Translanguaging and transnational literacies in multilingual classrooms: a biliteracy lens

Abstract

As US classrooms approach a decade of response to No Child Left Behind, many questions and concerns remain around the education of those labeled as ‘English language learners,’ in both English as a Second Language and bilingual education classrooms. A national policy context where standardized tests dominate curriculum and instruction and first language literacy is discouraged and undervalued poses unusual challenges for learners whose communicative repertoires encompass translanguaging practices. Drawing on the critical sociolinguistics of globalization and on ethnographic data from US and international educational contexts, we argue via a continua of biliteracy lens that the welcoming of translanguaging and transnational literacies in classrooms is not only necessary but desirable educational practice. We suggest that Obama's current policies on the one hand and our schools' glaring needs on the other offer new spaces to be exploited for innovative programs, curricula, and practices that recognize, value, and build on the multiple, mobile communicative repertoires and translanguaging/transnational literacy practices of students and their families.

Keywords:

• additive bilingualism
• biliteracy
• bilingual education
• code-switching
• ELL
• communicative competence

Notes

1. The Center for Applied Linguistics online Two-way Immersion Directory lists over 350 programs across the US (see http://www.cal.org/).

2. This composite portrait reflects data from a growing body of research conducted in a NLD community led by Stanton Wortham and Kathy Howard, among others. For specific research that documents Beatriz's experience as a first grader, see Link 2011. All names used are pseudonyms.

3. Approximately 70% of the school's current lower elementary grades (K-2) are Spanish-speakers.

4. While policies insist that students will only attain high achievement on standardized testing if English is the exclusive language of the classroom, Campano's (2007) work shows otherwise. His students gained in their annual test scores in both math and literacy by 15 percentile points, and continued to increase over the following two years (120).

5. This portrait reflects Hornberger's research and collaboration with Dr. Esther Ramani and Dr. Michael Joseph, founders and directors of the University of Limpopo bilingual BA program. I am grateful to Esther and Michael for their unstinting generosity and inspirational scholarship and academic leadership. My thanks also to the Fulbright Senior Specialist program for sponsoring my 2008 sojourn at the University of Limpopo.