RESOURCES

Invitations for further engagement with chapter ideas

1. The chapter begins with a vignette of Lakshmi and her colleagues, which demonstrates fluidity of language use.  There is a mixture of languages used in both how the team communicated and the artifacts produced from their interactions.  The vignette is an illustration of translanguaging in action. Locate federal and state legislation and regulations impacting your school district.  Does it support a monolingual approach or a translanguaging approach to language use and language learning?  Give three to four examples supporting your claim.


2. The Secretary of Education William J. Bennett during the Reagan Administration stated in his speech on September 26, 1985 arguing against the Bilingual Education Act to the Association for a Better New York: "The responsibility of the federal government must be to help ensure that local schools succeed in teaching non-English-speaking students English, so that every American enjoys access to the opportunities of American society.” What assumptions was the Secretary making?  Explain how those assumptions relate to contemporary expectations for global communication and global economies.


3. In this chapter, we explore the idea of general linguistic performance skills, which are used to express complex thoughts.  What would this look like for Emergent Bilinguals in a monolingual setting versus a translanguaging setting?


4. In their 2024 article Translanguaging with Digital, Collaborative Writing: Early Multilingual Composers Pennington and their colleagues, offer practical recommendations for leveraging technology to support EB students' translingual composition. What is the role of digital tools in your own classroom? Are there any spaces where digital tools can support students' translanguaging performance in writing and beyond? 
   


5. After reading the blog post Language, Identity, Culture, and Diversity by Connor P Williams, consider how the monolingual mindset may reduce the “number of perspectives we have for viewing the world.”  How could this be perceived by EBs?  How could this impact students on a social, emotional, and economic level?

 resources for further Reading/ viewing

1. Colorín, Colorado: Language Policy: History and Contemporary Views. Featured Articles:
   • A Chronology of Federal Law and Policy Impacting Language Minority Students
   • Bilingual Education: The Failed Experiment?
   • Early Years: Tolerance and Repression
   • Historical Layers of English
   • Immigrant Era: Focus on Assimilation
   • Retrospective: Language Instruction in Native American Communities
   • Return to Bilingual Education
   • Signposts: ELL Policy Recommendations for Policy Makers
   • Toward a Monolingual USA? The Modern English-Only Movement
   • Tracking ELL Issues: Notes on 'Learning the Language'
2. Pennington, V., Howell, E., Kaminski, R., Ferguson-Sams, N., Gazioglu, M., Mittapalli, K. and Banerjee, A. (2024), Translanguaging with Digital, Collaborative Writing: Early Multilingual Composers. Read Teach, 78: 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2344 (open access)
   
3. Garcia, O. (2009). Reimagining Bilingualism in Education for the 21st century. NALDIC, 4–11

In this video from CUNY-NYSIEB, Ofelia García defines and briefly explains translanguaging.

Dr. Li Wei clarifies the distinction between translanguaging and codeswitching. 

Professor Ofelia García explains translanguaging in this interview with Dr Loy Lising.

Dr. García defines translanguaging and differentiates it from codeswitching and articulates the pedagogical implications of translanguaging. She also offers advice for engaging with those who are concerned that translanguaging may delay proficiency in the dominant language.