Translanguaging in bilingual teacher preparation: Exploring pre-service bilingual teachers’ academic writing

Language and Literacy Practices of Bilingual Education Preservice Teachers at a Hispanic-Serving College of Education

“…English-only curricula is heavily favored by schools within the region (Murillo & Schall, 2016). Therefore, native Spanish speakers are typically identified as English Learners, receive Spanish instruction only within the primary grades, and are speedily transitioned to English-only instruction (Musanti & Rodriguez, 2017). Within academic contexts, the value of the Spanish language is usually limited to its use as a tool for transitioning students to English-only instruction (Murillo & Schall, 2016).…”

“…Monoglossic language ideology, which values only monolingualism and sees language as a decontextualized skill (García and Guevara-Torres, 2010), may persist amongst both teacher educators and preservice teachers through the prevalence, and therefore privileging of, instructional materials produced in English even within bilingual teacher education courses (Musanti & Rodriguez, 2017;Guerrero & Guerrero, 2017).…”

“I Can Write in My Language and Switch Back and Forth?”: Elementary Teacher Candidates Experiencing and Enacting Translanguaging Pedagogies in a Literacy Methods Course

“…While a translanguaging approach centers language in the content of teacher education courses, it also brings LBE into the processes and pedagogies of each class. For example, Musanti and Rodriguez (2017) asked TCs preparing to be bilingual educators to submit field-based writing assignments in Spanish, a language which many of the candidates had not previously used in coursework. They found that TCs leveraged their bilingual repertoires in writing, often drawing on their knowledge of English semantics to write in Spanish (e.g., using cognates; inventing terms like cuarteles y niqueles for “quarters and nickels” in Spanish, see Musanti & Rodriguez, 2017, p. 45).…”

“…For example, Musanti and Rodriguez (2017) asked TCs preparing to be bilingual educators to submit field-based writing assignments in Spanish, a language which many of the candidates had not previously used in coursework. They found that TCs leveraged their bilingual repertoires in writing, often drawing on their knowledge of English semantics to write in Spanish (e.g., using cognates; inventing terms like cuarteles y niqueles for “quarters and nickels” in Spanish, see Musanti & Rodriguez, 2017, p. 45). They also noted that TCs created translanguaging spaces in their writing, meshing languages to best convey meaning (e.g., preserving English terms like “open house” while composing in Spanish).…”

“…They found that experiencing translanguaging pedagogies helped TCs feel confident in their use of Spanish, understand translanguaging as a transformative practice, and more deeply recognize how language and race are intertwined in bilingual education. Ultimately, studies like Collins et al’s (2019) and Musanti and Rodriguez’s (2017) shed light on the promise of translanguaging pedagogies to disrupt the dominance of English monolingualism and whiteness in bilingual teacher education. Because they were conducted with TCs preparing for roles as bilingual educators, these studies also raise questions about the possibility of translanguaging pedagogies for TCs preparing to work in English-medium settings.…”