[Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher

Thu Apr 21 01:54:02 UTC 2016

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your thoughts.

I was also at AAAL and have been following the discussion on
translanguaging. My  understanding is that it's a question of how we frame
language use, with the focus on using all resources to make meaning,
without being restricted to a single lingusitc system.

The dual goal of the teacher was to promote meaning making in a
translanguaging context, also promoting English learning, academic language
development and biliteracy in both Spanish and English.

This has been a great discussion, reflecting empathy for this sincere and
dedicated teacher, and considering the connection of research to pedagogy
as the teacher requested.

Cordially,
Miriam
On Apr 20, 2016 9:37 PM, "Peter Sayer" <peter.sayer at utsa.edu> wrote:

> At AAAL in Florida a few weeks ago there were at least 3 symposia dealing
> with multilingualism in the classroom, many from a translanguaging
> perspective, which followed several symposia and papers from last year’s
> conference on translanguaging, and including a lively debate about the
> differences between code-switching and translanguaging framework.  To
> answer the “many ways” part of Larry’s comment: the translanguaging work
> has included looking at bilingual K-12 classrooms, but also heritage
> language schools, higher education settings, academic second language
> writing, as well as looking at it from an interactional perspective of what
> students in classroom do to negotiate academic content, from the teacher’s
> perspective of how she more effectively draws on students’ multilingual
> resources; it’s also been used to look at multilingual workspaces,
> transnationals’ social media posts, as so forth.
>
> I agree that the term is being used in a variety of ways that aren’t
> always consistent with each other (as with any newer concept, and hence
> those questioning if the term is really needed if “code-switching” still
> does perfectly well), but generally it seems most people using it are
> trying to capture Garcia’s notion of a post-structural approach to looking
> at multilingual repertoires through language practice – which therefore
> includes but is broader than code-switching (and like most po-mo concepts
> quite hard to pin down).
>
> From: <edling-bounces at bunner.geol.lu.se> on behalf of Larry Selinker <
> larry.selinker at nyu.edu>
> Reply-To: "larry.selinker at nyu.edu" <larry.selinker at nyu.edu>, The
> Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
> Date: Monday, April 18, 2016 at 8:25 PM
> To: The Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
> Subject: Re: [Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher
>
> *sorry, i have no knowledge on this, but something peter mentioned did
> intrigue me:*
>
> *> *Anne Marie mentions the concept is being used in many ways recently,
>
> *i did see a message from Anne Marie but did not see mention of these
> "many ways".  i must confess i have had trouble getting a clear idea of
> this concept from the vast and growing literature. **i would really like
> to know what are the many ways that the concept is being used, either from
> Peter or *Anne Marie.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> * Best, Cheers, Larry Larry Selinker*
> *ls110 at nyu.edu <ls110 at nyu.edu>*
> *http://www.researchproductionassociates.com/
> <http://www.researchproductionassociates.com/>*
>
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Miriam E Ebsworth <mee1 at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear Peter,
>>
>> Thank you for your thoughts and for taking the time and trouble to share
>> them.
>>
>> I'll forward them to the teacher.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Miriam
>>
>> Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, PhD
>> Dir. of PhD & Post-MA Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
>> NYU Steinhardt,
>> 316 East Building
>> New York, NY 10003
>>
>> Research Editor: Journal of Writing and Pedagogy
>> Chair, NABE Research SIG Advisory Board
>> Co-chair, ELL Think Tank
>>
>> office phone: (212) 998-5195
>> office fax: (212) 995-3636
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Peter Sayer <peter.sayer at utsa.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Ofelia Garcia’s (2009) *Bilingual Education in the 21 Century* is a
>>> good comprehensive text and has a clear explanation of translanguaging,
>>> though as Anne Marie mentions the concept is being used in many ways
>>> recently, and also harkens back to earlier bilingual approaches to
>>> bilingual ed such as Jacobson’s (1980s) “New Concurrent” approach which
>>> advocated the teacher’s use of purposeful and strategic language mixing.
>>>
>>> About the positioning of above-below vs. side-to-side: I’m not aware of
