Linguistic Play Discourse Analysis: How Playful Translanguaging Emerged From a Series of "Toot"-Worthy Episodes

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

Abstract

Have you ever heard a word that sounded silly? Or perhaps learned how to say a taboo or humorous word in another language? These commonly experienced moments in everyday life may be overlooked opportunities for rich affective and academic development, especially in spaces with multilingual learners. This paper utilizes the experiential and affective qualities found within qualitative data collected in 5th grade multilingual classrooms to establish a conception of playful translanguaging, highlight the nuance it adds to translanguaging, and thus affirm its scholarly contribution to the field of language education. Three connected episodes during a lesson utilizing a translanguaging curriculum were selected for analysis because the teacher’s pronunciation spurred a linguistically unexpected and playful interaction worthy of further investigation.

Authors

• Rachel M. Siegman, Vanderbilt University

• Emily Phillips Galloway, Vanderbilt University