Abstract

Languaging and translanguaging are very important concepts in science classrooms when considering their role as mediational tools for supporting emergent bilingual students' needs. Languaging, including translanguaging, has to do with how people perceive, connect, and understand the activities and utterances around them through verbal and non-verbal communication in any language. This study positions languaging and translanguaging as mediational tools that can be used for supporting the use of science terms and overcoming second language challenges with them. Emergent bilingual students can benefit from the implementation of languaging characteristics that promote classroom discourse spaces where all their repertoire for responding, and learning can occur. Using a sociocultural-ecological theoretical perspective and mediational analysis, this qualitative study provides descriptive evidence identifying important concepts and characteristics that emerged during languaging and translanguaging moments during naturally occurring classroom discourse among students and teacher. Findings demonstrated that when participants changed their participation and identity roles, extended their talk to negotiate meaning, used background knowledge, and applied language play with the scientific terms (i.e., biology vocabulary), it supported the participants in understanding and using those terms during biology lessons. This study discusses how the above language characteristics, as mediational means during languaging and translanguaging discourse, provided important paths for making meaning of scientific terms. Conclusions and implications include how lessons should provide spaces that welcome such characteristics for their meaningful roles in supporting emergent bilingual students.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Teacher Education

Rights

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