Leveraging Heteroglossic Everyday Language Ecologies
Krista L Cortes, José Ramón Lizárraga, Samuel Martinez and Kris Gutiérrez
Purpose: This poster reports on the ways in which households serve as language ecologies that encompass hybrid language practices, described by Gutierrez and colleagues as a “systematic, strategic, affiliative, and sense-making process among those who share the code, as they strive to achieve mutual understanding” (Gutiérrez, Baquedano-Lopez, Alvarez & Chiu, 1999, p. 6). Through the analysis of various data, we sought to understand the ways in which everyday language practices mediate the social organization of learning in the home.
We draw on additive understandings of multilingualism as hybrid, sociocultural and situated (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011). Our study also draws on the work on translanguaging as a dynamic process whereby multilingual language users mediate complex semiotic and cognitive resources to act, to know and to be (Garcia & Li Wei, 2013; Garcia, 2013).
Theoretical Framework: We draw on additive understandings of multilingualism as hybrid, sociocultural and situated (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011). Our study also draws on the work on translanguaging as a dynamic process whereby multilingual language users mediate complex semiotic and cognitive resources to act, to know and to be (Garcia & Li Wei, 2013; Garcia, 2013).
Methods:
•This study drew on data of three families from a larger study of 14 families each consisting of a large data set of video recorded data, audio interviews, observations, field notes, and surveys.
•Language practices are analyzed as situated and embodied forms of social cultural interaction in activity systems.
•Analysis included systematic coding of video data and logs, and discourse analysis of transcripts.
Findings:
•There is a marked interplay between the use of English descriptors encompassing outsider institutional perspectives and an intentionality between the use and privileging of the non-dominant Spanish language in the home. This strategic code-switching helped buffer negatively ascribed learner identities. One mother code switches appropriating the institutionalized English deficit labels that originate from school when describing her son, “puede ser menos smart…está en below grade level de reading,” while countering this with additive Spanish home based descriptors, “que puede estar avanzando por que es muy inteligente.”
•Hybrid language practices appear to foster joint activity and emerge as a form of ingenuity. For example, in one family we see a mother and daughter engage in hybrid language practices and gestures as they collaboratively work on a puzzles. In another family, two siblings used a hybridized register of English and Spanish (Spanglish) as they navigated a game on a tablet computer
We draw on additive understandings of multilingualism as hybrid, sociocultural and situated (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011). Our study also draws on the work on translanguaging as a dynamic process whereby multilingual language users mediate complex semiotic and cognitive resources to act, to know and to be (Garcia & Li Wei, 2013; Garcia, 2013).
Theoretical Framework: We draw on additive understandings of multilingualism as hybrid, sociocultural and situated (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011). Our study also draws on the work on translanguaging as a dynamic process whereby multilingual language users mediate complex semiotic and cognitive resources to act, to know and to be (Garcia & Li Wei, 2013; Garcia, 2013).
Methods:
•This study drew on data of three families from a larger study of 14 families each consisting of a large data set of video recorded data, audio interviews, observations, field notes, and surveys.
•Language practices are analyzed as situated and embodied forms of social cultural interaction in activity systems.
•Analysis included systematic coding of video data and logs, and discourse analysis of transcripts.
Findings:
•There is a marked interplay between the use of English descriptors encompassing outsider institutional perspectives and an intentionality between the use and privileging of the non-dominant Spanish language in the home. This strategic code-switching helped buffer negatively ascribed learner identities. One mother code switches appropriating the institutionalized English deficit labels that originate from school when describing her son, “puede ser menos smart…está en below grade level de reading,” while countering this with additive Spanish home based descriptors, “que puede estar avanzando por que es muy inteligente.”
•Hybrid language practices appear to foster joint activity and emerge as a form of ingenuity. For example, in one family we see a mother and daughter engage in hybrid language practices and gestures as they collaboratively work on a puzzles. In another family, two siblings used a hybridized register of English and Spanish (Spanglish) as they navigated a game on a tablet computer
Significance:
The study presents implications for informing the support of more robust and expansive literacy and language practices in schools that move away from current reductive approaches to multilingualism. This calls for a leveraging of horizontal and vertical forms of learning through a syncretic approach (Gutiérrez & Stone, 1998), and remediated praxis through social design research (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2009).
Emergent Questions:
•What can schools learn from bilingual households about the role of language in supporting pro social identities, building relationships, and facilitating joint participation?
•How can classrooms reorganize learning in ways that afford diverse ways of communicating perspectives, meanings and understandings?
References:
García, O., & Wei, L. (2013). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and
education. Palgrave Macmillan.
García, O. (2013). Countering the dual: Transglossia, dynamic bilingualism, and
translanguaging in education. The global-local interface and hybridity, 100-118.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano‐López, P., Alvarez, H. H., & Chiu, M. M. (1999). Building
a culture of collaboration through hybrid language practices. Theory into
practice, 38(2), 87-93.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Bien, A. C., Selland, M. K., & Pierce, D. M. (2011). Polylingual and
polycultural learning ecologies: Mediating emergent academic literacies for dual
language learners. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 11(2), 232-261.
Gutiérrez, K. D. (1995). Unpackaging academic discourse. Discourse processes, 19(1),
21-37.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Stone, L. D. (1998). An Emerging Methodology for Cultural-
historical Perspectives on Literacy Learning: Synchronic and Diachronic
Dimensions of Social Practice.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Vossoughi, S. (2009). Lifting off the ground to return anew:
Mediated praxis, transformative learning, and social design experiments.Journal
of Teacher Education.
The study presents implications for informing the support of more robust and expansive literacy and language practices in schools that move away from current reductive approaches to multilingualism. This calls for a leveraging of horizontal and vertical forms of learning through a syncretic approach (Gutiérrez & Stone, 1998), and remediated praxis through social design research (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2009).
Emergent Questions:
•What can schools learn from bilingual households about the role of language in supporting pro social identities, building relationships, and facilitating joint participation?
•How can classrooms reorganize learning in ways that afford diverse ways of communicating perspectives, meanings and understandings?
References:
García, O., & Wei, L. (2013). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and
education. Palgrave Macmillan.
García, O. (2013). Countering the dual: Transglossia, dynamic bilingualism, and
translanguaging in education. The global-local interface and hybridity, 100-118.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano‐López, P., Alvarez, H. H., & Chiu, M. M. (1999). Building
a culture of collaboration through hybrid language practices. Theory into
practice, 38(2), 87-93.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Bien, A. C., Selland, M. K., & Pierce, D. M. (2011). Polylingual and
polycultural learning ecologies: Mediating emergent academic literacies for dual
language learners. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 11(2), 232-261.
Gutiérrez, K. D. (1995). Unpackaging academic discourse. Discourse processes, 19(1),
21-37.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Stone, L. D. (1998). An Emerging Methodology for Cultural-
historical Perspectives on Literacy Learning: Synchronic and Diachronic
Dimensions of Social Practice.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Vossoughi, S. (2009). Lifting off the ground to return anew:
Mediated praxis, transformative learning, and social design experiments.Journal
of Teacher Education.