Singletons and Survivors: Translanguaging and Affect in Almost-Bilingual Classrooms

• In Event: Collaboration for Transformation: Critical, Community-Led Action Research in Language Education Policy

Abstract

This study explores the affective impacts of teachers’ language practices in almost-bilingual classrooms, in which most, but not all, students share a home language. Teachers who are bilingual face a dilemma in these settings. Should they draw on shared linguistic expertise to benefit the majority while excluding a few or forego significant benefits for most in the interest of equity? This collaborative ethnography of language policy (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007) examines the classroom language policies and practices of the second author, an English-as-a second-language (ESL) teacher at a majority-Latino high school in Philadelphia. Drawing on ethnographic field notes, interviews, teaching materials, and systematic reflection, the authors work “side by side” (Erickson, 2006) to unpack the socio-emotional impacts of teachers’ language practices for Spanish-speaking students and singletons—students with no same-language peers (Garcia, Flores, & Chu, 2011; Authors, 2019).

Translanguaging pedagogies, in which teachers structure opportunities for students to
draw freely on their full linguistic repertoires (Garcia, 2009; Garcia & Kleyn, 2016), promise not only academic benefits, but socio- emotional rewards as well. Because language is inextricably tied to identity and affect (Norton, 2000), legitimizing minoritized language practices in official school spaces can transform relationships between students, teachers, and the curriculum, teachers’ perspectives on students, and even students’ views of themselves (Bucholtz, Casillas, & Lee, 2017; García, Flores, & Woodley, 2012; Garcia & Leiva, 2014; Gort & Sembiante, 2014). As part of a culturally-relevant pedagogy, translanguaging allows students to express themselves more freely (Carroll & Morales, 2016), to feel safe and persist longer academically (Bartlett & Garcia, 2011) and to navigate socio-emotional challenges (Seltzer & Collins, 2016). However, the field is just beginning to tease apart how translanguaging functions with other aspects of school and community ecologies to facilitate student well-being and achievement (Author, 2017; Hornberger & Link, 2012).

This paper contributes to emerging understandings of how translanguaging operates in complex multilingual settings. While many immigrant communities in the U.S. are home to single ethnic groups, increasingly Latin American, African, and Asian immigrants inhabit the same neighborhoods and find themselves in the same ESOL classrooms (Garcia, Flores, & Chu, 2011). Such diversity poses difficult questions around educational language policies in locations where one ethnolinguistic group far outnumbers others, especially for teachers who know the majority home language (Authors, 2019). Sharing recent findings from an ongoing study of almost-bilingual classrooms, the authors discuss the complex impacts of pedagogical translanguaging on student affect. Teachers’ flexible use of Spanish and English serves as a life-line for many Spanish speakers, especially for Central American students coping with immigration-related trauma. Some singletons even find the frequent use of Spanish novel and motivating and enjoy social rewards for their incidental Spanish acquisition. Conversely, others feel alienated and excluded, and some Spanish speakers blame bilingual teaching practices for slowing their English learning. Author 2 reflects on these tensions and provides examples of how she has transformed her teaching materials and classroom language policies accordingly. The paper thus illuminates challenges and offers possibilities for meeting the diverse and sometimes-conflicting needs of students in complex multilingual classrooms.

Author

• Elaine Cristina Allard, Swarthmore College