Translanguaging for Belonging: Newcomer Immigrant Adolescent Experiences in High School

• In Event: Language Identity, Interpretation, and Postcolonial Approaches to Language Teaching

Abstract

Recently arriving to U.S. schools, immigrant adolescents in a large, urban high school shared perspectives on their experiences in this descriptive, single-site case study. Through interviews, this study examined how language was used for belonging during a socio-political climate of xenophobia, racist rhetoric, and immigration uncertainties. Utilizing sociocultural theory and Allen and Kern’s (2017) belonging framework to understand the distinctive newcomer experience in high school, this portion of a larger research study highlighted how language, and translanguaging (García, 2009; Wei, 2018) specifically, was used to bind together a newcomer’s experience to support, or dismantle, feelings of belonging, connection, value, and acceptance. Implications from newcomers result for how language use fosters a sense of belonging for newcomers.

Author

• Kristen McInerney, RTI International
  Presenting Author