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BILINGUALISM AND TRANSLANGUAGING IN BILINGUAL EDUCATION
Ofelia Garcí[email protected]
April 29, 2016
Focusing Question
What is preventing us as US bilingual educators from delivering the success that we’re so capable of?
A monoglossic ideology about bilingualism that does not recognize bilingual students’ unitary language system, their translanguaging.
Overview
I. BE – Beginnings in modern timesII. Changes in the world/word and where is US
BE todayIII. Focus on the nature of linguistic capacity &
practices of bilinguals. TranslanguagingIV. Translanguaging and BE•
I. Bilingual Education:The 1960s, Civil Rights & the Ethnic Revival
Strengthening education of Latinos & Native Americans
• Developmental/maintenance BE programs
• Transitional BE programs
• Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: The Bilingual Education Act (1968)
• Lau v. Nichols, (1974)
[Canadian Immersion programs & Immersion revitalization programs]
Theory of languageLanguages (and cultures) as autonomous bounded concepts
• Norms of idealized “native speaker”• Acquisition of a “second” language
Theory of bilingualism
• Subtractive bilingualism for “others”• (L1 + L2) – L1 = L2
• Additive bilingualism for those who belong• L1 + L2 = L1 + L2
Wallace Lambert, 1974Canadian Immersion programs
Ideologies about bilingualism: Monoglossic
Balanced Bilingualism Two monolinguals in one
Pedagogical principle
Separation of languages
II. The world has turned……and bilingual education?
How has the world turned?• Deterritorialization & displacements
• Migrations & displacements• Transnational circulation (capital, commodities, labor and
people) • Technology • Spaces are interconnected
• Deregulation of markets• Privatization and withdrawal of state from social provisions
Continued effects of racism, linguicism & coloniality in neoliberal economy
What have been the effects of deterritorialization on BE in the world?
1. Many marginalized communities have broken out of boundaries that had been imposed
• Subtractive bilingualism questioned
2. The powerful have broken out of their national borders
• Additive bilingualism no longer sufficient
Breaking out has made Dynamic bilingualismvisible (García, 2009)
• Complexity• Interconnectivity • Plurilingualism (Council of Europe)
Making visible the dynamic nature of linguistic competence & practices of bilinguals Translanguaging
Translanguaging
“Even though Spanish runs throughmy heart, English rules my veins.”
García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan Pivot.
How about in the US?Limited English Proficient
English Language Learners
Silencing of bilingualism
• 27 States - English official • California, Arizona, and Massachusetts restricted bilingual
education (1998 to 2002)• Federally sponsored Title VII Bilingual Education
programs allowed to sunset in 2002• Since No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 & Every Student
Succeeds Act 2015 emphasis on English acquisition• Shrinking of transitional bilingual education programs and
a cover for developmental maintenance bilingual education under “dual language.”
Silencing of bilingualism• Office of Bilingual Education
and Language Minority Affairs (OBEMLA)
• National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education
• Title VII of Elementary and Secondary Education Act: The Bilingual Education Act (1968)
• Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement & Academic Achievement for LEP students (OELA).
• National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA)
• Title III of No Child Left Behind. Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students (2002)
• Title III of ESSA. Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students (2015)
From Bilingual to Dual…..
Bilingual Dual
Bilingual education & the US perfect storm……
Dynamic bilingualism & complexity of practices
Silencing of the “B” wordThe protection of “Dual”
SEAL of BILITERACY13 states
How do we bring back updated bilingualism to US BE?
Naming BILINGUALISM!!!!!!
Emergent BILINGUALS Dual language BILINGUAL programs
THE TRANSLANGUAGING CAPACITY
III. Acknowledging bilingual students’ TRANSLANGUAGING capacity
16 month old Gabo5 year old Adolfo and Alicia in a DLBE kindergarten16-17 year olds in a TBE 11th grade
Gabo’s words (16 months)• bye• no • más• árbol• car• truck• guagua• leche• agua• ba-ba (bottle)• tete• duck
Two perspectives about Gabo’s words
The internal perspectiveThey are HIS words
Make up his linguistic systemTRANSLANGUAGING
The external perspectiveThey belong to two languages
to two different linguistic systemsSOCIETY & NAMED LANGUAGES
• English
• Spanish
Snack Time in a DLBE Kindergarten: An emergent bilingual speaks
[Looking out the window and talking to himself]
A: Está lloviendo mucho. [It is raining a lot]Look [telling the others]. It's washing. There washing afuera [outside]
In a DLBE kindergarten: An emergent bilingual speaks during “English”
T: This tree is bigger. That tree is smaller.
