Languages, literacies and literate programming: can we use the latest theories on how bilingual people learn to help us teach computational literacies?

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives.

Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn't like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies.

Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects.

Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy can leverage learners' (bilingual and otherwise) full linguistic repertoires as they engage with computational literacies.

Implications: Our data helps demonstrate how translanguaging can be mobilized to do CS, which has implications for increasing equitable participation in computer science.

KEYWORDS:

• K-12 computer science education
• bilingual education
• literate programming
• translanguaging
• computational literacies

Acknowledgments

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation under grants CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446. Views expressed are not those of NSF. We gratefully acknowledge the work of Dr. Kate Menken in conceptualizing the PiLaCS project, the participation of the educators and students in our partnership, and our colleagues who participated in the project and helped frame this work. We are also grateful to the reviewers whose insightful comments pushed our thinking.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A term used by linguists to describe making meaning with signs, symbols, and activity.

2. Schools in New York may also serve students in “English as a New Language” classes, as long as there are bilingual options available to families nearby.

3. Student names are self-selected pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1738645, 1837446].

Notes on contributors

Sara Vogel

Sara Vogel, M.S. Ed., is a Doctoral Candidate in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, conducting her dissertation on how bilingual middle schoolers use language in the course of computer science education activities. She is a co-founder and a lead research assistant on Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLaCS), a research-practice partnership focusing on integrating computer science into classes serving emergent bilinguals.

Christopher Hoadley

Christopher Hoadley is a faculty member in Educational Communications and Technology at NYU and affiliate faculty in NYU Tandon's School of Engineering, where he directs the dolcelab (lab for the design of learning, collaboration, and experience). His lab supports social justice, individual dignity, and human flourishing, by designing and studying collaborative technologies for learning and empowerment, enhancing networks and systems for community learning, and supporting literacies that allow creation of technology by end users.

Ana Rebeca Castillo

Ana Rebeca Castillo Matos, M.S.Ed. (City University of New York - Hunter College) has been a Spanish and bilingual teacher for 12 years. It is her belief that being bilingual is an asset because language is culture, and it allows us to broaden our worldview. As an educator, she believes education is the tool that will help our students break barriers and cycles of disadvantage in order to become the leaders our future will need.

Laura Ascenzi-Moreno

Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Ph.D, is an associate professor and the bilingual program coordinator at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.  Brooklyn, New York. She is a Co-PI on the Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLaCS) project.