Students' Agency in Language Choice: Middle School Students' Responses to Teachers' Translanguaging Stance

• In Event: Centering Multilingual Ideologies and Practices in Disciplinary Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Objective
Research on teachers’ translanguaging practices seldom reports on how students respond when teachers present a translanguaging stance (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017) (but see Allard, 2017; García & Kleyn, 2016; Kiramba & Harris, 2019; Lin & He, 2017; McKinney & Tyler, 2019; Poza, 2018). We explore the ways middle school students respond when invited to use Arabic during social studies inquiry, highlighting students’ agency in initiating and encouraging translanguaging.

Theoretical framework
García et al.’s (2017) concept of translanguaging corriente, “the current or flow of students’ dynamic bilingualism that runs through our classrooms and schools” (p. 21) has implications for establishing contexts where teachers welcome other languages and encourage students’ full linguistic repertoires as resources for learning (García & Kleyn, 2016; García & Li Wei, 2014). We draw on this perspective and social semiotic theories of learning (Halliday, 1978; Pinnow, 2011) that position learners as agentive in making language choices.

Methods
In a multi-year project to support inquiry in middle school classrooms where many students speak Arabic, we encouraged teachers to take a translanguaging stance and invite students to use Arabic as they engaged with complex sources to respond to compelling questions. Teachers were learning to teach an inquiry curriculum enhanced with Arabic translations and other learning supports. We videotaped classroom sessions and transcribed interactions where Arabic was used. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics perspectives on classroom discourse (e.g., Christie, 2002), we used notions of register to identify the ways students interacted in the two languages, grouping Arabic usage according to the roles students took and the goals of the interactions.

Data sources
We analyzed fourteen 45-53 minute class sessions video-recorded during two 7-8 day investigations taught by two teachers who did not speak Arabic, but had Arabic paraprofessionals assist some sessions. Microphones captured group interaction as students developed background, read sources to identify evidence, and weighed evidence across sources to develop written arguments. We interviewed teachers for their perspectives on this teaching context.

Results
Students who were invited to use Arabic were agentive in 1) initiating requests for help for themselves and their peers; 2) using Arabic to offer peers help; 3) exploring new content in Arabic; and 4) moving between Arabic and English as they worked with challenging content.

We encountered challenges: 1) Students spoke many Arabic dialects and often had to clarify meanings. 2) Many students with fluent spoken Arabic did not read or write in Arabic. While students reading Arabic materials aloud was a helpful support, it was challenging to sustain talk in Arabic. 3) Teachers who did not understand Arabic could not easily support students.

We discuss the implications of these findings.

Significance of the study
As we study translanguaging, it is important that the voices of students are foregrounded. This study contributes to understanding how students respond to the invitation to use a language other than English; noteworthy is the agentiveness of students in moving between languages.

Authors

• Sally AL-Banna, University of Michigan

• Mina Hernandez Garcia, University of Michigan

• Chauncey Monte-Sano, University of Michigan

• Mary J. Schleppegrell, University of Michigan