Alicia: [Tries out under her breath]. This tree is grander.
In a TBE 11th grade: Emergent bilinguals speak
T: I like the enthusiasm. What type do you think it is?S1: I have three. Because he has a problem with other people,
and cuando fueron reparar el carro; no es, pero que tiene un problema, pues así, character vs. character.
T: What else can he say? Good… new hands. People who havent’ spoken.
S2: Porque tiene un problema consigo mismo: character vs. himself.
S35: Porque los Latinos es una sociedad, y él es un character.
What are these “English learners” doing?
• Not simply adding “English” to “Spanish”.• Using their own language features in interrelationship with new ones to make meaning and communicate.
• Constructing their dynamic bilingual repertoire by adding features to those they already have.
What do we call what they are all doing?
Translanguaging
• Applicable to all bilinguals of all ages in all communities of practice. The norm.
• From a translanguaging perspective, they are not simply going from English to Spanish. They are not code-switching. They are using their bilingual mental competence.
• Trans – Beyond “named” languages. Acknowledgement of the bilingual’s unitary language system.
Monoglossic bilingualismCode-switching Translanguaging
From external societal perspective
• Reifying/Empowering the “named” language
From speaker’s internal perspective
• Agency in bilingual speaker
L1F1, F1, F1
L2F2,
F2...FnFnFnFnFnFnFnFnFnFnFnFnFn
Monoglossic bilingualismCode-switching Translanguaging
External societal/state perspective
• 2 or more languageS• One is L1; the other L2• One has Dominant status;
the other non-dominant
Perspective Internal to individual
• The language practices of individual & community of practice.
• None of practices and features in hierarchical positions. All in interrelationship.
Translanguaging in schoolFrom bilingual students’ internal language system to school languages
Translanguaging
Internal unitary language system of bilinguals and bilingual pedagogical practices that leverage that system to help them select different features.
Coined and developed for bilingual minoritized speakers• C. Williams (Baker, 2001) & other Welsh scholars (Lewis,
Jones & Baker, 2012) • Creese & Blackledge, 2010• García, 2009; García & Li Wei, 2014; Otheguy, García &
Reid, 2015)• Many others Alvarez, 2014; Canagarajah, 2011; Excamilla et
al. 2014; Gort, 2014; Hornberger & Link, 2014; Martínez et al, 2014; Palmer et al., 2014; Sayer, 2015; …….
IV. Translanguaging in Bilingual Education
Starting with accepting and enabling bilingual speakers to incorporate new features into their own repertoire and extending their ability to suppress some features and activate others to APPROPRIATE them. It is especially important for language minoritized students.
What is a translanguaging pedagogy?
It is strategic!
• García, O., Johnson, S. & Seltzer, K. (2016). The Translanguaging classroom. Philadelphia: Caslon.
• García, O. & Kleyn, T. (Eds.) (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. New York: Routledge.
• CUNY-NYSIEB, www.cuny-nysieb.org (Publications)• Celic, C. & Seltzer K. (2012/2013). Translanguaging: A CUNY-
NYSIEB guide for educators.
CUNY-NYSIEB, 2012 - todaywww.cuny-nysieb.org
The Graduate Center, The City University of New YorkRISLUS (Research Institute for the Study of Languages in Urban Society & the Ph.D.
