Older Adult English Learners From Refugee Backgrounds Challenging the "Illiteracy" Myth Through Translanguaging Practices

• In Event: 63.084 - MTCC Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-4 - Looking Beyond the Surface

Abstract

Older language learners from refugee backgrounds are often inaccurately portrayed as too old to learn, described with deficit labels such as ‘illiterate’ or ‘nonliterate’, and marginalized through instruction that stigmatizes them for speaking their home languages while learning English. Problematizing these deficit narratives and language instruction that fails to recognize students’ existing linguistic resources, this study explores how a translanguaging pedagogy in an ESOL classroom can facilitate both English and home language learning in affirming ways. Findings from this study of older Nepali-Bhutanese adults from refugee backgrounds illustrate how meaning-making and cross-linguistic and metalinguistic awareness emerged for these adults through their use of translanguaging practices while learning English and fostering and sustaining their home language and literacies.

Authors

• Koeun Park, University of Utah

• Veronica E. Valdez, University of Utah