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NJ Title III & Bilingual/ESL Education Program Resources

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NJ Title III & Bilingual/ESL Education Program Resources

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The the New Jersey Department of Education website there is a section on Bilingual and ESL education programs. In this source there are numerous links providing resources for ESL/Bilingual programs. There are resources for family engagement, program resources, regional resources, testing and classroom instruction and curriculum. These resources are extremely important to consider, as they are given by the NJDOE.

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Parents of English language learners (ELLs) should be provided with opportunities to fully participate in school events and activities. The below resources will assist school personnel in engaging parents to make this possible.

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Parents of English language learners (ELLs) should be provided with opportunities to fully participate in school events and activities. The below resources will assist school personnel in engaging parents to make this possible.

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Importance of allowing a students L1 to be used in the classroom

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Importance of allowing a students L1 to be used in the classroom

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Larry Ferlazzo wrote about the importance of using a students home language in the classroom. This source goes over how the number of emergent bilingual students has grown immensely over the past few decades, and the number will continue to grow. This source talks about the benefits of using a student's L1 in the classroom, and how to support those students. By using a student's L1 in the classroom, you are preserving their language and culture and helping student's build a solid academic identity. This not only helps the student with their identity, but it helps students with academic success in literacy.

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The new "question-of-the-week" is:
What is the role, if any, of an ELL student's home language in the classroom?
In Part One of this series, Melissa Eddington, Wendi Pillars, Tracey Flores, Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo, and Mary Ann Zehr offered their thoughts. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Melissa, Wendi and Tracey on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Today, Rosa Isiah, Tan Huynh, Karen Nemeth, Sarah Thomas contribute their responses to the question.
Response From Rosa Isiah
Rosa Isiah, Ed. D serves students as principal at Smith Elementary School in Lawndale, Calif. Rosa is passionate and purposeful about equity, closing the opportunity gap, and learning with her school community:
"It is hard to argue that we are teaching the whole child when school policy dictates that students leave their language and culture at the schoolhouse door" (Cummins, 2005). The number of English Learners has dramatically increased over the last two decades. Current research indicates an extraordinary boom in our English Learner student population in the United States. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 4.5 million English learners are enrolled in public schools across the U.S. (CDE, 2016). The growth is evident across the nation, but especially in California where "...one of every four students is an English learner" (Goldenberg, 2010). For many educators, English language learners ARE the majority student population in our schools. Clearly, educators have the responsibility of addressing the needs of this growing student population, including nurturing the precious linguistic and cultural diversity they bring into the classroom. The validation of a student's culture, home language, as well as the development of academic identity, should be a priority for every educator who has the privilege of working with language learners. Home Language and Academic Identity The home language of our English Learners plays a major role in the development of their academic identity and overall educational success. Researchers have found that validating a student's culture and language in a safe and encouraging environment will help students develop a positive and confident student self image. "Students perception of how the majority culture accepts or rejects the culture and language they bring to school are extremely important for their eventual success" (as cited in Walqui & van Lier, 2010). Culture and Home Language: English learner Assets The linguistic and cultural diversity offered by our English learners has not been valued as an asset or a resource by many in the educational communities. Linguistically diverse students often have no choice but to adapt to an English-only culture and assimilate to the dominant language, English, as quickly as possible. In the process of attempting to immerse our students, educators create a subtractive schooling experience for students where their culture and language is seen as a challenge to overcome. This type of experience hurts the overall confidence and academic success of English learners, students who are trying to accommodate their ideas, feelings, and position in school. In life. Home Language in the Classroom We cannot completely address the needs of our English learners if we don't consider their culture and language and use that knowledge as a teaching tool. How can educators support the home language of English learners in the classroom? We can support students in the classroom by:

Affirming a student's home language and culture- talk about it, ask about it, establish a genuine connection with students

Inviting student to share similarities and differences between the students home language, second language, and cultures

Seek opportunities to incorporate home language in projects, celebrations, lessons

Give students an opportunity to use home language in the classroom

Provide materials in primary language: books, resources, websites, apps

Model strong language use in both home and second languages

Promote education about diversity, equity, and tolerance within the community

Encourage parents and families to continue to speak and preserve language and culture at home

