Mobilizing Community Resources for Literacy Development: New Pedagogies for New Times

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-4 - Everyday Practices in Transcultural and Translingual Communities: Connections to School

Abstract

Objective: This research asks: How do middle school students (with a high percentage of English language learners) engage with curriculum aimed to validate their home languages and affirm their identities, specifically through the use of dual language books (DLB)?
 
Theoretical Perspective: A number of studies have examined how young people’s use of language and engagement with texts are related to their social and cultural connections to people and practices across countries (Tetrault 2009; Bruna 2007; Rubinstein-Avila 2007). Many have argued that transcultural pedagogies and literacy development should involve multilingual and multicultural approaches, to enable teachers to build on learners’ “funds of knowledge” (González, N. et al. 2005).  Specific linguistic and textual policies and practices provide ways for young people to explore and incorporate various aspects of their lives across cultural and geographical borders. When students are able to draw on multilingual repertoires and dual frames of reference, they can make meaning out of their experiences of migration, transnationalism, and literacy practices in creative and subversive ways.
 
Methods and data sources: This one year qualitative action research study with middle school students focused on two Grade 5 and two Grade 7 classrooms with approximately 100 students and their two teachers. It included all students (male/female, English native speakers, English language learners, students with special learning needs) as the teachers and researcher saw as relevant to all, the potential benefits of learning cross-cultural, linguistic and metalinguistic awareness. The study examined three-times weekly readings of Dual Language books (English-Urdu, English-Tagalog and English-Spanish) followed by discussion among teachers, guest readers and students. Each reading session lasted approximately 30 minutes. Predetermined (by teachers and the researcher) linguistic questions and prompts, as well as student questions and comments guided the discussion.Data collection included video recordings of all reading and discussion sessions, of debrief sessions; scanned versions of student artifacts including student language portfolios and student written DLBs; and questionnaires.
 
Results
Results demonstrate examples of authentic integration of ELL and mainstream learning. Students produced bilingual/ trilingual stories at the end of the project and expressed an interest in intercultural awareness. The process also allowed alternative entry points toward curricular objectives. I argue that DLBs represent multiple entry points for an inclusive classroom. For example: you may use a DLB to talk about challenges of immigrating to a new country; specifically language barriers but also culture shock. All students received experiential language learning, lower academic students discussed cultures and identity orally, and ELL students felt included when their language was used. Monolingual students expressed an interest and curiosity towards the languages used in the program. Results illustrate the benefits for the participants of this kind of two-way engagement and can serve as a model for individual teachers who are looking for ways to increase community involvement, student engagement and language awareness. This mobilizes parents’, and thus students’ funds of knowledge by expanding the educational space to include multiple languages and cultures, and (d) creates ongoing interactional spaces that are empowering and identity-affirming for parents, students, and teachers.

Author

• Rahat Naqvi, University of Calgary