Latinx Middle School Students' Use of Translanguaging to Support Learning of Computer Programming and Mathematics

• In Event: Translanguaging and Disciplinary Literacies

Abstract

Objectives. This paper expands on how two middle school students enacted translanguaging practices during the process of teaching and learning computer programming and mathematics as co-facilitators in after and in-school settings. This exploration is also analyzed in relation to their evolving language identity.
Theoretical framework. Drawing from García and Wei (2014), our view on translanguaging breaks traditional boundaries by describing the languaging practices of bilinguals to imagine new ways of being and acting in the world. Translanguaging involves the dynamic use of languages in an academic context and multilingual perspectives on languaging, unifies languages and knowledge in the learner, and brings into the open discursive exchanges among people in ways that recognize their values of languaging (García & Leiva, 2014, p. 207). Translanguaging is a set of practices that include using both languages in the discussion of scientific content, reading text, and talking (Mazak & Herbas-Donoso, 2015). Finally, we acknowledge the importance of translanguaging practices to support deeper understanding of academic content, the development of a new language as well as the need to enrich the first language, and the integration of fluent speakers with early learners (Baker & Wright, 2017).

Methods and data. Through the [blinded] project, an afterschool program, middle school students were introduced to foundations of computer programming and the associated mathematics using image and video processing. Working in small groups with an undergraduate student facilitator, who had mostly computer engineering background, Latinx students collaborated to develop projects. In addition, when middle school students had the opportunity to become co-facilitators through the project, they taught concepts learned in the after-school program to their classmates in an eighth-grade classroom. Data sources included two co-facilitators’ videotaped interactions from 12 one-hour-and-15-minute sessions, reflections of their work with small groups after each session, a one-hour videotaped session of their teaching in the eighth-grade classroom, and a one-hour focus group interview.
A qualitative analysis of these data involved identifying and selecting episodes with simultaneous use of Spanish and English as well as ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ registers related to mathematics and computer programming. Categorization of episodes was based on the purpose of languaging modes—writing, speaking, listening, and reading—including multimodal representations such as designing projects and coding.

Results and significance. Preliminary findings indicate that co-facilitators’ use of translanguaging practices supported meaning making processes of language, computer programming, and mathematics, as well as development of registers, problem solving and design, and mediation of tensions in social interactions among group members. These findings are presented within the context of middle school students being positioned simultaneously as learners and experts. The presenters will use video clips to illustrate how the two co-facilitators used translanguaging to support the teaching and learning of foundations of computer programming and mathematics.
This study advances our understanding of how Latinx middle school students take up translanguaging practices to learn and teach computer programming and its associated mathematics. The significance of this study is the interdisciplinary lens offered as well as the contributions to the fields of STEM and bilingual education.

Authors

• Carlos Alfonso LopezLeiva, University of New Mexico

• Sylvia Celedon-Pattichis, The University of Texas at Austin

• Marios S. Pattichis, University of New Mexico