Translingual Caring and Transgression: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Translanguaging in One Multilingual Science Classroom

• In Event: Critical Explorations of Languaging in Dual-Language and Multilingual K–12 Classrooms

Abstract

This study examines the affordances and challenges of translanguaging pedagogy in one U.S. secondary multilingual science classroom. Through a critical discourse analysis of classroom interactions, our analysis shows that the teacher fostered in his classroom a translingual space that affirmed students’ multilingual assets and identities. He enacted translingual supports to make instruction accessible to students, and translingual caring that nurtured a genuinely caring relationship with student. However, our analysis also indicates that in the under life of the classroom and often without the teacher noticing, students engaged in translingual practices such as translingual bantering, translingual exclusion and translingual aggression. This paper calls for centering criticality in translanguaging pedagogy and for developing students’ critical language awareness about translingual language use.

Authors

• Kongji Qin, New York University

• Lorena Llosa, New York University