Create opportunities for families and teachers to celebrate and share language and culture with the school community

There are many benefits to embracing and drawing from a student's home language. Connections to a student's primary language encourages bilingualism, preserves language and culture, helps develop a solid academic identity, and promotes overall academic literacy. Understanding these benefits and the monumental role culture and language play in the academic identity and success of English Learners must be a priority for all educators. Response From Tan Huynh
Tan Huynh is a Teach For America alumnus and the head of the English Language Acquisition Department at Vientiane International School, an International Baccalaureate World School. He shares his classroom-tested, research-supported strategies on his blog, EmpoweringELLs.com with the hopes of adding to teachers' instructional toolkits:
Some school adopt philosophies that are focused on learning with technology, while others adopt those that focus on technology integration. The difference between the two is the degree to which technology is seen as a fun activity versus an intentional tool for learning. The same philosophy is true for home language (HL) integration. It can seen as something to "honor" during cultural heritage months, or it can be valued as a tool to aid instruction. I prefer the latter. There are three ways principle reasons I integrate HL into instruction: 1) to foster comprehensible input (Krashen, 1981), 2) to encourage social interactions and 3) facilitate comprehensible output (Krashen, 1981). Here are some specific ways I do so: These strategies demonstrate the useful, strategic role HLs can play within instruction. HLs should not just be honored during sporadic cultural celebrations, and they should be used jointly with English in any classroom. Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Response From Karen Nemeth This question has special importance for teachers working with birth - age 5 populations because these are the children that have not yet fully developed in either/any of their languages. For this reason, the role of each child's home language in the preschool and kindergarten classroom is critical. As early childhood programs are becoming increasingly diverse, several organizations have released similar recommendations. In, a paper from ETS, Ackerman and Tazi (2015) reviewed the research and reported a growing number of studies showing that supporting a young child's learning of and learning in their home language is an effective way to build English competency. The term "dual language learners" (DLLs) is used to describe multilingual children in preschool and kindergarten instead of "English learners" because it highlights the importance of supporting both languages. While young children are still in the process of learning their home language, support of that language is vital. We know that the brains of young DLLs have separate systems for each of their languages. They know information in the language that was used to teach them that information. To successfully build on their prior learning, teachers need to be able to interact with DLLs using both of their languages. Learning English is also very important, so early childhood educators have to find a balance between the types and amounts of language inputs. For this, we do not yet have definitive, research-based answers. We do know, however, that children who are immersed too early in English are likely to lose some of their home language proficiency. Children who continue to receive support in their home language at home and at school not only maintain their home language, but seem to experience no negative impact on their English language development. And DLLs that are immersed in English may be losing ground with concept and vocabulary learning as so much of what happens in their school time is not comprehensible to them. By supporting a child's home language and helping them see connections between what they know in that language with new information in English, teachers help them keep up with learning. Concept knowledge forms the foundation for all later language, literacy and learning. The more teachers do to make sure young children are getting a healthy dose of concept learning in any language, the better the children will achieve in English later on. In addition to these cognitive and academic reasons, teachers should also consider that supporting a child's home language is beneficial to his identity development and self-esteem. Supporting the home language also encourages children to continue using it at home where it can be the tie that strengthens family bonds and home-school relationships. What can teachers do when they don't speak the home languages of children in their class? Try these strategies:

1. Invite family members or bilingual volunteers in to play, read and talk with the children.

2. Ask the local children's librarian for help finding high quality, authentic children's literature, videos and non-fiction resources in the needed languages.

3. Encourage oral language practice via conversations with adults and peers.

4. Learn some relevant key words in each child's home language by practicing with bilingual children's stories or apps that come with audio recordings.

Ackerman, D. & Tazi, Z. (2015) Enhancing Young Hispanic Dual Language Learner's Achievement: Exploring Strategies and Addressing Challenges, Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Response From Sarah Thomas Many times, when students enter school, they are met with a deficit model of bilingualism. Terms such as "limited English proficient" and movements such as "English only" do a huge disservice to students, as they fail to realize the strength that students bring with their home language and culture. Instead, schools should be embracing the richness that students bring, and fostering a positive climate that helps to bolster their cultural identity. For that reason, students should be allowed to communicate in their home language when in school. In addition, special attention should be given to underrepresented groups, who are often overlooked in terms of services provided.
Thanks to Rosa, Tan, Karen and Sarah for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a number of education publishers.
Just a reminder-you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And, if you missed any of the highlights from the first five years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. They don't include ones from this current year, but you can find them by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. This Year's Most Popular Q & A Posts! Classroom Management Advice Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning Relationships In Schools Instructional Strategies Author Interviews
Look for Part Three in a few days...

