Sustaining Multilingual Literacies in Classrooms and Beyond

Abstract

We look forward to building on this notion of sustaining multingual literacies with scholars who consider restorative literacy classroom practices, issues affecting varied racial and ethnic communities, and notions of citizenship-all in diverse learning contexts.

Sustaining Multilingual Literacies: Looking Through an Immigrant Lens to Inform Practice

“…In keeping with the focus of this JAAL department, I briefly write in this column about my work with students in traditional U.S. schooling and the ways in which I attempt to sustain multilingual literacy practices. In the introductory column of the Sustaining Multilingual Literacies department, Martinez and Caraballo () wrote about work they do to bridge the gap that many of our students face between their academic life and their cultural identity through language. According to Martinez and Caraballo, “we [educators] must work to sustain practices typically marginalized in formal and informal schooling contexts” (p. 103); this is precisely where my personal immigrant experience has led me.…”

Moving Forward: Sustaining Multilingual Literacies

“…In recent columns of this JAAL department, scholars and practitioners have shared “new ideas that can enhance teacher learning toward sustaining the multilingual literacies of youths” (Martinez & Caraballo, , p. 101). The range of topics covered has been as rich as the lived and professional experiences that each of the authors brings to the conversation.…”

“…Not surprisingly, the translingual perspective just described is vividly illustrated in the rich variety of pedagogical practices that scholars and practitioners presented in their columns on sustaining multilingual literacies over the last five issues of JAAL . In their column, for example, Martinez and Caraballo () argued “that learning can and should be organized in ways that allow youths to recognize the legitimacy of their language and literacy practices as resources for their learning” (p. 102). More specifically, Martinez described how Mr. Alcordo, a Filipino teacher he observed, deployed an expression that one of the freshmen used to describe a fight in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet .…”

“…Mr. Michelson mirrored their use by inviting his students to “slap” at the end of their class that day. It is important to note that Martinez and Caraballo () made clear that only teachers who feel comfortable using youth language and do so “in solidarity or alliance with communities whose languages have been stigmatized” (p. 103) should engage in this pedagogical practice.…”

“…Mr. Alcordo, Mr. Michelson, and Papa Joe are but a handful of the many practitioners in our schools actively engaged in ensuring that multilingual students are provided with opportunities to make use of the rich repertoires of linguistic and cultural experiences that they bring to the classroom from their varied communities of belonging. The scholars and practitioners who contributed columns to this department also embraced this important connection between theory and practice—between principle and pedagogy—that must inform our every effort to “cultivate the multilingual practices that young people bring into our classrooms from city streets, suburban communities, and rural landscapes” (Martinez & Caraballo, , pp. 101–102).…”