Idiolect and Identity: Fourth-Grade Students' Translanguaging, Comprehension, and Self-Identity

• In Event: Linguistic Mediation, Language Attitudes, and Learning in Bilingual Classrooms

Abstract

Translanguaging offers emergent bilinguals the opportunity to access their full linguistic repertoire. This qualitative study uses dynamic bilingualism and idiolect to explore emergent bilinguals’ translanguaging and reading comprehension strategies during a reading think-aloud, and the ways that language factors into the construction of self-identity. Data collected from a think-aloud show that the students who participated in this study used language flexibly when reading and comprehending the texts that were presented in both Spanish and English. The participants, in follow-up interviews, also explained ways they use translanguaging strategies when communicating with different audiences and how their identity as bilinguals positions them as mediators of their own language use. These findings illustrate that when translanguaging is used, students develop positive self-identities.

Authors

• Stephanie Renee Eller, Northern Illinois University

• David Nieto, Northern Illinois University