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Response: Understanding the Benefits of a Student's Home Language (Opinion)

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Rosa Isiah, Tan Huynh, Karen Nemeth, Sarah Thomas contribute their ideas on the role of English Language Learners' home language in school.

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In this source, it talks about who emergent bilinguals are, and why they are referred to ask emergent bilinguals. Emergent bilinguals are often referred to as ELLs or ELs. The term "emergent bilingual" is a much more positive description of these students. This term focuses on the fact that students are learning in two languages and that their home language and new language are BOTH valuable.

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What is an emergent bilingual?

Emergent bilinguals, who are often referred to as English Language Learners (ELLs) or English Learners (ELs), are students who are continuing to develop their home language while also learning an additional language. The term "emergent bilingual" is intended as a positive description of these students, in that it emphasizes that they're learning in two languages, and that both the home language and new language are of value.

Why this change in terminology?

In the US, we've traditionally looked at emergent bilinguals through the lens of deficits, focusing on what they don't know, what they can't understand, etc. This is reinforced by terms like "English Language Learner" or-worse-"Limited English Proficiency" (LEP), which is an overly negative way to describe these students.

Rather than placing the emphasis on gaps and deficits, it's more productive to take an asset-based approach that focuses on what these students know and can do in both languages-and how we can then build on this. The term "emergent bilingual" signifies this important change in perspective.

What is EdWords™?

Edwords (· words) n. 1. K12 glossary breaking through buzzwords to solve the challenge of a common definition.
2. Renaissance ® resource to help educators take part in discussion, debate, and meaningful discourse. 3. Educators' jargon buster.

How does Renaissance support emergent bilinguals?

Our Star Assessments are available in English and Spanish to support assessment and instruction in both languages.

The English-language versions of Star are built on detailed learning progressions for reading and math, which list the skills across grades K-12 that students must master for college and career readiness. Our progressions are available for all fifty states plus Washington DC, to ensure the progression of skills matches the sequence and organization of each state's learning standards.

In August 2020, we became the first K-12 assessment company to release an authentic learning progression for Spanish. La progresión de la lectura de Renaissance shows you how reading develops in Spanish across grade levels and domains. When you assess emergent bilinguals in both Spanish and English with Star, you receive detailed instructional planning information in each language-so you can see the next best steps to move learning forward for every student.

A newsletter full of product information, blog articles, tips, and other resources for today's educators

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Emergent Bilingual - What is it? - EdWords - Renaissance

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Emergent bilinguals, who are often referred to as English Language Learners (ELLs) or English Learners (ELs), are students who are continuing to develop their home language while also learning an additional language. The term "emergent bilingual" is intended as a positive description of these students, in that it emphasizes that they're learning in two languages, and that both the home language and new language are of value.

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While I was researching translanguaging, I cam across the term code-switching. In the beginning of my research I often got the two confused, and this is common. In this source, it talks about the difference between translanguaging and code-switching. "Code-switching is seen as the process of changing two languages, whereas translanguaging is about “the speakers’ construction that creates the complete language repertoire." Knowing the difference between the two, is important when thinking about implementing translanguaging instructional practices into the classroom.

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In this document, the English Learner's Success Forum goes over different translanguaging strategies. This resource focuses on the students' funds of knowledge and embrace them for disciplinary learning. It goes over 21 different instructional strategies and gives a description of what it looks like in the classroom. There are general strategies that work for all subject areas and then there are specific strategies listed for literacy.

