Despite the extensive research on translanguaging in bi/multilingual classrooms, research on the context of first language (L1) classrooms remains scarce. This study fills the research gap by examining how a translanguaging space was created in an L1 classroom to prepare students to inhabit a world with different linguistic and cultural practices.…

This paper draws on Bakhtins notion of heteroglossia to expand theorizations of community translanguaging. Ethnographic and practitioner inquiry methods are used to explore the multiple voices that multilingual elementary students adopted and adapted in their digital, translingual texts. Findings illustrate how children drew from multiple voices,…

For educators committed to promoting social equity, the question of how to address dialect hegemony is increasingly important. While linguists have long accepted the concept of dialect equality, educators have struggled with the issue, sparking a history of controversy and debate underscoring larger social issues of diversity and equity. For…

Grounded within the tenets of culturally responsive education, this qualitative case study examined the culturally responsive instructional practices of teachers working with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse students in sheltered English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms that mainly serve English language learners in an urban high…

This article describes the design and implementation of a project from a translanguaging pedagogical stance. The research presented seeks to understand how translanguaging as a multimodal practice shapes the experiences of students in a traditional English Language Arts 8th-grade classroom and how students leveraged their multimodal semiotic…

Purpose: The main purpose is to investigate what resources young emergent bilinguals use to communicate a multimodal response to children's literature. In particular, attention is paid to the ways students translanguage as part of the learning process. Design/methodology/approach: An ethnography-in-education approach was used to capture the social…

This article argues that writing teachers should allow, and even encourage, students to code-mesh in community college classrooms. By looking at and analyzing code-meshed writing produced by three students in an English 101 class, the author argues that code-meshing provides students with both a craft-wise approach to writing and a way to address…

There has been a high failure rate of Grade 10 learners in the year end examinations in the Caprivi Education Region of Namibia over a number of years. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the use of mother tongue in English medium classrooms enhanced learners' academic achievement.The study investigated 12 teachers at 12 schools…

This article responds to two long-standing dilemmas that limit the effectiveness of language education for students who speak and write in African American Language (AAL): (1) the gap between theory and research on AAL and classroom practice, and (2) the need for critical language pedagogies. This article presents the effectiveness of a critical…

Secondary English teachers are charged with helping all students to read, write, and understand English in its many forms and functions. However, students' language can be as diverse as the literature teachers bring to the classroom. Not all students come to the classroom with the skills to write standardized English; even fewer students come with…

Embracing the dynamic nature of English language can help students learn more about all forms of English. To fully engage students, teachers should not adhere to an anachronistic and static view of English. Instead, they must acknowledge, accept, and even use different language forms within the classroom to make that classroom dynamic, inclusive,…

The authors present a perspective on emerging bilingual deaf students who are exposed to, learning, and developing two languages--American Sign Language (ASL) and English (spoken English, manually coded English, and English reading and writing). The authors suggest that though deaf children may lack proficiency or fluency in either language during…

The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom conversations about diverse dialects of English can provide a useful foundation for critical language and literacy instruction for students who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and other stigmatized dialects. This article describes a weeklong unit on language variety that…

Linguistic structures and cultural conflicts are the reasons why African-American students fare poorly in literacy instructions in classrooms. Some ideas for creating an accessible, research-based approach to language arts in dialectally diverse classrooms are presented.

Discusses the controversy over the use of Ebonics in the Oakland (California) schools and presents two schools of thought about the origin of Ebonics, the pidgin/Creole and the African retention theories. Three research studies are described that support the use of Ebonics in the classroom as a bridge to standard English. (SLD)