Unraveling the Positioning, Problematizing, and Pathologizing of Emergent Bilingual Youth in Schools

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Emergent bilinguals at the secondary level are the fastest growing student population in the U.S. (García & Cuellar, 2006). This session seeks to deepen and complicate our understandings of this population through empirical research about specific sub-groups (i.e., latecomers, recent-arrivals, ‘SIFE,’ and ‘long-term ELLs’) to identify how they make meaning of their experiences learning languages and living within and across cultures. We contrast our findings to common (mis)perceptions of these students in the literature and by educators. We look across geographic areas, ethnic and linguistic groups to uncover the ways emergent bilinguals experience schooling through the lens of programming, the discourse of partiality, their embracing of confianza, and their participation in a transnational and transcultural community of practice.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Adolescence and Youth Development

Chair

• Nancy H. Hornberger, University of Pennsylvania

Papers

• Emergent Bilingual Youth in the United States - Kate Menken, Queens College and Graduate Center, City University of New York

• Latecomers in the ESL Classroom - Elaine Cristina Allard, Swarthmore College

• Immigrant Youths’ Repertoires of Practice in the Transcultural Mainstream - Christine Brigid Malsbary, Vassar College

• Challenging Deficit Perspectives of “Long-Term English Language Learners” - Nelson Flores, University of Pennsylvania; Tatyana Kleyn, City College of New York - CUNY