“I Want to Stay, Please”: Academic and Social Functions of Translanguaging in an ESL (English as a Second Language) Classroom

• In Event: Translanguaging Practices: Supporting Bilingual and Multilingual Students' Literacy Engagement

Abstract

Building on studies exploring academic and sociopolitical aspects of translanguaging (Babino & Stewart, 2020; Poza, 2017), we used ethnographic and discourse analytic methods to examine the academic and social (García, 2009; García & Kleifgen, 2020) functions of translanguaging in ESL lessons with two newcomer students. We found the social and academic functions of translanguaging worked together to foster bilingual language development, togetherness in learning, and re-position the newcomers as competent learners in contrast to common deficit perspectives of emergent bilinguals. These findings illustrate how ESL teachers and their students can leverage the multifunctionality of translanguaging to meet and exceed ESL language goals in ways that foster students’ bilingual/biliteracy development, affirm their bilingual/biliterate identities, and re-position them as biliterate, capable learners.

Authors

• Jessica Somerville-Braun, Skidmore College

• Lindsey W. Rowe, Clemson University

• Faythe Beauchemin, Boston College