Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Becoming Transfronterizo Collaborators: A Transdisciplinary Framework For Developing Translingual Pedagogies In Wac/Wid, Marcela Hebbard, Yanina Hernández

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Given that pedagogical approaches that challenge dominant language ideologies are not yet well represented in WAC/WID scholarship, this chapter outlines a transdisciplinary framework for developing translingual pedagogies. The framework is built around the notion of transfronterizo/ a collaborators because before instructors can engage their students in exploring and challenging their views toward language, instructors must first critically interrogate their own. This interrogation must consider the unique political, social, economic, and linguistic exigencies of where an institution is located. The chapter concludes by showing that a transdisciplinary and translingual collaboration that is mutually transformative changes faculty collaborators in how they perceive …

Indexation And Ideologies: Latinx And Nahuatl Terms In Our Identity Journey, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this essay, I challenge unreflective linguistic indexation of Latino academia; specifically, the suppression of the inflexion “o” in generic nouns (as in Latinx) and appropriation of Nahuatl nouns. To do so, I analyze these two linguistic features in terms of historical macro- and micro-linguistic levels and, for the case of Latinx, I situate this socio-cultural practice in relation to Spanish morphology and semantics. Finally, I question if these linguistic practices of Latino (Latinx) scholars enhance group identity and social justice or, on the contrary, if this linguistic indexation merely isolates a selective group of U.S.-centered scholars.

Preparing The “Linguistically Qualified” Bilingual Teacher: Self/Auto Ethnographies Of Bilingual Teacher Educators, Christian E. Zúñiga, Joan R. Lachance, Cristian R. Aquino-Sterling, Michael D. Guerrero

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

I Influence Too: The Role Of Professors In Developing Bilingual Teachers' Spanish Proficiency, Zulmaris Diaz, Gina Lydia Garza-Reyna

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

To support the growing number of English learners (ELs) across the nation, professors in the field of bilingual education are being called to prepare highly effective bilingual teachers who not only have linguistic proficiency in English and Spanish but can also successfully perform in academic settings. As a result, we, two bilingual education professors working at two different institutions along the Texas–Mexico border, conducted a duoethnography study to explore the question, How are our practices impacting the students we teach?—an area in the field of bilingual education that has been relatively unexplored. We examine our practices using the existing literature …

“We Listened To Each Other:” Social-Emotional Growth In Literature Circles, Elena M. Venegas

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Literature circles undoubtedly foster literacy. Yet successful participation in literature circles requires social and emotional competence of students. This article presents findings from a study of a fifth-grade student who demonstrated social-emotional growth while participating in literature circles. Specifically, growth in intrapersonal and interpersonal skills such as self-management, social awareness, social metacognition, and empathy were evident. These findings suggest that literature circles not only foster literacy but also social-emotional learning.

(De)Legitimization: The Impact Of Language Policy On Identity Development In An Efl Teacher, David Martinez-Prieto, Kristen Lindahl

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Based on Bordieuan concepts of symbolic power and legitimization, this study analyzes the identity of a language teacher in Puebla, Mexico. Through a series of in-depth interviews, we examine how Mexican institutions may (de)legitimize the teaching expertise of an EFL educator by promoting a discourse of “native”-speakerism. In contrast with existing literature, this study is situated in the Puebla context, wherein the Poblano State government granted permanent teaching positions to Mexican bilingual transnationals with no formal teacher training. While our participant contested some of the dominant language ideologies, such as the use of language certifications, she also appeared to internalize …

Encouraging Languages Other Than English In First-Year Writing Courses: Experiences From Linguistically Diverse Writers, Alyssa G. Cavazos

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

First-Year Writing (fyw) courses are ideal writing spaces where students' diverse identities and language resources can flourish for specific rhetorical purposes. While research has focused on multilingual students' language and writing practices, little attention has focused on self-identified multilingual students' perceptions of language difference in fyw. Because fyw courses are an integral space in students' writing experiences and an ideal place to counter English-only ideologies, this article focuses on self-identified multilingual students' perceptions of how they negotiate language practices in academic contexts in higher education and how they perceive the role of languages other than English in fyw. Self-identified multilingual …

“Siento Que Siempre Tengo Que Regresar Al Inglés”: Embracing A Translanguaging Stance In A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Sandra I. Musanti, Alyssa G. Cavazos

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter centers on our reflections and pedagogical moves as two bilingual educators at a Hispanic-Serving Institution on the borderland region of South Texas, a predominantly bilingual and bicultural community. Specifically, the chapter documents how we embrace a translanguaging pedagogical stance. Translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (García & Li Wei, 2014; Martinez-Roldán, 2015). Drawing on García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) conceptualization of a translanguaging “corriente,” we describe our translanguaging stance and moves as we, respectively, design and teach two undergraduate courses: …

