Åhörarkopior från Kate Seltzers presentation på Symposium 2015:
http://www.andrasprak.su.se/konferenser-och-symposier/symposium-2015/program/ways-to-teach-and-collaborate-in-superdiverse-schools-1.231482
2. Today’s Plan:
This presentation will:
Extend existing understandings of translanguaging as
pedagogy
Clarify the purposes and benefits of translanguaging
in the classroom
Provide examples of translanguaging in action in
language learning classrooms
Use a case study of a super diverse
school/classroom to illustrate the power &
possibilities of translanguaging
Leave you with practical strategies and resources for
using translanguaging in your schools and
classrooms
3. Context for today’s
presentation
A U.S. perspective on a theoretical
approach/pedagogy being taken up internationally
Forthcoming book:
Translanguaging Classrooms: Reimagining the Education of
Bilingual Students (García, Ibarra-Johnson, & Seltzer)
Research project:
CUNY-NYSIEB (New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals)
Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators (Celic &
Seltzer, 2012)
4. The Translanguaging Corriente
Refers to the constant flow of
students’ dynamic bilingualism
that runs through classrooms and
schools
Changes the static linguistic
landscape that is described and
defined from monolingual
perspectives
Allows bilingual students to
integrate language features that
are usually kept separate
6. Students’ Translanguaging
Performances
Enable us to understand students’ ability to use
features of their entire linguistic repertoire, as well as
their ability to conform to different sociolinguistic
situations
Do not separate “proficiency” into countable “languages”
Move away from deficit views of students’ languaging
Look at students’ bilingual performances holistically
Recognize that bilinguals’ “proficiency” shifts depending on
the social situation/social context (not linear)
7. Teacher’s Translanguaging
Pedagogy
Translanguaging Stance
A philosophy that informs all instruction and assessment
of bilingual students
Students’ language practices and cultural understandings
include those they bring from home/communities, as well as
those they take-up in schools
Students’ families/communities are sources of knowledge
and must be involved in the education process.
The classroom is a democratic space where teachers &
students co-create knowledge, challenge traditional
hierarchies, and work towards social justice
8. Teacher’s Translanguaging
Pedagogy
Translanguaging Design
Includes the design of the classroom space, units,
lessons, learning activities, assessments, etc.
A science teacher organizes students into groups with
different levels of home/new language proficiency
An English teacher organizes a unit around writers who utilize
multiple languages in their writing
A bilingual teacher gives out a text in Spanish and English
and asks students to compare/contrast the lexicon, syntax,
morphology, and discourse structure
A TESOL teacher plans assessments that differentiate
students’ general linguistic performances from their
language specific performances
9. Teacher’s Translanguaging
Pedagogy
Translanguaging Shifts
Moment-by-moment decisions that change with the flow
of the translanguaging corriente and allow for flexibility
in language practices, conversations, activities, and
plans
In moments of difficulty/misunderstanding, encouraging
students to talk to one another about a new concept,
vocabulary word, etc., using their own language practices
Looking up words and phrases using online translation tools
or having students do so on their own
Using culturally meaningful metaphors and/or stories that
students relate to in order to make sense of new content
10. Why use translanguaging in
instruction?
To enable students to engage with and comprehend
complex content and texts
To develop students’ linguistic practices for
academic contexts
To make space for students to draw on their
bilingualism and bilingual ways of knowing
To support students’ social emotional development
and bilingual identities, and advance social justice
11. Classroom Examples –
As a part of an unit on voting, students created
one election campaign advertisement for their
community in their home language, and a
different one in the second language. Students
presented both, in the second language, to the
class.
12. Classroom Examples –
After a poetry study, students chose a poem
written in their home language and created a
PowerPoint presentation to teach their
classmates about that poem. Students read the
poem in their home language, but spoke about
and explained it to the class in the second
language.
13. Classroom Examples –
Students were paired by shared home language
to complete a chemistry experiment. They were
able to discuss the experiment, read the
directions, and record their findings in that home
language. When it was time to discuss their
findings with the class and write up their formal
lab report, students did so in the second
language.
15. The School
Located in northern New York State
Educates approximately 800 students in grades K-5
92% low income
57% emergent bilingual
Come from 70 different countries and speak 30 different languages
Top languages: Karen, Somali, Burmese, and Nepali
English as a second language programming; no bilingual
programming
Has partnerships with community & refugee groups
17. The Classroom
3rd grade ESL classroom
“Pull-out” group of 10
students
Students:
Karen speakers from
Burma/Myanmar
Karen – a minoritized
language in Burma
Most are refugees/come
from refugee families
Teacher: Nicole
English-speaking; does not
speak Karen
Born & raised in New York
Why use translanguaging?
Little-to-no education in Karen
in students’ rural communities
of Burma or in the refugee
camps of Thailand, and thus
no bilingual program option
Leverages students’ language
practices and releases their
voices in order to engage
them in learning rigorous
content & meeting academic
standards
Creates a safe, positive space
for students adjusting to a
new life
18. Nicole’s Translanguaging
Stance
Became a teacher after volunteering with a
refugee organization in her city
Attends Karen cultural and social events around
the city
Advocated for an ESL pull-out classroom for small
number of Karen speakers
“Translanguaging is a way to showcase how special
[my students] are and what I feel as a person, not just
as a teacher. It has given me the support that I need
to do what I want to do with these kids. Before it was
like, ‘shh, hush it under the rug, use English
only”…[Translanguaging] is a way for me to
showcase who they are, make them feel special,
and give me a chance to learn about them.”
