Translanguaging in the English-Centric Classroom: A
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Translanguaging in the English-Centric Classroom: A Communities of Practice Perspective By Mark Barba Pacheco Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Learning, Teaching, and Diversity August, 2016 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Robert T. Jiménez, Ph.D. Deborah Wells Rowe, Ph.D. Lisa Pray, Ph.D. Virginia Scott, Ph.D. To my family ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Bob Jiménez, for his constant support throughout my time at Vanderbilt and throughout this project. He gave me the freedom to make mistakes along the way, and the guidance and encouragement to learn from them. He’s been a model for me as a researcher and teacher and I’m so grateful. I am also lucky to have had such a caring and supportive committee, and would like to thank Lisa Pray, Debbie Rowe, and Virginia Scott for sharing their thinking with me in coursework and in research. I am thankful to have gotten to spend a year with Ms. Ash, Ms. Gardner, and their wonderful students. They taught me far more than I’ve been able to capture in the following pages. None of this work would have been possible without the help of my classmates and colleagues. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Mary Miller, Sam David, Shannon Daniel, Blaine Smith, Ty Hollett, Robin Jocius, Kelly Puzio, Adrian Larbi-Cherif, Keenan Fagan, Kevin Reilly, and Megan Wongkamalasai. They have all been true friends, critical and otherwise. I am grateful to my sister and brothers for their unwavering support. I especially want to thank my parents, John and Sandra, for showing me the joy of teaching and hard work. And to Michael, who continues to teach me each day. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………...…….. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………………………... viii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………….... ix Chapter 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Research Questions…………………..…………………………………………………… 5 Overview of the Dissertation……………………………………………………...……… 6 2. Theoretical Framework and Literature Review……………………………………...…… 8 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………………… 8 Translanguaging to Make Meaning………………………………………………….. 8 Making Meaning in a Community of Practice………………………………..……. 12 Translanguaging and Communities of Practice………………………………..…… 15 Assumptions Guiding the Enactment of This Study…………………………….…. 16 Literature Review……………………………………………………………………..…. 21 Translanguaging to Make Meaning……………………………………………….... 22 Dynamic Translanguaging Pedagogies to Make Meaning…………………….…… 24 Curricular Translanguaging Pedagogies to Make Meaning……………………..…. 26 Teacher Participation in Translanguaging Pedagogies………………………….…. 28 Implications for the Current Study……………………………………………….… 33 Research Questions…………………………………………………………….………... 37 RQ1: Forms and Functions of Translanguaging…………………………………… 38 RQ2: Translanguaging in Communities of Practice………………………………... 40 RQ3: Teacher Perspectives on Translanguaging…………………………………… 41 3. Research Methodology………………………………………………………………….. 43 Study Design, Research Context, Site, Participants, and Researcher Role……………... 43 Study Design……………………………………………………………………….. 43 Study Design Rationale…………………………………………………………….. 44 Research Context…………………………………………………………………… 45 Research Sites………………………………………………………………………. 47 Site Rationale………………………………………………………………………. 48 Participant Selection………………………………………………………………... 50 Participants…………………………………………………………………………. 51 iv Rationale for Participant Selection…………………………………………………. 52 Role of Researcher…………………………………………………………………. 53 Data Sources and Collection…………………………………………………………….. 55 Observations with Field Notes and Audio Recording……………………………… 57 Literacy Instruction Video and Audio Recording………………………………….. 57 Post-observation Reflective Interviews…………………………………………….. 58 Semi-structured Teacher Interviews………………………………………………... 58 Teacher Reflective Journals………………………………………………………... 59 Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………. 60 RQ1: Forms and Functions of Translanguaging…………………………………… 63 RQ2: Translanguaging in a Community of Practice……………………………….. 66 RQ3: Teacher Perspectives on Translanguaging Pedagogies……………………… 70 Trustworthiness…………………………………………………………………….. 72 Strengths and Limitations……………………………………………………………….. 73 4. Translanguaging Forms and Functions in Two Classrooms…………………………….. 77 The Forms and Functions of Translanguaging Speech Acts……………………………. 77 Ms. Ash’s Translanguaging……………………………………………………………... 78 Evaluation Speech Acts…………………………………………………………….. 79 Declarative Speech Acts……………………………………………………………. 80 Initiation Speech Acts……………………………………………………………… 82 Conclusions about Ms. Ash’s Speech Acts………………………………………… 85 Student Translanguaging in Ms. Ash’s Classroom……………………………………… 87 Response Speech Acts……………………………………………………………… 88 Declarative Speech Acts……………………………………………………………. 