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Benefits of Multilingual Research by Bilingual Students

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Benefits of Multilingual Research by Bilingual Students

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First off, this is a source that Professor Seltzer is a co-author of! (AWESOME!) I wanted to focus in on this section of the guide because it talked about something I hadn't focused on yet or heard of doing with bilingual students. Multilingual research gives students: access to more information, opportunities to see the world from multiple perspectives, connections to background knowledge about their current learning in their home languages and opportunities to develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in multiple languages. ALL OF THAT FROM multilingual research. This is something teachers can implement into their units or lessons for students. There is a table on this section of the guide that goes over the standards being addressed for elementary, middle and high school and how multilingual research looks in action for each of those grades.

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The benefits of using translanguaging in the classroom

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The benefits of using translanguaging in the classroom

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At Salem State University, a student named Jillian Neault, wrote an honors theses on how using translanguaging practices in the classroom will benefit emergent bilingual students. In her theses, she goes over the difference between bilingual and ESL, what translanguaging is, how students benefit and have a right to use their first language, at home and at school benefits of translanguaging, and why it is not widely used today. This these covers many topics under the umbrella of translanguaging. The quote that stuck out to me most from this paper is, "Allowing them to use both languages to connect the word will make them have a deeper and more instantaneous understanding of new words" (Neault, 2020). Emergent bilingual students have the ability to use their home language as a guide to learn academic skills in English. By fostering this, and allowing students to do so, you are allowing them to keep their culture, rather than forcing them to use English only in the classroom.

Citation:
Neault, Jillian, "Why Incorporating Translanguaging Practices Into English As A Second Language
Programs Will Help Boost English Proficiency And Build Confident English Learners" (2020). Honors Theses. 279.
https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/honors_theses/279

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First hand experience and opinions on using translanguaging in the classroom

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First hand experience and opinions on using translanguaging in the classroom

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I watched this video, and knew immediately that I wanted to include it on this padlet. Two teachers share their experience on using translanguaging in their classroom. From the beginning you are able to see raw evidence of the power of using translanguaging in the classroom. The teacher's and their students had such a positive experience from using it in the classroom. Other than scientific research/data, there is nothing better than hearing a first hand experience with translanguaging.

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How translanguaging works in the classroom

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How translanguaging works in the classroom

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Most classrooms will make the mistake of using a monoglossic ideology. This leads to views on languages as autonomous wholes. This perspective then leads to the mistake of believing bilinguals are double monolinguals. As teachers, we need to take a translanguaging stance in our classroom. We need to understand that translanguaging is a way for emergent bilinguals to actively use both languages to make sense of their ideas and thoughts. Translanguaging helps students understand that language is a part of a country's culture. Understanding various languages builds a students language repertoire.

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Translanguaging in basic terms is a person's own use of the various languages they speak. For example, a person whose home language is Spanish, may use mostly Spanish when speaking to their family, and a little bit of English as well within the same sentence of conversation. A definition of translanguaging from a perspective of the science of linguistics is, "the deployment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages" (Yip & García, 2015).

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Joanna Yip & Ofelia García, Ph.D.
The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Introduction

In the Spring of 2015, a group of doctoral students at the CUNY Graduate Center spent a semester in Ofelia's course on multilingualism grappling with the ideas of translanguaging and what it means to work toward a world in which multiple languages are valued, particularly for the purposes of education. The graduate students challenged their existing understandings of language, of how language is used (and not used) in education, and searched for ways to bring the theory to life in academic settings. They recognized that much work had to be done in teacher education and that the theory had to be converted into usable knowledge that provided practitioners with concrete guidance on how to incorporate a variety of language practices into classroom teaching.

As a result of these conversations, the students wrote a number of practice briefs intended for an audience of practitioners with the goal of showing how the theory and concepts behind translanguaging could be implemented in concrete terms in schools to foster linguistic diversity. While academic papers provide empirical or theoretical analyses that have implications for policy and practice, these practice briefs speak directly to those who can use translanguaging practices in their immediate contexts, in classrooms on the ground.

To provide context for these practice briefs, we begin by outlining the challenges faced by language-minoritized children in educational settings. We provide an introduction to translanguaging and why it is essential for classrooms that support children who are learning and using multiple languages. We then describe the challenges in professional learning and how practice briefs can facilitate understanding for practitioners of how to create multilingual learning environments for language-minoritized children.

