Translanguaging in Multimodal Narratives: A Case From a Diverse Fifth-Grade Classroom

• In Event: Practices Promoting Emergent Bilingual Composing Skills

Abstract

Providing opportunities for multilingual learners (MLLs) to share their stories through multimodal narratives allows them to draw on their entire linguistic repertoire. This can validate students’ funds of knowledge, foster their sense of identity, and promote engagement (e.g., Beck & Stevenson, 2015). Aligning with and supplementing the nascent body of research on translanguaging (e.g., Velasco & Garcia, 2014), this exploratory case study draws on an ecological approach to examine fifth-grade MLLs’ interactions with translanguaging and multimodal narratives. Our analysis highlights how students drew on varied meaning-making resources when composing and how their composing processes appeared to reflect their learning context.

Authors

• Sharon Lynn Smith, University of Miami

• Loren Jones, University of Maryland - College Park