Translanguaging in a writer's workshop

Abstract

Translanguaging refers to the practice of students and teachers employing all available linguistic resources in learning. Though research has long demonstrated the advantages of bilingualism, English Language Learners also known as Emergent Bilingual students often perform below their monolingual peers and struggle in English-dominant schools. Translanguaging encourages these students and their teachers to use their first languages to help them learn and work in English. It requires a change of mindset forcing teachers and students to see bilingualism, even emerging bilingualism, as a tool and not a deficit. By actively learning to use all their languages, students are empowered to focus on what they can do and use it to grow. This study describes a teacher’s attempt to change her practices to encourage translanguaging, and how her students used translanguaging. In this action research project, the teacher introduced translanguaging to a second grade writer’s workshop. The class of 20 students included nine emergent bilingual students in an English-dominant school setting. The researcher shares how the students used translanguaging and how their writing grew during the writer’s workshop. The results showed that, with teacher’s encouragement and having bilingual partners, students used translanguaging to talk to each other in forming ideas and planning their writing. Their writing improved in many ways. This study demonstrated that with an intentional encouragement of translanguaging, a teacher can begin to make a difference for her students. The exciting implications are that any monolingual teacher could teach these strategies to benefit their bilingual students.