Translanguaging and Meaning-Making Practices of Arabic-Speaking Students During STEM Activities: The Dynamics Between Modern Standard Arabic and Spoken Arabic

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Language, Ideology, and Power in STEM Education (Table 9)

Abstract

This paper describes how Palestinian Arabic-speaking learners enact translanguaging as a meaning-making practice during their transdisciplinary STEM activities in a context of a community-based science program. We focus on how these practices emerge when discussing activities and how they afford new possibilities for making sense of concepts. The analysis focuses on moments of transition between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Spoken Arabic. Through three cases from the study setting: meaning making of doing no harm during an interview, discussion during a hands-on activity that tackled diffusion phenomenon, and a student meaning-making of an ultraviolet light during a classroom discussion. We show translanguaging extends to considering transitioning within the same language, social communication norms and embodied behavior.

Authors

• Areej Mawasi, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

• Muzna Awayed-Bishara, Tel Aviv University