Teachers’ Translanguaging Beliefs and Practice in Science

• In Event: Translanguaging, Multimodality and Affect in School and Community Learning Ecologies

Abstract

Objective
In the face of legislation naming only English as the national language of the United States (Exec. Order No 14224, 2025), efforts that sustain linguistic diversity are critical. Dual-language immersion (DLI) programs support this effort by emphasizing bilingualism and biliteracy through content-area instruction in both English and an additional target language. However, these programs often hold strict language-separation policies that discourage language practices like translanguaging (García, 2009). This paper asks: How do teachers' understandings and practice of translanguaging pedagogy support student engagement in science?

Perspective
We look at teacher’s interviews and practice through the lens of translanguaging to better understand its impact on student engagement in science. Translanguaging is an approach to understanding multilingualism that does away with monoglossic ideas of language and emphasizes a united semiotic repertoire. In education, a translanguaging pedagogy emphasizes using students’ complete semiotic repertoire to create meaning and engage with rigorous instruction (García & Wei, 2015). In science education, translanguaging pedagogy has supported students in engaging with content-specific language and concepts (Poza, 2018)

Methods and Data Sources
This project includes data from interviews with 4 teachers across 2 different Spanish-English DLI programs and video observations from 1 focal teacher’s, Ms. Kay, 5th grade classroom. The interviews were coded to identify themes around the benefits of translanguaging and video episodes were chosen that highlight students’ responses to teachers’ translanguaging.

Findings

Supporting Student Participation
Teacher interviews revealed a theme around translanguaging pedagogy as a way to support student participation in the classroom. Ms. Kay shared that she views translanguaging as "just being able to use all your resources as a learner, to be able to convey your ideas.” Ms. Kay’s practice illustrated this belief in the video observation as she asked her class how astronauts might drink coffee in outer space. The language of instruction was Spanish; however, several student responses were in English (e.g., “a ranch bottle” and “a flat vaso”). By allowing these responses, Ms. Kay gave her students the opportunity to use their complete language repertoires to engage in critical thinking and share creative solutions to a problem. This flexibility also allowed students to engage with an informational text on challenges faced by astronauts in zero gravity.

Supporting Vocabulary
Teacher interviews revealed a theme around the benefit of translanguaging for supporting vocabulary. Ms. Alondra shared that translanguaging “helps to solidify the meaning of the word.” This perspective was instantiated during a video-recorded class discussion in Ms. Kay’s class about the sun’s orbit. Though the language of instruction was Spanish, a student, Julio, used English and a circling gesture as he shared “It goes around”. Rather than ignoring Julio’s response or chastising him for using English, Ms. Kay uses this opportunity to introduce the Spanish word orbitan, which Julio ties to the format of his next utterance (Goodwin 1990), drawing on the teacher’s Spanish grammar.

Scholarly Significance
This work extends the existing body of literature on the benefits of translanguaging by emphasizing the importance of teachers’ commitment to translanguaging pedagogy.

Author

• Margarita Anahi Rodriguez, University of California - Santa Barbara