Latinx Children’S Push And Pull Of Spanish Literacy And Translanguaging, Kathy Bussert-Webb, Hanna M. Masso, Karin A. Lewis

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

We explored 19 Latinx children’s literacies in Spanish and translanguaging by asking, “What are Latinx children’s experiences and beliefs regarding Spanish and translanguaging reading and writing? How do tutorial staff and teacher candidates (TCs) help the youth to resist hegemonic and bracketing practices of English-only?” This study took place in a South Texas tutorial agency, where children voluntarily attended for after-school homework help. Data sources consisted of questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, hobby essays, and newsletter articles. Most children reported negative school-related language experiences and expressed dislike and unease regarding Spanish and translanguaging reading and writing, although they lived less than …

A Digital Immigrant Venture Into Teaching Online: An Autoethnographic Account Of A Classroom Teacher Transformed, Karin A. Lewis

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This paper presents an autoethnographic account of a classroom teacher’s experience transitioning to teaching online within the shifting culture of academe in the 21^st Century. After decades as a classroom teacher, the author engages in autoethnography to reflexively analyze her challenging transition to teaching online. The author examines her perspectives, beliefs, thought process, learning, and development. Findings regarding her new way of teaching, thinking, and living as an online instructor may provide insights for others in academe.

Underrepresentation Of Latino Students In Gifted And Talented Programs: How Appropriate Are The Assessments Used For Identification, Deidra D. Tafolla

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the possible reasons behind the underrepresentation of Latino students in gifted and talented programs. This study investigated four South Texas school districts and their gifted and talented program matrices, by examining the manuals used to explain and describe the assessments that identify Latino students in gifted and talented programs. A matrix is a design based on a criterion that a school will use to identify gifted students. Carrillo’s (2013) Mestiz@ Theory of Intelligences (MTI) was used to analyze the manuals of the assessments most commonly used by the school districts to identify Latino students and were …

How Do We Teach All Students In Monolingual Classrooms? A Study Of Transfer And Translingualism, Norma Denae Dibrell

Theses and Dissertations

I take the work of Lorimer and Nowacek in “Transfer and Translingualism,” as a starting point to address these questions. In “Transfer and Translingualism” they argue that transfer and translingualism “both index movement among contexts, practices, or meaning” while “neither suggests a neutral carrying over of knowledge from one context or language to another” (260) and thus acknowledge prior knowledge and prior experience. Lorimer and Nowacek call for transfer researchers to look at language diversity “beyond recognition of difference to the matrices of power that regulate that difference” and to ask questions about how to measure transfer (261-262). Consequently, in …

Finding Home In Memory: Stories Of Immigration, Diaspora And Dis/Location, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factorial Validity Of Teacher And School Counselor Support Scales In Latina/O Students, Mehmet A. Karaman, Javier Cavazos Vela, Ming-Tsan Lu

Counseling Faculty Publications

In the current study, we investigated the psychometric properties of two meaningful measures of support from teachers and school counselors among Latina/o students. Examining factorial stability with diverse populations is important to make sure that measures provide valid information about constructs of teacher or counselor support. While researchers have provided evidence of reliability (i.e., consistency), no study has examined validity (e.g., accuracy) of Teacher Support Scale Revised (TSSR) with Latina/o students. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA and EFA) methods were used to evaluate structural validity of the TSSR and School Counselor Support Scale (SCSS). Two different models of the …

Advancing A Transnational, Transdisciplinary And Translingual Framework: A Professional Development Series For Teaching Assistants In Writing And Spanish Programs, Alyssa G. Cavazos, Marcela Hebbard, José Esteban Hernández, Crystal Rodriguez, Geoffrey Schwarz

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Considering the need for writing and language programs to develop translingual and transdisciplinary pedagogies for teacher development at the graduate level (Canagarajah, 2016; Williams & Rodrigue, 2016), the authors examine the design of a multilingual pedagogy professional development series for first-year Spanish and Writing teaching assistants (TAs). As designers of and participants in the series, the authors explore the benefits and challenges inherent in transdisciplinary and translingual conversations and discuss implications for teaching and research in language and writing instruction and teacher development. In order to advance transdisciplinary and translingual approaches as a new normal in composition studies (Tardy 2017; …

You're A Genius All The Time: Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose On Empowering English Language Learners, Robert Casas

