Co-Learning in the High School English Class Through Translanguaging: Emergent Bilingual Newcomers and Monolingual Teachers

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Analyzing Translanguaging in Different Contexts

Abstract

There is a growing chasm between the instruction of secondary emergent bilinguals (EBs) and research illustrating the benefits of adolescent EBs using translanguaging practices for academic engagement and gains. This qualitative study employs a formative experiment to investigate the resources monolingual teachers use to enact a translanguaging classroom with high school EBs and their response to these practices. Findings indicate the primary resource the teachers used in their translanguaging pedagogy were the students themselves and suggest that teachers’ willingness to participate as co-learners with adolescent EBs is crucial. Observed tensions regarding student translators, technology, and newcomers’ desire to learn the L2 further indicate that students’ voices should be central in the discussion regarding translanguaging in the high school English-medium classroom.

Authors

• Mary Amanda Stewart, Texas Woman's University

• SriPadmini Chennapragada, Texas Woman's University

• Tamra Dollar, Texas Woman's University

• Patricia Flint, Texas Woman's University

• Holly H. Hansen-Thomas, Texas Woman's University

• Carolyn Hardin, Texas Woman's University

• Liliana Grosso Richins, Texas Woman's University