Multilingual Interactions and Learning in High School ESL Classrooms

Abstract

This article explores how peer and teacher–student interactions in linguistically diverse high school English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms produce changes in learners’ uptake of different languages and cultures. Data presented are from a 2‐year ethnography of communication focusing on adolescent multilingual English learners’ language use in three ESL classrooms in the United States. The study participants’ primary languages were French, Lingala, and Tshiluba, and the dominant language spoken by the students in class was Spanish. The data include recordings of peer group classroom interactions, individual and focus group interviews, and field notes from classroom observations. Analyzed through an ecology of language framework (van Lier, 2004) and heteroglossic perspectives on language learning and use (Bakhtin, 1981), the findings reveal a gradual ideological and pragmatic shift among the focal students from resenting the predominant use of Spanish by their teachers and peers during Year 1 of the study to using Spanish words and phrases during Year 2 for two distinct purposes: peer socialization and learning English. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of attending to students’ language experiences to harness metacognitive thinking, critical multilingual language awareness, and linguistic creativity.

What Does It Mean? EL‐Identified Adolescents’ Interpretations of Testing and Course Placement

“…Similarly, instruction in U.S. schools is legally required to consider both the English language and academic development of EL‐identified youth (Haas & Gort, 2009). As a result, EL‐identified youths in secondary schools are often placed in EL‐related courses (Callahan & Shifrer, 2016; Davila, 2020; Umanksy, 2016). EL‐related courses can include students who are not ELs or be exclusive to those identified as ELs.…”

“…In the United States, the English learner (EL) classification is used to make decisions about youths’ educational trajectories. It impacts how they are assessed, the courses to which they have access, and the teaching strategies that are envisioned as being most effective (Davila, 2020; Estrada, 2014; Riley, 2015). Despite the power of the EL classification, there is no requirement to include youth in the decision‐making related to their EL identification.…”

Interaction in the Multilingual Classroom

“…Garcı ´a 2009; Creese and Blackledge 2010) developed in the ethnographic trajectory of studies among researchers and instructors who share a resource orientation to student multilingualism. Notably, research has emerged on the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy in the United States (Garcı ´a et al 2015;Pacheco et al 2015;Garcı ´a and Kleyn 2016;Garcı ´a et al 2017;Pacheco 2018;Davila 2019;Menken and Sanchez 2019;Seltzer 2020) and other parts of the world (Paulsrud et al 2017;Svensson 2017;St. John 2018;Choi and Ollerhead 2018;Gynne 2019;Ollerhead 2019;Carbonara and Scibetta 2020).…”

Supporting Online Learning in an Unfamiliar Language: Immigrant Parents and Remote Schooling during COVID-19

“…Parents also made visible their concerns over children's language development, particularly young children's second language acquisition. Peiyu's concerns align with the co-constructed, relational, and contextual dimensions of language learning (Davila, 2020). In in-person classrooms, teachers are able to use a variety of teaching methods such as children's literature read aloud, hands-on activities, play-based learning, peer oral interactions, and so forth.…”