Linguistic Minorities in Educational Contexts

Language-minoritized children throughout the world are being excluded from a meaningful education. As more and more children are displaced as a result of war and poverty, racial and linguistic diversity in schools is on the rise. Instead of embracing this increased diversity, school systems around the world have reacted by passing measures that effectively keep out racially and linguistically different students from a meaningful education, guaranteeing access to education only for children of the dominant group. Although both race and language are imbricated in this form of exclusion, schools play a crucial role in marginalizing students because the process of education is a deeply linguistic one. In schools, language often functions as the most important instrument of exclusion, castigating children for speaking the "wrong" language or using the "wrong" language features.

While the overt discourse of educational authorities is about how best to educate "second language learners," they are also busy passing measures that restrict the access of these raciolinguistically different children (Flores & Rosa, 2015) to better schools and higher education. It is always language, in the form of standardized tests and other summative means of evaluation, which acts as the sorting mechanism determining who can and cannot access better educational programs.

In the United States, the movement toward greater accountability espoused by No Child Left Behind (2001) and the testing that accompanied the adoption of the Common Core State Standards have to be seen in relation to the neglect and disappearance of bilingualism in its schools. While students in U.S. classrooms today are multilingual, English monolingualism is enthroned, and raciolinguistically different students are asked to perform as if they were monolingual, creating alienation, self-deprecation, and insecurity among bilingual students. The results are significant differences in educational outcome between bilingual and monolingual students.

It is into this subtractive educational context (Valenzuela, 1999) for language-minoritized students that translanguaging theory has entered to disrupt "the view from above" of the bilingual students' language capacities and performances. Bilingual children's language performances are usually described by school authorities from what is seen as a superior perspective, from an external dominant monolingual perspective that sees them as possessing two separate language systems. That is, for school authorities, bilingual children have two languages contained in two separate structures, and most of the time, these containers are considered empty or lacking substance. Children whose "English" container is not considered full are designated as "Limited English proficient" or "English language learners." Rarely do schools look into the other supposed container to see what is there. This external perspective sees bilingual children simply as two monolinguals in one (Grosjean, 1982; Heller, 1999).

Translanguaging disrupts this view from above by proposing that we look at bilingual children's linguistic performances from their own internal perspective, from the child's use of language. From this perspective, bilingual children do not simply have two external containers with two named languages that schools can fill up or deplete. Instead, bilingual children are recognized as having one language repertoire, one language system, with language features that interact to propel their linguistic and cognitive performances.

What is translanguaging?

Translanguaging refers to the internal viewpoint that sees the language performances of bilingual children not simply as being in named languages -- English, Spanish, Chinese, etc. -- but as leveraging their full language repertoire (García, 2009; García & Li Wei, 2014). Describing translanguaging from the perspective of the science of linguistics, Otheguy, García and Reid (2015) have offered the following definition of translanguaging: "the deployment of a speaker 's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages" (p. 283). Taking up translanguaging theory in education refers to leveraging the students' full linguistic repertoire, while also teaching students to suppress certain features when asked to perform overtly according to the norms of a named language, whether that language is English or a language other than English.

It is important not to confuse translanguaging with the simple shifting of named languages, what linguists call code-switching. Code-switching refers to the alternation of named languages, the external definition of what languages are given by political states and school systems. Translanguaging refers to the internal perspective of what speakers do with language that is simply their own. For example, when Ofelia speaks at home she talks about the grandchildren, la comida, the son-in-law, la hija, dormirse, have breakfast, etc. For Ofelia these are not simply words from Spanish and words from English. They are her words, her repertoire to make meaning. Of course, Ofelia knows when to use which words to speak to different people. When speaking to her son-in-law, she uses words that some would call from English. When speaking to her husband's mother, her suegra, she uses words that some would call from Spanish. But when she speaks in her bilingual home, she uses her full repertoire because no one is monitoring or hierarchizing her language practices. She simply uses all of the features she has at her disposal. This is a common pattern of using language in all bilingual communities.

Schools, however, never acknowledge the ways in which bilingual speakers use language, and thus constantly delegitimize bilingual practices, as corrupted. English Only signs are posted in many schools. Even bilingual education classrooms are full of rules of when one language or another is spoken. For example, "aquí no se habla inglés" is often heard in Spanish-English bilingual classrooms that want to protect what is considered a minority language, Spanish. Alienating bilingual students even further from their own bilingual voice, many of these same bilingual classrooms are full of "así no se dice" rules, telling bilingual children that the way they speak is "incorrect."

