Exploring the Bilingual Journeys of Three Children through Translanguaging Practices in a Heritage Language Classroom

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Culture and Sustaining Language

Abstract

This study examines how three Korean American children navigated their bilingual journeys through translanguaging in a Korean heritage language classroom in the southeastern United States. Using classroom video recordings, student work, and parent interviews, the study explores how each child employed their full linguistic repertoires across oral and written modes to participate, make meaning, and express identity. Findings show that translanguaging served distinct purposes: bilingual self-talk supported metacognition and self-regulation; flexible language use repaired communication breakdowns; and writing served as a translanguaging space. These cases highlight translanguaging as a dynamic, individualized practice shaped by linguistic backgrounds, communicative goals, and modality preferences. The study underscores the value of pedagogies embracing multilingual children’s diverse meaning-making to support cognitive, linguistic, and emotional growth.

Author

• Kyungjin Hwang, University of South Carolina