Emergent Bilinguals' Written Translanguaging Practices in a Heritage Language Classroom

• In Event: 79.051 - MTCC Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: 79.051-11 - Fostering Heritage Languages Across Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate first- and third-grade emergent Korean bilingual students’ written translanguaging use in a Korean heritage classroom. The study investigates the following questions: (1) How do Korean bilingual students utilize their language and linguistic resources from both Korean and English as they engaged in writing? (2) What are the functions of translanguaging by those bilingual students in their written responses? The findings show that young emergent bilinguals utilize their linguistic resources in both their languages by using translanguaging, and their translanguaging demonstrate their sociolinguistic competence, metalinguistic awareness, metacognitive insight, and sociocultural understanding. The findings suggest that providing spaces for translanguaging can encourage bilingual students’ class participation and further promote their literacy learning and development.

Author

• Chaehyun Lee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign