Experiences of Newcomer Elementary Students Speaking Spanish in an English-Medium Classroom Open to Translanguaging

• In Event: Belonging, Positioning, and Personhood in Translanguaging Spaces: Opportunities and Tensions in Classroom Contexts

Abstract

Purpose and Framing
U.S. classrooms increasingly serve students from linguistically diverse backgrounds (NCES, 2023), including newcomer students who enter U.S. schools for the first time. Historically, newcomers have been subject to deficit narratives and positioned as needing English-language intervention (Oikonomidoy, 2019). However, in classrooms that support translanguaging, newcomers are supported to use all their language resources (García, 2009). This paper explores the experiences of newcomers in one such classroom, asking: What interactional functions were enacted through Spanish use by/with newcomers? How did this Spanish use position newcomers and the peers and teachers with whom they interacted? Drawing on translanguaging space (Li Wei, 2011) theory, findings illustrate the interactional potential and challenges of flexible language use with newcomers.

Methods and Data Sources
Data come from a larger qualitative study (Miles et al., 2014) examining second-grade students’ writing interactions in a classroom where the state-mandated language of instruction was English, but where the teacher supported students’ translanguaging. Author1 visited the writing workshop two times per week for a year, collecting video recordings of writing instruction/interactions and photographs of texts. During the fall, there were 17 students in the class, 10 of whom spoke Spanish and English. Between February and April, three newcomers entered the class, all having recently moved from countries where schooling was in Spanish (Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras).
Data analysis first involved reviewing all video recordings to identify every interaction in which a newcomer spoke or was directly spoken to (n = 50). We then analyzed these events, coding (Miles et al., 2014) descriptively for: 1) language(s) used, 2) interlocutors (i.e., peers, teacher), and inductively for: 1) academic functions and 2) social functions of language use. Finally, we grouped events by function and used tools of discourse analysis to analyze how newcomers were interactionally positioned (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), through their language use, in each event.

Results and Significance
Analyses of newcomer interactions show that newcomers and their interlocutors used Spanish to achieve various interactional functions, and that this Spanish use positioned newcomers as learners, experts, and peers. Academic functions of Spanish identified were: 1) giving/clarifying directions, 2) discussing writing content, 3) discussing spelling, and 4) learning language. In interactions where Spanish was used to give/clarify directions or discuss writing content, teachers and peers positioned newcomers as learners needing clarification of class content/activities. Interestingly, this at times positioned Spanish-speaking peers as classroom/language experts helping newcomers. In interactions where Spanish was used to discuss spelling and learn language(s) newcomers at times were positioned as learners, but at other times as experts who taught teachers/peers about Spanish spelling/vocabulary. Social functions of Spanish use identified were: 1) playing and 2) sharing about self. Social functions occurred with other students and positioned newcomers as social peers, building alignment and belonging. Taken together, findings show the complex work enacted through Spanish use in English-medium classrooms, illustrating the potential and challenges of translanguaging spaces for supporting newcomers and their peers.

Authors

• Lindsey W. Rowe, Clemson University

• Katelin Smith, Clemson University