Below, Rooted in Strength co-authors Dr. Laura Ascenzi-Moreno and Dr. Cecilia M. Espinosa share powerful insights about translanguaging and multilingualism for educators on how to enrich the classroom during this time and beyond. Dive into their thoughts on how to honor the cultural heritage and diverse languages of Latinx members all year long.
Q&A with Dr. Laura Ascenzi-Moreno and Dr. Cecilia M. Espinosa
It is so important that students understand and acknowledge each other’s cultures and traditions. Can you share two to three tips on how educators can help encourage this, especially during Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, in the classroom?
Hispanic Heritage Month is a great opportunity for educators to engage in reflection and action that creates rich and welcoming environments for all students who identify as Latinx.
First, we encourage teachers to reflect on the challenges and possibilities a term like, “Hispanic,” presents. Hispanic refers to people originating from Spain and also encompasses people who speak Spanish. This is a complicated term that cannot possibly capture the complexity of the diversity of people who come from many geographical locations and socio-cultural backgrounds in Latin America and the United States. There is a wide range of language histories and ethnic and racial backgrounds. For example, we prefer the terms Latinx and Latine.
Second, it is critical that teachers create environments that both reflect and expand upon the diverse Latin experience. We encourage educators to read a wide variety of books with Latinx characters to ensure that your classroom library offers children and youth reading materials that reflect from a perspective of asset the rich diversity of the people from Latin America, including Afro-Latinx and Indigenous people.
Lastly, we encourage students and educators to ensure that there are spaces in the curriculum for students to share their lived experiences in a variety of ways including through opportunities for translanguaging, a powerful stance to build and sustain the children’s entire linguistic repertoire. When teachers take up a translanguaging stance, they send a message to students that they value their students’ diverse linguistic resources as a source of strength.
Your book, Rooted in Strength, covers the ins and outs of translanguaging and utilizing student strengths during this process. Can you explain what translanguaging means and its role in the classroom?
Translanguaging takes a perspective that says multilingualism IS the norm. Translanguaging is a new way of thinking about language and the language practices of emergent bilinguals. Through translanguaging pedagogy, the teacher ensures the whole child comes into the classroom with their entire linguistic repertoire.
Translanguaging creates spaces for teaching and learning that are not only more effective but also more equitable. In a translanguaging space, emergent bilinguals are viewed from a perspective of strength, fully capable, and with a rich array of resources critical to their learning.
When educators take a translanguaging stance, they ground it in the resources that emergent bilinguals bring into the classrooms. There are a couple of ways that translanguaging can look in the classroom. For example, teachers can have their learning objectives in both English and languages other than English. Teachers can choose to read books that incorporate dialog in other languages to demonstrate authenticity. Teachers can engage students in a discussion across characters in a book. Teachers can also encourage students to use the language practices that they are most comfortable in to discuss with others when they turn and talk to others.
Could you share some examples of how educators can use translanguaging to celebrate Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month with their students?
This month is an opportunity for educators to kick off and become familiar with activities that they can then sustain the entire year. One activity that we feature in our book is the "Language Portrait." Language portraits have been used by educators across grade levels to learn about students' language practices and to provide students with opportunities to consider the ways that they engage in language with others and across contexts. In this activity, students color in a blank figure with colors assigned to their different language practices to indicate how they live out their language. This activity provides students with an opportunity to reflect on how they use their language practices across contexts. It also allows teachers to have insight into their students.
What advice would you give Hispanic and Latine students as they navigate language learning and celebrating their cultural heritage? And their teachers?
Multilingualism is an asset. There is not one standard Spanish. Instead, there is a rich array of languaging practices. Teachers: avoid generalizations about what is meant by cultural heritage. Challenge stereotypes. Here are some ways to do that:
It is critical that teachers celebrate and honor this bountiful diversity. Teachers can create spaces for the students to develop metalinguistic awareness by studying how words are used in different geographical spaces or by different groups. Spanish in Latin America has borrowed from Indigenous languages. Take the time to study the meanings and origins of these words. In Ecuador, for example, the word “Ayayay” is a Quechua word that is used often and it means “ouch.” The word “cuy” is another Quechua word that means “guinea pig.” The word,”papalote,” is used in Mexico to refer to “kite," and is adopted from the Nahuatl word “papalotl.”
Begin with stories. Never underestimate the power of stories. When thinking about cultural heritage, start with the children and their families in your class. Celebrate students' cultural heritage by inviting the children and their families to share about their cultural heritage. Invite them to do it in multimodal ways, so that the music, painting, dance, theater, writing, poetry, oral traditions, and digital literacies can become integral forms of expression. For example, a school in the Bronx drew on an exhibit from the Tenement Museum in New York City. It is called "Your Story/My Story." The school asked the children and their families to share an object that tells a family story. They were invited to draw on their entire linguistic repertoire to write about the object and its significance to the family. A special day is selected for families to come to see the gallery. This is a wonderful way for the school to learn about the families and the children and for families to learn about one another.
Study the communities where the children come from. Take community walks, take photos/videos, talk/interview people in the community, invite diverse artists from the community to your class, and attend a local festival.
How can translanguaging help contribute to authentic learning experiences?
We hope that teachers will create spaces for emergent bilinguals to use translanguaging in intentional and purposeful ways. In our book, we identify principles that we hope teachers will take up in the classroom to facilitate authentic learning experiences for emergent bilingual students. Here are some:
- Listening, talking, reading, writing, and multiple modalities are tools for thinking, learning, wondering, and expressing that are central to the development of literacies. To construct meaning fully, students need to leverage their entire linguistic repertoire in literacy events.
- Students need to be involved right from the beginning in literacy events and be encouraged to engage as thoughtful and critical thinkers, readers, writers, and creators. Translanguaging allows this engagement in learning to happen in transformative ways.
- Translanguaging is not a scaffold teachers use while the student learns English, translanguaging is a stance toward multilingualism that views it as an asset and the norm.
In this post, Dr. Laura Ascenzi-Moreno and Dr. Cecilia M. Espinosa refer to those who identify with Hispanic Heritage Month as Latinx to acknowledge the growing shift of inclusivity within the culture.
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