Performative Translanguaging in a Monolithic Classroom: Decolonizing and Liberating Language Practices of Linguistically Minoritized Children

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Mirrors, Windows, Sliding Glass Doors: Critical Approaches in ECE (Early Childhood Education) to Counter-Stories, Language, and Literature (Table 14)

Abstract

In this paper, I examine two young immigrant and emergent bilingual children’s paper bag play with translanguaging practices in a monolithic classroom. Drawing upon translanguaging theory with a posthumanists lens, I discuss 1) how the linguistically minoritized children’s translanguaging practices are intertwined with other modes of communication and materials and 2) how the unbounded dynamic of translanguaging facilitates semiotic and material flows in performative ways and reconfigures power dynamics in the classroom. This study provides insights into the possibilities of translanguaging as decolonizing approach and liberating action for emergent bilingual children.

Author

• Yeojoo Yoon, California State University, Chico