Parent–Child translanguaging among transnational immigrant families in museums

ABSTRACT

A transnational turn on language and literacy urges increased attention on the flexible languaging practices of immigrant children who cross the boundaries of languages, cultures, nations, and beyond. This study examines how immigrant children and parents from transnational immigrant families engaged in translanguaging in museums during their temporal visits to their parental homeland, South Korea. Audio recordings of parent-child interactions, fieldnotes from six different museums, and artifacts and documents relevant to the visits were collected as part of a larger multi-sited ethnographic study. The findings illuminate the Korean immigrant parents’ extensive knowledge of their history and culture, as well as their unique ways of engaging their children in meaning-making processes utilizing their multilingual repertoires and multimodal tools. The study also highlights the children’s active agency in learning about their heritage by making full use of their communicative repertoires in a strategic manner. Through the concerted efforts of parent-child translanguaging, the children were able to engage in transformative learning opportunities that bridged multiple generations and extended transnational connections. Results from the study show the importance of creating a space that allows immigrant children to engage in translanguaging practices that are transnational knowledge-rich and multimodal tool-supported.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant children
• translanguaging
• transnationalism
• parent–child interaction
• museum
• multilingualism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages; International Literacy Association; Teachers College, Columbia University.

Notes on contributors

Jungmin Kwon

Jungmin Kwon received her doctoral degree from the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research areas include language and literacy, immigrant children and families, and transnationalism. Her work has appeared in publications such as Bilingual Research Journal, Language and Education, Early Child Development and Care, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, and Language, Culture and Curriculum.