Funds of Knowledge and Poetry Inside Out

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-6 - Multiliteracies in Action: An Intergenerational Inquiry Into Literacies and Multilingualism Through a Poetry Translation Program

Abstract

In September 2015, the university-based researchers began to work with a new group of youth researchers. This paper is co-authored by five youth researchers (all English language learners) and two university-based researchers, and represents ongoing work around multiliteracies and funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 2001). For their PIO-focused inquiry, the youth decided to focus on what influences urban high school students’ translation decisions. They understood that youth bring their different backgrounds, ideas, and mindsets to classroom literacy activities (e.g., translation), and wanted to surface the linguistic and cultural assets of everyone in the classroom.

Meeting once a week after school, the university-based researchers introduced youth to ethnographic and sociolinguistic data-collection strategies. Youth audio- and video-recorded small-group and whole-class discussions during PIO; asked their classmates to write to specific prompts such as “What helps you make decisions when translating?” and “What do you need to come up with a good translation?”; and conducted semi-structured interviews with their classmates. The youth interviewed eight of their classmates, utilizing different strategies such as shifting between English and Spanish, and writing notes when a classmate expressed discomfort at being audio-recorded.

We collected different types of transcripts from interviews, small-group discussion, and whole-class discussions. As a research team, we analyzed the data we gathered. First, we read through them with our research question in mind, and looked for evidence to help us understand our research question. One of the adults, a university-based researcher, wrote our ideas on the board, and we began to see links between our data and our research question. From these weekly meetings where we discussed our data, we identified a set of resources that high school students use when they translate. We found that high school students draw on the following when they translate poems:
Knowledge of their home language (e.g., Spanish, French)
Knowledge of English
Knowledge of the poet and his/her background and views
Personal experiences and family stories
Knowledge of the world
Emotions (Poet’s and Translators)

In our proposed presentation, we will share our findings, and include rich examples of each finding, highlighting the resources that youth possess and bring to translation. We will also share our ongoing work on linguistic funds of knowledge, which emerged from, and has been informed by PIO research. Following the tradition of funds of knowledge research into Mexican-American households (Moll & Gonzalez, 2001), we are working as language ethnographers, documenting the artifacts and language/literacy practices that exist in, and sustain our homes. Through a language/literacy journal, we have documented our interactions with family members, friends, and teachers, noting register and language shifts. We also interviewed family members to gain deeper insight into our linguistic and cultural funds of knowledge. This proposed presentation draws on funds of knowledge as an organizing construct, and highlights the relationship between funds of knowledge and multiliteracies—as experienced and researched by bilingual youth.

Authors

• Morufat Ayoola Bello, Clark University

• Bryan Feliz, Clark University

• Julisette Padilla, Clark University

• Oumou Cisse, Salem State University

• Angel Toribio