19. Nicole’s Translanguaging
Design
Unit: Aesop’s Fables in English & Karen
①Nicole recorded members of the Karen-speaking community
& video recorded them reading the fables (6 total) in Karen
①Nicole planned literacy lessons around the use of the 2
versions of the fables
• Students read the fable in English with translations of key words in
Karen while practicing literacy skills (i.e.: compare/contrast,
sequencing, cause & effect)
• Students listened to the fable in Karen & followed along with the
Karen text, picking out the key words already introduced
• Students engaged in literacy activities that extended their
understandings of the fables in both English & Karen
20.
21. Impact of translanguaging
in Nicole’s classroom
“The most noticeable [differences] were motivation and
engagement…total, 100% attention.”
“When I incorporate translanguaging in this way, I notice how
happy students are…they want to understand [the text]
because they’re proud [of their language”].
Students’ role: from passive listeners to active teachers and
experts
When students were held responsible for teaching Nicole new words
in their own language, they rose to the challenge!
22. Translanguaging Strategies for the
Second Language Classroom
Students read in the SL and
discuss/analyze what they read in
the HL
Assign reading partners that
share a HL for mutual assistance
Students do independent reading
in multiple languages
Encourage students to read &
research for research projects in
both languages
Supplement SL readings with HL
language readings on the same
topic/theme
Allow students to audio record
ideas first using both languages,
then transfer to writing
Students pre-write in both
languages, then publish in the SL
Assign writing partners that share
a HL for mutual assistance
Students write first in the HL and
then translate that text into the
SL
READING WRITING
23. Translanguaging Strategies for the
Second Language Classroom
Assign partners: beginner
speakers with intermediate
speakers, intermediate speakers
with any level, advanced
speakers with intermediate
Assign newcomers a buddy to
show them around school,
answer questions, etc.
Group students so they can use
both languages in small group
work, then present in the SL
Allow students to discuss
lesson/ideas with partner in the
HL and SL
Allow students to explain/share
ideas using the HL and the SL
(another student can translate if
you don’t speak language)
Have students interview one
another using both the HL and
the SL and then share what they
learned in the SL
Create a multilingual listening
center comprised of fiction and
non-fiction texts in the
classroom, narratives of
community members, and
books recorded by students (a
favorite book or their own
writing)
SPEAKING LISTENING
24. Translanguaging Strategies for the
Second Language Classroom
Create multilingual word walls
Create cognate charts
Utilize multilingual graphic
organizers
Provide students with bilingual
and/or bilingual picture
dictionaries
VOCABULARY COLLABORATIVE WORK
Students can:
Discuss/reflect/negotiate in any
language and share out in the SL
Preview in HL and
collaborate/create a product in
the SL
Listen in the SL and discuss in any
language
Research/prepare in a HL and
present in the SL
25. Ideas for moving forward with
translanguaging:
Read more about it:
Available for free online:
Celic, C. & Seltzer, K. (2012). Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide
for educators.
Hesson, S., Seltzer, K. & Woodley, H. (2015). Translanguaging in
Curriculum and Instruction: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators.
Forthcoming publications:
García, O., Ibarra-Johnson, S., & Seltzer, K. (forthcoming).
Translanguaging Classrooms: Reimagining the Education of Bilingual
Students.
García, O., Seltzer, K. & Witt, D. (forthcoming). Disrupting linguistic
inequalities in US urban classrooms: The role of translanguaging. In
The Multilingual Edge of Education.
26. Ideas for moving forward with
translanguaging:
Think about small ways you could bring translanguaging
into your classrooms, such as:
Tell students that their home languages are welcome in the
classroom and are valuable to their learning a second
language
Tell students that they can talk to one another in the home
language when doing work in the second language
Create a multilingual welcome sign, bulletin board, or other
visual in students’ home languages
Learn a few greetings or words of encouragement in
students’ home languages
Currents can be on the surface or deep beneath the water, but they’re always present
Not always linear – runs a course that adapts to its surroundings
The corriente, even when not seen/heard, is always present and helps EBLs make meaning bilingually at all times
The corriente runs through all elements of classroom life and shapes the way we teach bilingual students
Dynamic translanguaging progressions are where we start, and translanguaging instruction and assessment respond to where students’ are – their language practices, existing knowledge, and needs
Not about how “proficient” they are but how competent they are at enacting/suppressing different features of their linguistic repertoire (a focus on flexibility, fluidity, and agency)
E.g.: Students may be considered “beginners” in school, but they are “advanced” translators for their parents at home
Translanguaging pedagogy extends to instruction and assessment and is informed by 3 strands: the stance, the design, and the shifts
The stance can be different depending on the individual educator and individual students, but we see there being 3 central tenets of a translanguaging stance that can be enacted in different ways
Includes planning the physical space, the unit plans, the lesson plans, and the assessments (basically all pedagogical activity in the classrooms)
General linguistic proficiency = the ability to express complex thoughts effectively, the ability to explain, persuade, argue, compare and contrast, give directions, recount events
Language-specific proficiency = ability to use oSLy selected features of the bilinguals’ language repertoire to perform certain tasks
A monolingual teacher uses an app on her phone that has a microphone feature; when a student doesn’t know a word, she has him/her say the word into her phone and she translates it into English (if the student knows how to spell the word in his/her home language, she also allows him/her to type it into the phone)
Talking more specifically about literacy, there are many reasons to tap into the translanguaging corriente
The rationale for using translanguaging is both academic and social emotional; it is also an act of social justice as we give ALL students voice and access to the tools that will help them grow as critical thinkers
Separate slides
Karen speakers as most marginalized > need for an all-Karen group
11:25-11:45
- Find a text that has multilingual versions or translate 1 text into the languages of your classroom and place them side by side with the English text
Multilingual word walls
Create a piece of writing in both English and the home language
Though the case study classroom had all Karen speakers, most ESL classes at the school are highly diverse