“Para Que Los Demás Se Diviertan Un Poco”: Negotiating Social Interactions in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how a transnational emergent multilingual (TEM) student established himself in relation to his teacher and peers in a culturally and linguistically diverse, sheltered English Instruction classroom. Specifically, it documents how the student initiated translingual and cross-cultural social interactions positioning himself as a linguistically-agile member of the classroom community. Using positioning and translanguaging theory, the analysis illustrates how the student’s translingual, cross-cultural interactions allowed him to build relationships and reposition himself in the face of school-imposed labels that otherwise positioned him as linguistically-lacking. Findings illustrate how the student strategically created opportunities to use his entire linguistic repertoire and suggest the need to consider alternatives to deficit-oriented school-imposed labels placed upon TEMs.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergent multilingualism
• newcomer
• sheltered English instruction
• transnationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names of individuals and locations are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca E. Linares

Rebecca E. Linares is an assistant professor in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, CO, USA; [email protected]. Her research interests include bilingual and multilingual literacies, transnational literacy practices, and translanguaging practices. She focuses specifically on the realities and challenges of second- and third-language learning in culturally and linguistically diverse settings.