural experiences and multilingual practices of emergent bilinguals. As Paris (2012) indicated, it is a linguistically sustaining pedagogy, which “supports young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence” (p. 95), and it seeks to “perpetuate and foster – to sustain – linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling” (p. 95). References August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in second language learners: Report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Baird, A. S. (2015). Dual language learners reader post #2: Who are dual language learners? EdCentral. Retrieved from http://www.edcentral.org/dllreader2/ Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (3rd ed.). Clevedon, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. Capps, R., Fix, M., Murray, J., Ost, J., Passel, J. S., & Hewantoro, S. (2005). The new demography of America’s schools: Immigration and the No Child Left Behind Act. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID_311230 Collins, B. A. (2014). Dual language development of Latino children: Effect of instruction program type and the home and school language use. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(3), 389–397. Collins, B. A., & Cioè-Peña, M. (2016). Declaring freedom: Translanguaging in the social studies classroom to understand complex texts. In O. García & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 118–139). New York, NY: Routledge. Ebe, A. E. (2016). Student voices shining through: Exploring translanguaging as a literary device. In O. García & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 57–82). New York, NY: Routledge. Escamilla, K. (2006). Monolingual assessment and emerging bilinguals: A case study in the US. In O. García, T. Skutnabb-Kangas, & M. E. Torres-Guzman (Eds.), Imagining multilingual schools: Languages in education and glocalization (pp. 184–199). Cleveland, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. Espinosa, C. M., & Herrera, L. Y. (2016). Reclaiming bilingualism: Translanguaging in a science class. In O. García & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 160–177). New York, NY: Routledge. García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Oxford, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. García, O., Johnson, J., & Seltzer, K. (2016). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon. García, O., & Kleyn, T. (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. New York, NY: Routledge. García, O., & Leiva, C. (2014). Theorizing and enacting translanguaging for social justice. In A. Creese & A. Blackledge (Eds.), Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy (pp. 199–216). New York, NY: Springer. García, O., & Sylvan, C.E. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Journal, 95, 385–400. Grantmakers for Education, Educating English Language Learners (Portland, OR: Grantmakers for Education, 2013). Accessed online: https://edfunders.org/sites/default/files/Educating%20English%20Language%20Learners_April%202013.pdf Hornberger, N. H. (2006). Nichols to NCLB: Local and global perspectives on US language education policy. In O. García, T. Skutnabb-Kangas, & M.E. Torres-Guzman (Eds.), Imagining multilingual schools: Languages in education and glocalization (pp. 223–237). Cleveland, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. Johnson, K. M., Crosnoe, R., & Elder, G. H. J. (2001). Students’ attachment and academic engagement: The role of race and ethnicity. Sociology of Education, 74(4), 318–340. Kleyn, T. (2016). The Grupito Flexes Their Listening and Learning Muscles. In O. García & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 100–117). New York, NY: Routledge. Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281–307. Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. Rolstad, K., Mahoney, K., & Glass, G. V. (2005). The big picture: A meta-analysis of program effectiveness research on English language learners. Educational Policy, 19(4), 572–594. Seltzer, K., & Collins, B. A. (2016). Navigating Turbulent Waters: Translanguaging to Support Academic and Socioemotional Well-Being. In O. García, & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 140–159). New York, NY: Routledge. Williams, C. (1996). Secondary education: Teaching in the bilingual situation. In C. Williams, G. Lewis, & C. Baker (Eds.), The language policy: Taking stock (pp. 39–78). Llangefni, United Kingdom: CAI. Williams, C. (2002). Ennill iaith: Astudiaeth o sefyllfa drochi yn 11–16 oed [A language gained: A study of language immersion at 11–16 years of age]. Bangor, United Kingdom: School of Education. Retrieved from http://www.bangor.ac.uk/addysg/publications/Ennill_Iaith.pdf Woodley, H. H. (2016). Balancing Windows and Mirrors: Translanguaging in a Linguistically Diverse Classroom. In O. García, & T. Kleyn (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments (pp. 83–99). New York, NY: Routledge. 1The four potential educational advantages are: (1) it may promote a deeper and fuller understanding of the subject matter, (2) it may help the development of the weaker language, (3) it may facilitate home-school links and cooperation, (4) it may help the integration of fluent speakers with early learners (Baker, 2001). 2This project funded by the New York State Education Department argues that for schools to be successful at meeting the needs of emergent bilingual students, schools must develop ecologies of bilingualism that build on the home language practices of their students. (See a full description including their vision, principles, participating schools at www.cuny-nysieb.org) Zhongfeng Tian is a doctoral student majoring in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in language, literacy, and cuulture at Boston College. He is a bilingual speaker of Mandarin and English. He earned his master’s degree in TESOL at Boston University. His main research interests are translanguaging, bilingualism, and language and literacy development. |
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