Of course, spaces must be constructed where bilingual children are given opportunities to perform in one language or another. But educators must always keep in mind two factors even when they are asking student to use only some of the features of their linguistic repertoire -- 1) the active presence of the child's full semiotic repertoire in learning, 2) the injustice of having students assessed using less than half of their linguistic repertoire. The first factor has implications for instruction, the second one for assessment.

Translanguaging in instruction

When language-minoritized children are asked to speak one language or the other, they are still internally leveraging their entire language repertoire. That is, as bilingual students overtly suppress some of their language features, the other features of their repertoire are always activated. Thus, educators must acknowledge the students' full linguistic repertoire as a resource for learning, and not as a problem.

Even in English-medium classrooms, teachers who recognize the power of the children's fluid language practices should leverage the children's full language repertoire. Many strategies for doing so have been suggested (see, for example, Celic & Seltzer, 2012; García, Johnson, & Seltzer, forthcoming). Bilingual children will have fuller comprehension of reading texts rendered in English, if they are allowed to discuss ideas deeply using language in the ways that they prefer, regardless of whether it is the same language as the text. Bilingual students are better writers if they are allowed to pre-write with all the language features they can use. Bilingual students are better thinkers if encouraged to research topics in any language. A translanguaging pedagogy, regardless of the official language of a classroom, would go a long way toward giving these language-minoritized children the education they need.

García, Johnson and Seltzer (forthcoming) identify three strands of a translanguaging pedagogy -- 1) the teacher's stance, 2) the instructional and assessment design, 3) the shifts. The teachers' stance, their philosophical belief about the value of bilingualism in the life of a language-minoritized child, is most important. Unless the teacher has a critical stance of the subtractive linguistic practices taking place in schools, s/he will not look for translanguaging spaces in her instruction. Unless the teacher sees herself as a co-learner, able to learn from the children about their language and cultural practices and their understandings of the world, a translanguaging space cannot be created. But much more is needed than simply a stance, since translanguaging is always strategic and purposeful.

A translanguaging design for instruction must also be developed. This includes having appropriate multilingual material for students to learn through, setting up the classroom as a multilingual space, and grouping students sometimes according to home language so that they could assist each other and deepen the meaning of learning. This also means designing lessons with purposeful language, content, and translanguaging objectives. A translanguaging lesson and unit design cannot be an after-thought, but must be made integral to the lesson.

Finally, teachers in translanguaging classrooms must be ready for the shifts in lesson design that must take place to respond to the translanguaging corriente caused by individual children or groups of children as they use their full language repertoire. That is, teachers in translanguaging classrooms must be vigilant and observe children deeply so that they know when their lesson course has to deviate and change in order to make the lesson meaningful for children who are at all points of the bilingual continuum. What is important for teachers in translanguaging classrooms is to develop the voice of the children because learning only occurs when we have voice.

Students go to school to acquire content understandings, but also ways of using language, and ways of using the dominant language. Bilingual students can only acquire new linguistic features in interrelationship with the ones that they can already access. It is when students can reflect on all their language practices that language development takes place.

Translanguaging in assessment

It is important for teachers to recognize that monolingual assessment is simply not an accurate measure of bilingual children's linguistic or academic performances. Although monolingual children are allowed to use most of the linguistic features in their repertoire to show what they know, bilingual children are told that they must use only less than half of their features. Clearly, linguistic bias is inherently built into monolingual assessment as a result.

Teachers in translanguaging classrooms must be sure to observe the child carefully performing different tasks with their entire repertoire, as well as when using only certain language features. They must be sure to separate the child's ability to provide text-based evidence, make inferences, identify main ideas and recognize texts' craft and structure -- all important in the Common Core State Standards -- from their ability to use certain language conventions in English. One can be a speaker of English and not be able to perform these tasks. One can be a so-called "English language learner" and be able to do this well with language features other than those we know as English. Teachers in translanguaging classrooms never confuse the ability to use a named language with the features legitimated in school from the ability to use language for academic tasks. Translanguaging enables us to see clearly the difference between a named standardized language, enshrined as such to give advantage to its speakers, and the ability to "do" language, to use it with different interlocutors for various tasks and purposes, including those of school. It is that information that will allow educators to give honest and true measures of what a bilingual child can do.