Program in Urban Education
Funded by The New York State Education Department Principal Investigators: Ricardo Otheguy, Ofelia García, Kate MenkenProject Director: Maite (María Teresa) Sánchez
LEADERSHIP COMPONENTAssociate Investigators: L. Ascenzi-Moreno, B. Collins, A. Ebe, C. Espinosa, M. Kaya, E. Kearney, and K. Mahoney, V. PérezResearch Assistants: K. Carpenter, I. Espinet, L. Guzmán Valerio, Maria Peña, and K. SeltzerField Associates: C. Celic, and C. Solorza
NETWORK COMPONENTResearch Assistants: L. Herrera, S. Hesson
Contributors In the past : N. Flores, T. Kleyn, L. Pappas, H. Woodley
What is Andy Brown doing?Constructing a multilingual ecology/ a translanguaging zone
• Linguistic landscape of classroom reflects multilingualism of children• All ways of using language in classrooms in conversation with each
other
• Building metalinguistic awareness and awareness of languages• Building linguistic tolerance toward each other
• Working against linguistic hierarchies• Integrating families and communities
What is Andy Brown doing?Translanguaging to build on the existing language repertoire of students and build social justice
• Acting as co-learner• Recognizing & building on students’ linguistic competence and strengths• Deepening discussion and meaning-making
• Questioning dictionaries & manuals (“means”/”medios” -- “significa”)• Recognizing difficulty of translation• Recognizing the variability of language• Recognizing differences in script & directionality
• Normalizing linguistic diversity and translanguaging practices• Equalizing home and school language practices• Liberating multilingual voices
A translanguaging allocation policy for BE
Role of bilingual educator taking up translanguaging
• The detective: Working with the translanguaging key • The co-learner & builder: Working within the “named”
language spaces & adjusting the translanguaging safety rings
• The transformer: Working within the translanguaging space
Questions and Strategies
The detective: Translanguaging key
• What does this student know?• What is this student’s preferred ways of making meaning?• Why does this student want to “invest” in using new
features?• What can I learn from this student?
• What can I learn from his/her interests? And how can I engage those interests?
• What can I learn from his/her funds of knowledge (Moll et al.)? Funds of languaging?
The detectiveTranslanguaging key
• How does this student use language?
• Linguistic performances with features of named language
• General Linguistic Performances. Examples• Able to express complex thoughts, explain, persuade, argue, compare and
contrast, give directions, recount events, etc.• When reading, able to make inferences, identify key ideas, associate
ideas from multiple texts.• Able to produce written texts of various purposes: opinion, informative,
explanatory & narrative.
Detective work in collaborationWith others• Other speakers in class• Other educators• Outside agencies• The community of speakers
With other resources• Multilingual texts• Electronic translators• Technology
The builder:“Named” language spaces & translanguaging safety rings
• How do I build an affinity space in English and the LOTE in which ALL students can participate meaningfully in various ways according to their interests & abilities?
• How do I provide affordances that get students to be motivated to use the named language?
• How do I build a space that is flexible enough to accommodate singularities in pluralities?
• When, why and for which tasks do individual students need translanguaging safety rings? When do I put them on and when do I take them away?
The builder:“Named” language spaces & translanguaging safety rings
• Give students freedom to form affinity groups & participate freely using all their language resources to make deep meaning.
• Provide multiple entry points into the named language space• Give freedom to choose topics and language features during the
learning process• Encourage use of named language in final oral & written products
• Encourage oral discussions & showing off language practices • Encourage annotation of texts • Surround with multilingual & translanguaging ecology• Provide multilingual & multimodal affordances (visual, audio)• Incorporate technologies: texting, chatting, video clips, You Tube
The transformer:Dwelling in a Translanguaging Zone
• How can I acknowledge the unitary linguistic system of bilinguals & dwell in the “border” with them as they expand their repertoire with new features & practices and learn to select which and when?
• How do I give agency to minoritized speakers, decolonize linguistic knowledge and engage in social transformations for a just world?
The transformer:Dwelling in a Translanguaging Zone
• Engage students in collaborative research, linguistic ethnographies & translanguaging performances • Engage students on representing and producing their worlds
and words using all features of their repertoire.• Build on human ability to re-mix and recontextualize language
performances & identities in bilingual context• Interviewing each other and community • Writing life stories• Producing multimodal and multilingual reports and documentaries• Producing bilingual plays for authentic bilingual audience
The transformer:Dwelling in a translanguaging zone
• Educate critical sociolinguists able to analyze language, develop metalinguistic awareness and think about linguistic differences • How language is lodged with power• Why & how some language practices have been delegitimized• How bilinguals can call forth their translanguaging, the features of their
unitary system & extended repertoire to deepen meaning-making
For bilingual education to achieve its potential in the 21st century…..
Recognition of bilinguals’ unitary language system by shifting teacher’s roles in
SEPARATE LANGUAGE SPACES With TRANSLANGUAGING….
AS KEY ASSAFETYRING
AS TRANSFORMATION
