Recognizing and leveraging the bilingual meaning-making potential of young people aged six to eight years old in one Australian classroom

Abstract

Although unevenly distributed, many Australian classrooms are increasingly diverse and include young people from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, young people who speak many different languages and dialects of English. These diverse classrooms offer rich and exciting teaching and learning opportunities and require innovative pedagogies that bolster the abilities of educators to draw upon young peoples' transcultural and translingual competencies. This paper details curricula and pedagogies employed in a classroom with six- to eight-year old children newly arrived in Australia. In this classroom, children were positioned as ethnographers of their own language practices; language repertoires were recognized, validated and treated as resources for learning. Analysis centres on the relevant connections made between academic content, children's experiences and the promotion of children's identities as bilingual meaning-makers.

Think Like a Linguist: Leveraging Multilingual Students’ Expertise about Language

“…These findings gain significance in light of the growing research base in multilingual development and pedagogies. Previous scholarship has shown that multilingual learners in educational contexts where English is the dominant language begin to devalue their home language and internalize deficit perspectives on their home languages, even as early as the primary grades (D’warte, 2020; Martinez‐Roldan & Malavé, 2004). Yet, both cognitive and sociolinguistic perspectives support efforts to honor and leverage multilingual students’ full range of linguistic resources (e.g., Garcia & Wei, 2014; Kroll et al, 2015).…”

“…Yet, both cognitive and sociolinguistic perspectives support efforts to honor and leverage multilingual students’ full range of linguistic resources (e.g., Garcia & Wei, 2014; Kroll et al, 2015). Translanguaging scholarship has shown how multilingual students’ use of two or more languages while engaged in academic tasks is associated with enhanced learning (Creese & Blackledge, 2010; D’warte, 2020; Hornberger & Link, 2012; Park, 2015; Worthy et al, 2013). This can be challenging in highly diverse contexts.…”

“…Indeed, recent empirical work has demonstrated that encouraging students to use their full language repertoire in equity‐oriented learning environments is beneficial for learning, as translanguaging facilitates deeper thinking in multilingual students (Creese & Blackledge, 2010; Hornberger & Link, 2012). In the past decade, research on instructional settings where multilingual students use two or more languages while working on academic tasks has provided growing evidence of enhanced learning (e.g., D’warte, 2020; Park, 2015; Worthy et al, 2013). Nonetheless, a challenge that has been acknowledged by scholars and expert teachers alike is how to promote the use of language resources in contexts with high levels of linguistic diversity.…”

“…Nonetheless, a challenge that has been acknowledged by scholars and expert teachers alike is how to promote the use of language resources in contexts with high levels of linguistic diversity. Even when translanguaging with multiple languages is explicitly encouraged, students whose home languages are low incidence have been less likely to utilize their full range of language resources (e.g., D’warte, 2020; Rowe & Miller, 2016). In our study, high levels of linguistic diversity, including advantages of knowing low‐incidence languages, are recognized for their contributions to language analysis and are highly valued.…”

Enabling Translanguaging in the French Language Classroom

“…Numerous studies have identified that conventional understandings of bilingualism and multilingualism persist even in highly linguistically and culturally diverse societies such as Australia (Piller, 2016;Vertovec 2007), and continue to shape the identities and practices of language teachers (D'warte, 2018;Turner & Cross, 2016;Weinmann & Arber, 2017). However, the studies emphasize that teacher practice has the potential to contribute to more comprehensive multilingual perspectives, experiences, and encounters by shifting the ways in which languages are taught and learnt (Canagarajah, 2008;Flores & Schissel, 2014;Swain & Lapkin, 2005).…”