What kind of classroom is translanguaging for?

We have been suggesting that translanguaging goes beyond types of classrooms or teachers or even students. We are used to categorizing classrooms as monolingual or bilingual. Translanguaging disrupts those structural realities by promoting a multilingual context in all educational settings. We are also used to calling teachers bilingual or monolingual. Translanguaging is an educational approach that can be utilized by all teachers. All that is needed is a bit of risk-taking and a stance as a co-learner. Much can be learned from students who have been minoritized through language.

A translanguaging pedagogy is also applicable for all students, not just for those who are emergent bilinguals, but also for experienced bilinguals, and for those considered monolingual. It is applicable for students with learning disabilities and those who have had an incomplete or interrupted education in their countries of origin, or a poor education in the United States. All can learn from a translanguaging approach since it levels the playing field and puts students with different profiles in contact with each other. Translanguaging can help develop the critical language awareness that is necessary for all communities today.

The need for professional learning

Yet, we find in classrooms everywhere a real struggle when practitioners try to utilize translanguaging in classroom instruction and continued resistance to translanguaging pedagogy. Even where we find educators who are eager and willing to celebrate and leverage multilingual diversity in their classrooms, we find an utter lack of support and lack of ongoing training for those classroom teachers to do so. The practice briefs in this issue come out of a search for ways to translate the theory of translanguaging into dynamic classroom practices. For that leap from theory to practice to take place, we need to consider the ways in which teachers develop their understanding of translanguaging. What new learning do teachers have to engage with in order to shift their practice to incorporate translanguaging? What will it take to equip and to support teachers in using translanguaging as a powerful form of instruction? What kind of organizational change is necessary for translanguaging pedagogy to take hold in schools? These questions point to the urgent need to advance professional learning for practitioners in order to develop translanguaging classrooms.

One major barrier to the meaningful use of translanguaging pedagogy in K-12 classrooms in the United States is that there is insufficient professional development and teacher training in instructional design and assessment using translanguaging. Most educators have not had this training, so it is missing knowledge in the profession. There continue to be numerous fallacies about language learning and development among educators, and these misconceptions can get in the way of teachers seeing the opportunities for translanguaging practices in their classrooms.

Even in professional learning communities where there is a focus on supporting emergent bilinguals, the expertise in translanguaging instruction is not widespread. The knowledge of translanguaging pedagogy needs to be generalized so that educators in all contexts have it as a part of their basic understanding of teaching and learning. Often in schools, the professional knowledge in language education exists in silos among a few expert pedagogues, resulting in fewer contexts in which emergent bilinguals have the opportunity to strengthen their linguistic repertoire. Ideally, all teachers would benefit from increasing their understanding of language development and would receive some training to develop their understanding of translanguaging pedagogy, whether they are explicitly language teachers or not. This would move us toward an educational system that values translanguaging in all contexts, not just for bilingual children, and not just in classrooms where a dominant language like English is being taught as a new language.

Classroom teachers are often confronted by constraints that deter them from using translanguaging with their students. Teachers may feel reluctant to give up instructional time to focus on metalinguistic awareness, or they may be unsure of how to utilize home language resources in a meaningful way. Teachers face practical obstacles that come in the way of creating multilingual learning environments, and they need support and guidance to work around these limitations.

In fact, teachers may even be instructed by school administrators to prohibit children from using and learning in their own languages because they incorrectly assume that home language use stymies language development in English. In these situations, while teachers may feel passionately about protecting their students' linguistic diversity, they may also feel that their hands are tied when school administrators fail to understand the purpose and meaning behind translanguaging pedagogy. Hence, school leaders also need to develop an understanding of translanguaging in order to foster multilingual diversity in their schools. When administrators take the lead, teachers feel supported in using translanguaging practices in their classroom.

