B-MEIS Newsletter - December 2019 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
•  LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
ARTICLES
•  THE MYTH OF "BALANCED BILINGUALISM" AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS
•  TESTING THE WATERS OF TRANSLANGUAGING
•  INTEGRATING A TRANSLINGUAL APPROACH INTO THE WRITING PEDAGOGY FOR MULTILINGUAL STUDENTS THROUGH TEACHER FEEDBACK
•  PROMOTING INTERCULTURAL LISTENING SKILLS IN A MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOM
•  CONFISSOES DE UMA MAMAE BILINGUE: THREE LESSONS I LEARNED FROM MY BILINGUAL CHILDREN DURING A TRIP TO BRAZIL
•  BE THE OUTLIER
•  PLURILINGUAL PEDAGOGIES ACROSS THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM: FOUR CASE STUDIES
ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY
• 
•  CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

LEADERSHIP UPDATES

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Alsu Gilmetdinova, Kazan National Research Technical University, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia

Dear Members of B-MEIS:

BMEIS is a flagship newsletter whose goal is to offer researcher's and practitioner's accounts on a variety of current topics about multilingual education across the globe. The present newsletter offers a diverse account of manuscripts that highlight translanguaging pedagogies, translingual writing feedback, personal accounts of teachers, their family members and their colleagues, as they navigate the complex realm of being, living and teaching multilingually.

Lisa Sinnerton from Istanbul offers a brief and useful account of translanguaging, its definition and application in her classroom. She shares several classroom examples about how translanguaging helps to see her students as immense resources of knowledge and experience that can be tapped in the classroom for the benefit of children. In the next manuscript four professors from CUNY, Mercè Pujol-Ferran, Jacqueline M. DiSanto, Nelsón Núñez Rodríguez, and Angel Morales, continue this topic and investigate plurilingual pedagogies across the college curriculum, in science, humanities, education, and linguistics courses. Using cases from several courses, the authors demonstrate how plurilingual instructional practices increase students’ confidence, make academic content and language accessible to students, and encourage students, especially minority students, to stay enrolled.

When talking about multilingualism, input is crucial. As such, the ability to listen and consciously develop listening skills can tremendously facilitate interaction in any multilingual environment. Sharon Tjaden-Glass from Sinclair Community College and Jennifer A. Lacroix from Boston University offer an interesting account of how to develop intercultural listening skills and showcase several strategies that can be used for that in the multilingual classroom. Besides listening, typically, writing skills require more attention in the classroom, especially among multilingual learners. Xin Chen from Indiana University presents a translingual approach in providing effective feedback to multilingual writers. Such feedback gives students more confidence and allows them to reflect upon their use of multilingual resources, which on the one hand may deviate from the mainstream, while on the other hand, offer a unique contribution to their writing.

The next three manuscripts offer reflections on what it means to be a multilingual teacher, professor, parent. Gabriella Solano shares her story as a bilingual teacher who is continuously developing professionally and learning about herself as a multilingual individual. She proudly voices that being different, being multilingual is a strength and the discoveries that come in her journey really worth living and teaching. Rebekka Eckhaus from Tokyo working in the context of English as a foreign language raises a similar question of what it means to be a balanced bilingual, what are implications of this myth for teaching and for multilingual teachers and administrators. Last, but not least important contribution is the story of Clara Vaz Bauler and her trip to Brazil with her children. Her reflections about fluency, accent and the concept of multilingualism are as emotionally alluring as they are enriching pedagogically and personally anybody who grew up or raises multilingual children.

We invite all readers to plunge safely into these rich accounts of our fellow teachers, colleagues, parents, multilingual individuals who help us appreciate the depth, value and strength of multilingual education and promote it among a wider audience worldwide.

Yours truly,

Alsu Gilmetdinova, PhD

Chair, B-MEIS, 2019–2020