>>> any work on this specific aspect of language positioning, but would say
>>> from a (1) linguistic perspective, it makes good sense to put a particular
>>> sentence in one language above another so that students can more clearly
>>> see how syntactic and lexical elements line up.  However, from a (2)
>>> language valorization perspective, the problem the observer may have had
>>> was not above-below per se, but rather that English was positioned ABOVE
>>> Spanish, which may be seen as implicitly reinforcing the subordinate
>>> position of the minoritized language.  In that case, positioning the
>>> languages side by side represents them on more equal footing (or even use
>>> above/below, but put Spanish on top).  Or maybe the observer was just being
>>> cranky… but kudos to the teacher for taking the critique seriously and
>>> following up.
>>>
>>> - peter.-
>>>
>>> From: <edling-bounces at bunner.geol.lu.se> on behalf of anne marie devlin
>>> <anne_mariedevlin at hotmail.com>
>>> Reply-To: The Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
>>> Date: Monday, April 18, 2016 at 9:04 AM
>>> To: The Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
>>> Subject: Re: [Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher
>>>
>>> Miriam
>>>
>>> Current research is coming out strongly in favour of 'translanguaging'
>>> where code switching is seen as a benefit to learners rather than a sign of
>>> lack of acquisition.
>>> I'm not at my desk and don't have access to references at the moment,
>>> but a google search should bring up some interesting findings to support
>>> your colleagues approach.
>>>
>>> Hope that helps
>>>
>>> Anne Marie
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:29:35 -0500
>>> From: mee1 at nyu.edu
>>> To: francis.hult at englund.lu.se; edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
>>> Subject: [Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher
>>>
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>> A grad of one of our programs is a bilingual (Spanish) social studies
>>> teacher in New York City, with 11 years of teaching experience.
>>>
>>> The teacher received a super-critical review of a class observation from
>>> somebody outside the school who observed a single lesson. The observer knew
>>> nothing in advance about the teacher's curriculum or approach; there had
>>> been no communication with the teacher in advance of the observation.
>>> After having written a scathing observation report, the observer refused to
>>> have a conversation with the teacher, who sought politely to explain their
>>> perspective and try to understand better the nature of the critique.
>>>
>>> The teacher has requested input on one issue in particular:
>>> At the top of the lesson, the teacher had written a guiding question in
>>> English with the Spanish version directly underneath.
>>>
>>> The teacher, as I understand it, sought to have the students first try
>>> to understand the text in English, then read it in Spanish, and using all
>>> linguistic resources make meaning out of the question. (And ultimately, the
>>> students will be tested in English.)
>>>
>>> One of the many criticisms in the observation report was that the
>>> English and Spanish versions should have appeared side by side rather than
>>> one above the other. The teacher is perplexed.
>>>
>>> While the teacher's explanation makes sense to me, I have been asked
>>> whether there is any objective guidance available from the research on best
>>> practices to advocate for EITHER of the 2 approaches (2 languages side by
>>> side versus one above the other).
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance for sharing your perspective. I'll pass it on.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Miriam
>>>
>>> Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, PhD
>>> Dir. of PhD & Post-MA Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
>>> NYU Steinhardt,
>>> 316 East Building
>>> New York, NY 10003
>>>
>>> Research Editor: Journal of Writing and Pedagogy
>>> Chair, NABE Research SIG Advisory Board
>>> Co-chair, ELL Think Tank
>>>
>>> office phone: (212) 998-5195
>>> office fax: (212) 995-3636
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________ Edling mailing list
>>> Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
>>> http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Edling mailing list
>>> Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
>>> http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Edling mailing list
>> Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
>> http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edling mailing list
> Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
> http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/edling/attachments/20160420/c80ff91c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling