Interactions with new-to-teacher language resources

Supporting translingual composing in a multilingual elementary classroom

Bibliographic Data

ID21722170
AuthorsLindsey W Rowe (0000-0001-8874-7560, Clemson University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume24
Issue3
Pages692-711
Publication date2024-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Early Childhood Literacy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-7984 • E-ISSN: 1741-2919
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14687984241276315
OpenAlexW4401590078
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited32

Educators should support multilingual students’ translingual writing. However, it can be challenging for teachers to support students’ composing in languages that teachers do not speak. Drawing on a community translanguaging lens, this paper explores this issue by asking: How did teachers talk about and interact with language resources that were new to them while supporting translingual writing in an English-medium classroom? Data were collected using ethnographic and practitioner research methods across 1 year in one second-grade writing workshop in the U.S. Students spoke Spanish, Korean, French, Tagalog, or English, and classroom teachers spoke English and Spanish. Data analysis first involved descriptive coding of videorecorded composing interactions to identify every teacher interaction involving a new-to-them named language. These events were then re-examined using constant comparative coding to identify interactional patterns. This yielded three main findings; teachers: (1) positioned students as language experts and themselves as language learners, (2) drew on shared language resources to support student writing in new-to-teacher languages, and (3) expanded audiences to support student writing in new-to-teacher languages. Implications include pedagogical steps teachers can take to support students’ use of new-to-teacher languages while writing, and ideological and social implications of teacher talk about those languages

Linguistics · Mathematics education · Multilingualism · Pedagogy · Tagalog · Translanguaging · Computer Science · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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Open DOIOpen Access