Multilingual Learning Inside/Outside the Classroom: Insights from Intra‐Active Events

Abstract

As K‐5 dual language programs gain popularity in the United States, language teaching, however, often still prioritizes discrete and decontextualized learning that is not built on students’ interests and experiences or their multilingual and multimodal resources. This article reports on a classroom‐based ethnographic case study and illustrates how emergent bilinguals in a fifth grade dual language class engaged in a variety of multimodal experiences to understand local history through their first and second languages, community‐based inquiries, and writing. Drawing on translanguaging and new materialist understandings of language and literacy, the authors describe intra‐active events generated through museum activities and discussions in English and Chinese that allowed students to assemble whole‐body experiences and discussions in their journal writing about a day in the 18th century. The study shows how translanguaging can foster students’ engagement in learning as assemblages of their multilingual, multimodal, and multisensory experiences and support their writing processes and products, not only in a second language, but all language and literacy classrooms.

Mandarin/English dual language immersion teachers’ understanding of translanguaging pedagogy

“…Studies focusing on teachers' take-up of translanguaging pedagogy in DLI programs are limited. Also, most translanguaging studies address English/Spanish translanguaging practices (Hamman, 2018;Palmer et al, 2014), while only a few have discussed non-Spanish/English contexts such as Mandarin/English DLI (Du, 2022;Liaw et al, 2023;Tian, 2022;Tian & Lau, 2023;Zheng, 2021). For example, Zheng (2021) examined the translanguaging discourse of a 4th/5th-grade Mandarin teacher.…”

“…The teacher offered significant autonomy for students to choose their preferred languages and modalities, which led to enhanced language and subject learning outcomes. Liaw et al (2023) also collaborated with a 5th-grade Mandarin teacher in developing an interactive history curriculum where translanguaging pedagogy was adopted to help students better contextualize content knowledge and assemble all available resources for their writing. The study suggested that teachers made moment-by-moment pedagogical adjustments as they drew on students' first language in the learning of a second/additional language.…”

“…These studies show that in Mandarin/English DLI, both teachers and students performed agentive, dynamic translanguaging practices. Translanguaging was beneficial as it facilitated meaning-making, engaged children's multilingual perspectives, and fostered complex language use that a monolingual approach cannot produce (Liaw et al, 2023). However, the studies also revealed the hesitancy of teachers to implement translanguaging pedagogy as they tried to negotiate the tension between maintaining separate spaces for each language and providing instructional space for translanguaging practices (Tian & Lau, 2023;Zheng, 2021).…”

“…However, the studies also revealed the hesitancy of teachers to implement translanguaging pedagogy as they tried to negotiate the tension between maintaining separate spaces for each language and providing instructional space for translanguaging practices (Tian & Lau, 2023;Zheng, 2021). All the teachers in these previous studies were in contexts where they co-taught with an English partner teacher (Liaw, 2023Tian, 2022Tian & Lau, 2023;Zheng, 2021). This present study focuses on Mandarin/English bilingual teachers of selfcontained classes where they teach all subjects in two languages by themselves.…”