Creating Affordances for Multilingual Learners as Agents of Sociolinguistic Justice

• In Event: Promoting Equity Through Dialogic Education: New Voices

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes: This paper examines how a university-school partnership program based in principles of sociolinguistic justice, defined as “self-determination for linguistically subordinated individuals and groups in sociopolitical struggles over language,” can create affordances for multilingual learners to dialogically engage with language issues that have direct relevance to their daily lives, both in and out of classrooms (Bucholtz et al., 2014, p. 145). We use ‘multilingual learners’ to refer to students who have been designated as English learners, as the label ‘English learner’ obscures these students’ multilingual expertise. For these students, opportunities to participate in critical discussions are too often withheld until their English proficiency is deemed high enough. However, our work developing and implementing the curriculum a youth research program in secondary English language development (ELD) classrooms demonstrates that multilingual learners can engage in dialogic interactions, conduct research into their language practices, and advocate for sociolinguistic justice by utilizing their multilingual abilities and cultural experiences as anchors to develop inquiry, communication, and language skills.

Theoretical Framework: We draw on Alexander’s (2008) framework to examine how teachers can create dialogic interactions that are intentionally collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative, and purposeful. can support both language and content learning for multilingual learners.

Methods & Data Sources: Our analysis is based on data from three secondary ELD classrooms in which a semester-long sociolinguistic justice curriculum was developed and taught by two of the authors to 9th-12th grade students from diverse first-language backgrounds. We used instructor reflections to identify instances of active student participation and then examined lesson plans, instructional materials, and transcribed excerpts of classroom discussion to determine how planned and interactional scaffolds (Hammond and Gibbons, 2005) created affordances for dialogic interaction. We coded both teacher and student talk for the discursive moves outlined in Gillies (2016) and then examined to what extent these moves supported the qualities of dialogic interaction as conceptualized by Alexander (2008). We further looked for evidence of students expressing critical perspectives either directly in these dialogic interactions or in their final research projects.

Results: We found that by leveraging students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge and supporting dialogic interactions, instructors created affordances for students of varying levels of English language proficiency to critically engage with course content. Additionally, students’ culminating research projects demonstrated how attention to linguistic and sociopolitical development allowed students to move closer to becoming agents of sociolinguistic justice as they documented and/or critiqued language practices, policies, and ideologies at work in their lives.

Scholarly Significance: In this paper we provide concrete examples of how valorizing youth cultural and linguistic knowledge can create affordances for multilingual learners to deepen their understanding of the sociopolitical dimensions of language use. We also document the challenges of this work and address the complexities of conducting research with a vulnerable student population. We conclude with recommendations for teacher reflexivity and for establishing a collaborative culture among researchers, teachers, students, and families that can inform the knowledge base for teaching of multilingual learners.

Authors

• Samantha Harris, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Valerie Meier, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Jin-Sook Lee, University of California - Santa Barbara