Theses and Dissertations

The engineer of the Beat Movement, Jack Kerouac, began his writing career as an ELL. Kerouac’s Spontaneous Prose helped him navigate through language acquisition to establish rhetoric in English, and empowered other Beat Writers to expressively develop their thoughts. Spontaneous Prose can also help other ELLs develop their own rhetorical agency. For ELL writers, writing in English often makes them feel disenfranchised, disempowered, and discouraged. However, Spontaneous Prose as a pedagogical tool empowers ELL writers to begin the process of transculturally repositioning themselves in using writing as a form of rhetorical expression. This study investigates the pedagogical effectiveness of Spontaneous …

Abrazando Nopales—Prickly Embrace: Undocumented Women’S Life Stories/Poetic Performance Narratives, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

I chose poetic performance narratives to create a provocative piece offering a glimpse of the reality, tragedies, dreams, and hopes lived daily by more than 12 million people in the United States. These individuals are reported as unauthorized, undocumented immigrants by the U.S. Census Bureau. These specific stories were shared and collected ethnographically on the agricultural fields of the South East of the United States. My goal is to have “captured” readers to be seduced into the “uncomfortable” world of undocumented people and have the poems/performance narratives become not only representation of the events but, as Renato Rosaldo said, “the …

A Testimonio Reclaiming Acceptance Of My Esl Experience: Trauma, Tex-Mex And Third Space, Cinthia E. Bernal

Theses and Dissertations

Language is a tool that brings all of us together, yet at the same time it also sets us apart. For many of us, it is important to be bilingual and biliterate, but for others, bilingualism is something that is pulling this country apart. Many people, after all, view Spanish as a powerful language that can harm this country, a language that has motivated people to attempt to make English the only language. Ana Celia Zentella tell us “Latina/os, who also have a long history in the United States and became the largest minority in the nation in 2003, are …

Beyond Us-Centered Multicultural Foundations On Race, James C. Jupp, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Our conceptual essay begins with the recognition of the U.S. racialized tragedy and embattled discussions on race. Within this tragedy and embattled discussion, we attempt to renew and reinvigorate authentic, dialogic, and vulnerable exchanges on race. With this focus, we critique yet further advance multicultural foundations’ notions of racial identity predominant in the academy and in broader national discussions on race. Critiquing yet advancing multicultural foundations, we emphasize conceptual content from five books on race and power by Cornel West. Working through West’s conceptual content, we emphasize complex and historicized identifications and relationalities as key concepts in the present moment.

El Desarrollo De La Escritura En Dos Idiomas En Niños De Kindergarten, Gloria S. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en una clase de kindergarten bilingüe en un pequeño distrito escolar en el centro de Texas. El propósito de la investigación fue comparar las habilidades escritas de estudiantes bilingües que empiezan su desarrollo literario en sus primeros años de formación académica. Esto se realizó examinando las diferentes oportunidades de escritura que tenían los estudiantes en cada uno de los idiomas dentro del ámbito escolar. La investigación se concentró en tres estudiantes de enfoque, de los cuales se tomaron ejemplos escritos y se analizaron en base a las herramientas disponibles para su crecimiento en …

Comparing Native Speaker Ratings And Quantitative Measures Of Oral Proficiency In Ielts Interviews, Katherine Christoffersen

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Research on second language acquisition has used various quantitative and qualitative measures to assess oral proficiency, yet there is little empirical research comparing these measures. Comparisons between quantitative measures and native speaker ratings are especially rare. Four of the most common quantitative measurements applied in L2 research include the type-token ratio as a measure of lexical diversity; the T-unit as a measure of syntactic complexity; the error-free t-unit as a measure of grammatical accuracy; and average speech rate as a measure of fluency. The present study compares these four quantitative measures of oral proficiency and one qualitative measure of oral …

Developing Academic Literacy: What Novice Teachers Can Learn From The Case Of Teaching Latino/Bilingual Learners Science And Mathematics, Sandra I. Musanti, Sandra Mercuri

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Attitudes Toward Spanish Varieties: A Bilingual Perspective, Julio F. C. Ciller, Carmen F. Florez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study explores the attitudes of 25 English-Spanish bilingual speakers from Tucson (Arizona) towards their own variety and compares them with their attitudes toward monolingual varieties of Mexican (from Hermosillo) and Peninsular Spanish (from Murcia and Madrid). Our analysis points to a clear influence of the standard language ideology (MILROY, 2001) on shaping these attitudes, escalated by a tendency among bilinguals in diglossic societies to feel insecure about their own variety as a minority language, or towards a feeling of linguistic self-hatred.

