What book about dual language bilingual education (DLBE) is so astute that you want to recommend it to every DLBE teacher, regardless of grade or languages taught? Renée DePalma‘s (2012) book about an English-Spanish kindergarten is the perfect primer on teaching in this type of program. Prof. DePalma shows how implementing the “target language only”Continue reading “Dual Language Bilingual Education: What do teachers need to know?”
Category Archives: ethnography
How does an expert teacher meet learning aims while also ‘fixing’ linguistic inequality through their pedagogical talk?
Recently (here and here), I wrote about how Jim Cummins defined “transformative pedagogy” as meeting learning aims and social justice aims at the same time, through collaborative relations of power. I continue that theme by asking the title question, which was what the late sociolinguist Alexandra Jaffe asked in a bilingual, Corsican-French school. Teachers ofContinue reading “How does an expert teacher meet learning aims while also ‘fixing’ linguistic inequality through their pedagogical talk?”
How to analyze classroom talk: Part 4 of 4
This is the fourth and final post on methodology for analyzing classroom talk, preceded by posts on Turn-taking, Contextualization, and Narrative. In this post, we look at how to analyze Interactional Frames. First, we examine what “frame” means and look at ways to analyze how frames are used in small units of talk (e.g., 1-2 sentences) thatContinue reading “How to analyze classroom talk: Part 4 of 4”
How to analyze classroom talk: Part 3 of 4
This is the third post on methodology for analyzing classroom talk, preceded by posts on Turn-taking and Contextualization. In this post, we look at how to analyze Narratives. I begin with a discussion of what “narrative” means in everyday spoken interactions, and how that’s different from our common understanding of narratives. Then we look at how toContinue reading “How to analyze classroom talk: Part 3 of 4”
How to analyze classroom talk: Part 2 of 4
Image source: Wikimedia Commons Welcome to the second post on methodology for analyzing classroom talk, which began with a post on Turn-taking. In this post, we analyze Contextualization. While turn-taking is about who talks, when, and how much, contextualization is about how we understand people’s words, or how we attempt to manage how others understandContinue reading “How to analyze classroom talk: Part 2 of 4”
How to analyze classroom talk: Part 1 of 4
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/burma-myanmar-asia-girl-children-5176041/ This post is the first of a series of posts on how to analyze classroom talk with regard to four aspects of that talk: Turn-taking, Contextualization, Narration, and Framing. They are summaries of the four chapters on how to analyze classroom talk in Ivy League professor Betsy Rymes’ textbook, Classroom Discourse AnalysisContinue reading “How to analyze classroom talk: Part 1 of 4”
“Majoritized” and “Minoritized” Translanguaging: What they are and why they matter
This 2021 study by Ingrid Beiler examined three secondary classes in Norway taught by the same teacher: (1) a regular gr. 11 English class, (2) an accelerated class for gr. 10 students undertaking the gr. 11 English curriculum, and (3) a sheltered class for gr. 11 English repeaters (aged gr. 12/13), many of whom spokeContinue reading ““Majoritized” and “Minoritized” Translanguaging: What they are and why they matter”
Is translanguaging compatible with indigenous language revitalization?
Translanguaging, code-switching/mixing/meshing, etc., versus a “target language only” zone: which is preferable for indigenous language revitalization? I think the answer depends on societal factors, which I illustrate in this post by contrasting two successful but very different cases of indigenous language teaching. The extent and nature of translanguaging (and other kinds of language-mixing) should beContinue reading “Is translanguaging compatible with indigenous language revitalization?”
The translanguaging paradox: How students translanguage while using distinct languages
This is a summary of a study that investigated the affordances and constraints in translanguaging-to-learn in an officially English-Medium 5th grade classroom in Malaysia where students were trilingual in Tamil, Malay, and English (Rajendram, 2021). I believe this study is valuable for anyone who studies translanguaging, in any educational context, for two reasons. First, dataContinue reading “The translanguaging paradox: How students translanguage while using distinct languages”
From Translanguaging Space to “Critical Translanguaging Space”
One of the debated aspects of translanguaging scholarship is whether translanguaging spaces, in which students use their whole linguistic and multimodal repertoires to make meaning, are critical in and of themselves and lead to social justice (compared to classes that seek to implement a monolingual or target-language-only policy). Based on a study of a dualContinue reading “From Translanguaging Space to “Critical Translanguaging Space””
annamend 