90 Evaluation Speech Acts…………………………………………………………….. 92 Conclusions about Students’ Speech Acts in Ms. Ash’s Classroom……………….. 93 Ms. Gardner’s Translanguaging…………………………………………………………. 95 Initiation Speech Acts……………………………………………………………… 96 Declarative Speech Acts……………………………………………………………. 99 Evaluation and Response Speech Acts …………………………………………….102 Conclusions about Ms. Gardner’s Speech Acts …………………………………...106 Student Translanguaging in Ms. Gardner’s Classroom ………………………………...108 Response Speech Acts ……………………………………………………………..109 Declarative Speech Acts …………………………………………………………...112 Evaluation Speech Acts ……………………………………………………………114 Initiation Speech Acts ……………………………………………………………..117 Conclusions about Students’ Speech Acts in Ms. Garner’s Classroom …………...120 Translanguaging Implications from Ms. Ash and Ms. Gardner’s Classrooms …………122 Initiations, Responses, and Evaluations: The Importance of Discourse Patterns …122 Declarations, Responses, and Evaluations: The Importance of Student Expertise ..124 Translanguaging Speech Acts: The Importance of Language ……………………..125 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...127 v 5. Translanguaging to Make Meaning in Two Communities of Practice …………………129 Making Meaning in a Community of Practice ………………………………………….130 Ms. Ash’s Classroom Community of Practice ………………………………………….132 Mutual Engagement: Central Teacher, Peripheral Students ………………………134 Negotiated Resources: Student Tools, Teacher Negotiation ………………………137 Joint Enterprise: A Community in a Community ………………………………….142 Translanguaging to Make Meaning in Ms. Ash’s Community of Practice? ………145 Ms. Gardner’s Classroom Community of Practice ……………………………………..147 Mutual Engagement: Recognition and Leveraging ………………………………..149 Negotiated Resources: Understanding the What, When, and How ………………..154 Joint Enterprises: Aligning Activites, Tools, and Goals …………………………..158 Translanguaging to Make Meaning in Ms. Gardner’s Community of Practice? ….162 Discussion across Classrooms ………………………………………………………….164 Value ………………………………………………………………………………165 Ownership …………………………………………………………………………165 Commitment ……………………………………………………………………….166 Flexibility ………………………………………………………………………….167 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...167 6. Reifying Translanguaging as a Tool: An Emic Perspective ……………………………169 Reification in a Community of Practice ………………………………………………...169 Reifying Translanguaging in Discourse ………………………………………………...171 A Targeted Tool …………………………………………………………………...172 Language-as-process and Language-as-product …………………………………..175 Crutches, Bridges, and Signs of Strength ………………………………………….181 Implications for Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies ………………………..185 Classroom Communities and Translanguaging ………………………………………...187 Communities within Communities ………………………………………………...188 Teachers’ Linguistic Expertise …………………………………………………….189 Student Expertise …………………………………………………………………..193 Implications for Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies ………………………..196 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...200 7. Discussion ………………………………………………………………………………202 RQ1: What are the Forms and Functions of Translanguaging? ……...…………………202 RQ2: Translanguaging in Two Communities of Practice ………………………………204 RQ3: Teacher Perspectives on Translanguaging Pedagogies …………………………..206 Contributions …………………………………………………………………………...208 Contributions to Theory …………………………………………………………...209 Contributions to Practice …………………………………………………………..210 Limitations ……………………………………………………………………………...215 Directions for Future Research …………………………………………………………216 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...218 vi Appendix A. Post-observation Interview Guide ………………………………………………………220 B. Initial Semi-structured Interview Guide ………………………………………………..221 C. Concluding Semi-structured Interview Guide ………………………………………….223 D. Teacher Reflective Journal Template …………………………………………………..225 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………226 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Total data collected and analyzed……………………………………………………………. 56 2. Relationship between data sources and research questions………………………………….. 56 3. Summary of transcription conventions………………………………………………………. 64 4. Key study concordance: Translanguaging event functions………………………………….. 67 5. Researcher generated translanguaging function codes………………………………………. 68 6. Properties and dimensions of meaning-making……………………………………………… 69 7. Translanguaging functions and descriptions…………………………………………………. 78 8. Ms. Ash translanguaging forms and functions………………………………………………. 79 9. Students’ translanguaging forms and functions in Ms. Ash’s class………………………….. 87 10. Ms. Gardner translanguaging forms and functions………………………………………….