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Este estudo explora as atitudes de 25 falantes bilíngues de espanhol e inglês de Tucson (Arizona) com …

Making A Difference Through Parental Involvement: Techniques Teachers Can Utilize In Kindergarten Bilingual Classrooms, Monica I. Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

The importance of parental involvement in the education of all children is essential in schools. The schools that promote parental involvement prepare students for excellence in their education. Parental involvement, gives students opportunities and advantages by reinforcing and fortifying their learning. Different perspectives and viewpoints were examined, focusing on bilingual students and some Spanish speaking parents in a school in south Texas.

By finding what is causing low parental involvement and by listening to strategies used by educators that help increase parental involvement, this research provides answers on how to help parents get involved in their children’s education. Empowering parents …

The Effects Of Project-Based Learning On The Academic And Linguistic Achievement Of Emergent Bilingual Learners: A Mixed Methods Approach, Melinda Hardy

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examined the academic and linguistic impact of teaching emergent bilingual leaners through robotics project-based learning aligned to state standards. Two hundred ten middle school students attending a public charter school in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas participated in the study. Twenty percent of the students were emergent bilingual learners. Qualitative observation notes recorded students’ learning process as they completed an adapted Khan Academy robotics project. The students also completed pre- and post-assessments that quantitatively measured academic and linguistic gains. Emergent bilingual learners grew 20.1% points in academic content and 28.6% points in language development (p …

Palatalizacion Del Fonema /D/ Ante Vocal Anterior En El Español Como Segunda Lengua De Los Brasileños En El Sur De Texas, Carlos Cornejo

Theses and Dissertations

Este trabajo de investigación se enfocará en la palatalización del fonema dental /d/ antes de las vocales /i/y /e/, por personas de origen brasileño que hablan español en el área del sur de Texas. El estudio se realizará a nueve participantes de origen brasileño, que hablan como L2 el español a los cuales se les hará una entrevista con duración de más de 30 minutos. Los participantes aprendieron el español de diferentes maneras, ya sea de forma académica o de manera independiente. Considerando una transferencia de L1 en la producción del español por lo parecido de estas dos lenguas.

Alzamiento De Vocales Medias En El Español Como L2 De Brasileños En El Sur De Texas, Estela Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

En este trabajo examinaré el alzamiento de vocales en el español como L2 de brasileños en el sur de Texas. Analizaré este fenómeno desde un punto sociolingüístico variacionista. Propongo que el alzamiento de vocales medias en posición átona entre los participantes es afectado por factores lingüísticos y sociolingüísticos. Algunos de los factores lingüísticos que se estudiarán son; posición de vocal, número de sílabas, sonido previo y sonido posterior. Los factores sociolingüísticos que se verán son tiempo viviendo en un país hispanohablante, años de educación formal en español, y primera lengua de pareja. Los resultados serán analizados en el programa estadístico …

Latina Mothers' Expectations And Perceptions About A Dual Language Education In The Rio Grande Valley, Rosalinda A. Cobarrubias

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The initial purpose of this study was to identify Latino parents’ expectations and perceptions of a dual language program in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. All of the Latino parents of children in one dual language program were invited to participate in the study. The parents who agreed to participate in the study were all mothers. Consequently, only the perceptions and expectations of Latina mothers were explored. The chosen method of this study was qualitative research to explore the expectations and perceptions of the dual language program of twenty Latina mothers of Mexican descent. There were eleven English dominant Latina …

Exploring English Language Learners' Identity Negotiation In A Sixth Grade English Language Arts Classroom, Carolina G. Lopez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Secondary schools in the United States are filled with English language learners. The large amount of English Language Learners (ELLs) represent a diverse population with unique academic trajectories and language needs. The diversity among ELLs requires an examination of ELLs’ identity, as it relates to literacy development and achievement. This qualitative study explores how different types of ELLs negotiate identities in an English language arts classroom. Specifically, how different types of ELLs’ perceptions as readers and writers impact identity negotiation is analyzed. The study takes place in a sixth grade English language arts classroom in deep South Texas. It is …

Promoting Exploratory Talk With Emergent Bilinguals, Yvonne S. Freeman, Alma D. Rodríguez

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

The authors explain their approach to teaching literatura infantil (children’s literature) in Spanish to bilingual teachers pursuing their master’s degree in bilingual education at a university in South Texas. In this Self-Study of Teacher Education Practice (S-STEP) research, the authors investigated how teachers can transform their practice and come to value their students’ abilities to interpret literature. They engaged the teachers in projects using quality children’s literature. The projects were carried out by graduate inservice teachers teaching Spanish/English bilingual students studying at different grade levels. Some teachers taught along the Texas/Mexico border and others taught in a large metropolitan school …