The field of education needs to continue building capacity on all levels, from paraprofessionals to district administrators, in how to use translanguaging practices in classroom settings. To do this, we need to rethink teacher training and professional learning for practitioners. Sites of professional learning for educators are also sites of struggle for translanguaging pedagogy because it is in those spaces where teachers challenge their own misconceptions about language learning, where they fight to carve out time in their instruction to support growth in multiple languages, and where practitioners can begin to shift their thinking around language education.

Why practice briefs?

In this spirit of advancing professional learning, Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education has published the practice briefs in this issue to bridge the theory and practice divide and to sustain a theoretical and a practical conversation around how to transform pedagogy using translanguaging. The briefs were written with an underlying belief in mind: if we talk about how to operationalize translanguaging in educational practice, we will begin to see translanguaging take hold in classroom teaching.

In these practice briefs, the authors have provided concrete ideas for how to design instruction and to shift school culture in ways that incorporate translanguaging. These briefs make the ideas behind translanguaging accessible to practitioners who may not necessarily have had professional training in language education. The authors address the misconceptions and constraints that deter practitioners from using translanguaging and point to tangible translanguaging opportunities and methods.

The practice briefs alone will not lead to instructional change. Researchers and teacher educators need to effectively communicate the theory in such a way that is usable for practitioners and schools. They must find effective ways of changing teacher practice through professional learning that is tied directly to classroom instruction. We hope that these briefs will inspire deep reflection, conversation, and ultimately, action in changing teacher training. In this way, educators can transform instruction for emergent bilinguals in particular, and language education for children in all contexts.

As you read these practice briefs, there may be different ways you want to respond, such as:

Share one of the practice briefs in this issue with colleagues in your context and discuss how translanguaging can be used with the students you work with.

Write a short practice brief for the teachers and practitioners you work with that includes a concept or bit of theory related to supporting linguistic diversity. Provide concrete examples from your own context of how that can be done in classroom teaching, and coach your colleagues in how they can design instruction using translanguaging.

Publish your own practice brief and share it, modeling how the genre can be used to move and change teacher practice.

Utilize the concepts of translanguaging in the professional learning activities you facilitate with teachers. Use a variety of languages as the medium of instruction when you facilitate professional learning activities for teachers to simulate a multilingual learning environment.

Start a dialogue about translanguaging with a school administrator who leads a school that is addressing the academic and linguistic needs of emergent bilinguals, and discuss how the school can create an inclusive culture that celebrates linguistic diversity.

Petition your school district for more teacher training in how to support development in multiple languages, or demand an increase in educational materials and resources in multiple languages.

Conclusion

Even when educational policies dictate the privileging of English in U.S. schools, or even when broader social structures work to marginalize children through language, translanguaging offers a form of subversion. Students and teachers alike can speak truth to power when they utilize languages that are targeted for extinction, when students advocate for their right to use their home language at school, and when teachers support them in doing so. They can disrupt normal social conventions and assume that the use of multiple languages is valuable, even when it may be uncomfortable for those who are accustomed to using a dominant language such as English. At a time when multilingual skills are considered prized competencies in a global economy, it is up to critical educators to articulate a clear and just multilingual vision for schools, and most of all, to take responsibility for creating translanguaging spaces in service of language-minoritized students.

References

Celic, C. & Seltzer K. (2012/2013). Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators. New York: CUNY-NYSIEB, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. Retrieved from: http://www.nysieb.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2013/03/Translanguaging-Guide-March-2013.pdf

Flores, N. & Rosa, J (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review 85(2): 149-171.

García, O., Johnson, S. & Seltzer, K. (forthcoming). The Translanguaging Classroom. Philadelphia: Caslon.

García, O., & Li Wei (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan Pivot.

García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, MA and Oxford, United Kingdom: Wiley/Blackwell.

Grosjean, F. (1982) Life with Two Languages (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

Heller, M. (1999) Linguistic Minorities and Modernity: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography (London: Longman).

Heller, M. (2007) 'Bilingualism as Ideology and Practice' in M. Heller (ed.) Bilingualism: A Social Approach (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 1-22.

Otheguy, R., García, O. & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3): 281-307.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S. Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

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Translanguaging: Practice Briefs for Educators – Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education

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Joanna Yip & Ofelia García, Ph.D.
The Graduate Center, City University of New York