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Perspective

A Conceptual Framework Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies in Secondary Dual-Language Programs

by
Jaclyn Caires Hurley
1,*,
Jessica Dougherty
1,* and
Susana Ibarra Johnson
2
1
Division of Education & Leadership, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR 97361, USA
2
School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(10), 1052; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101052
Submission received: 29 June 2024 / Revised: 24 September 2024 / Accepted: 24 September 2024 / Published: 26 September 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Supporting Multilingual Students in Schools: Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities)
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Abstract

:
This article summarizes the literature on the design of a conceptual framework for secondary translanguaging classrooms. As school districts move to expand dual language programs beyond elementary schools, they are obligated to ensure that these programs are grounded in sound educational theory. Rooted in culturally sustaining perspectives, we propose a conceptual framework for dynamic dual language programming that is inclusive of translanguaging pedagogies. This conceptual framework includes key scholarship on language planning from sociocultural perspectives and offers examples of instructional approaches aligned to these perspectives. The purpose of this manuscript is to inform practice and suggest areas of potential research for secondary dual language education.

1. Introduction

Multilingual learners (MLs) are a diverse, and rapidly growing, student population in U.S. schools. Multilingual learners describe students who are acquiring proficiency in multiple languages, including English. There are approximately 5 million multilingual learners of English (MLE) in K-12 schools in the U.S., with 410,000 students enrolled in dual language programs [1]. Their backgrounds vary linguistically, culturally, and academically. Using the term multilingual learner recognizes the expansiveness of students’ cultural and linguistic assets and emphasizes educators’ responsibility to approach academic and language development from a stance of cultural and linguistic sustainability. Cummins [2] explains this further by stating that the purpose of using terms such as multilingual learner and multilingual learner of English is “with the intention of highlighting the multiple identities that students adopt for themselves and the shifting identity positions that are projected upon them by societal institutions and educational practices and policies” (p. iv). Given the increasing number of multilingual students in our country [1], culturally and linguistically sustaining perspectives are essential to mitigate a subtractive educational journey where students must lose a feature of their linguistic or social identity in pursuit of an academic identity that centers on only English.
School districts need current scholarship on the best practices in secondary dual language programming as they seek to expand these programs beyond elementary schools. In fact, school districts are required to develop programs for multilingual learners that are grounded in sound educational theory, implemented effectively, and evaluated as effective in overcoming language barriers (Castañeda v. Pickard 1981). While research on effective instruction for secondary dual language classrooms is virtually non-existent, the field can begin to draw upon theory to guide the development of secondary programs and then document the results. Research on translanguaging pedagogy suggests a promising foundation for building dynamic dual language programs for dynamic multilingual learners [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Designing a conceptual framework for dynamic dual language programs can guide school districts in language and instructional planning decisions as well as provide much needed and well-aligned contexts for research on secondary dual language programs.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Research on Translanguaging Pedagogies

Cen Williams [11] coined the Welsh term trawsieithu in the context of classrooms with bilingual Welsh/English classrooms where students were asked to use both languages to acquire and share new knowledge and skills. Since then, “translanguaging has been increasingly used in the scholarly literature to refer to both the complex and fluid language practices of bilinguals, as well as the pedagogical approaches that leverage those practices” ([5], p. 118). The term pedagogy can be defined as teaching as a practice informed by theory and by the context for learning. Thus, translanguaging pedagogy is defined here as “teaching informed by the theories on the complex and fluid language practices of dynamic bilingual students”. Research on translanguaging, so far, documents the approaches that allow students to use their natural language practices as meaning-making resources. For example, multiple studies found that multimodal composition allows students to negotiate language and provides space for students to make meaning of texts with multiple points of entry to assert their social and academic identities [9,12]. This contrasts with traditional approaches where the literacies that count the most in public schooling are often those expressed in English only [13]. As Canagarajah describes, translanguaging pedagogies are “more broad”, ranging from reading and writing, internet communication, youth performative conversational interactions, hip hop, children’s interactions, street signage, and indigenous literacy ([3], p. 2). From this perspective, translanguaging pedagogies invite diverse communicative practices into the context of schooling ([3], p. 4). In their study of more mature learners, Canagarajah [3] also described how multilingual readers and writers, when engaging in translanguaging pedagogies, are able to use recontextualization strategies that “going beyond issues of form to consider the rhetorical and meaning-making abilities” (p. 14); “…they encounter feelings of being valued as they are invited to co-construct meaning of text” (p. 16); “…they are able to read closely for clues for interpretation to help them read with greater attention” (p. 16); and “…engage in interpretive work; and practice “letting it pass” meaning they will skip over a word trusting that the remaining text will explain what is important” (p. 17). In this way, student linguistic choices during schooling become more effective (p. 21) at helping students access and explore the various contexts for language use.

2.2. Gap in Research on Secondary Dual Language Programs

Data showing the distribution of multilingual learners across grade levels indicate that elementary schools have slightly higher concentrations of these learners than middle schools and high schools [1]. For example, in the fall of 2021, multilingual learners, nearly 80% of whom spoke Spanish and English, made up roughly 14% of kindergarten and first-grade students, whereas they made up 10.7% of entering middle school students and 8.9% of entering high school students [1]. This is an expected pattern as immigrants are a declining portion of the U.S. Hispanic population, and multilingual learners are most often born in the United States and attain English language proficiency, as measured by large-scale standardized assessments, before entering secondary schools [1,14]. With higher concentrations of multilingual students at the elementary level, the number of dual language programs and research on these programs has historically focused on best practices in early grade levels. As a result, a central issue facing secondary dual language programs is the dearth of research on what works in terms of instruction for adolescent multilingual learners. Studies conducted on secondary programs tend to document the impact of persistence in dual language programs on such social variables as student satisfaction, motivation, and positive academic identity development [15]. Studies on the persistence of multilingual learners in secondary programs also show that students with sustained participation in dual language programs beyond elementary school are more likely to be bilingual, be able to communicate with family members, and demonstrate positive attitudes toward cultural and linguistic diversity [16]. Finally, research on secondary programs have concluded that when compared to their peers in English-only programs, secondary dual language students are more likely to close achievement gaps by the end of high school, pass high school exit exams, be enrolled in higher mathematics courses, and are less likely to drop out of high school [17,18,19]. In summary, the limited research on secondary dual language, while showing promising outcomes of overall program participation, offers little clarity on what instructional strategies best support adolescent multilingual students in middle school and high school.

2.3. Traditional vs. Dynamic Dual Language Program Planning

Traditional dual language programming often views bilingualism as two separate languages, which has historically prevented educators from identifying and honoring diverse literacy practices [4]. Traditional dual language programs designed from a monoglossic perspective prioritize developing English for academic purposes and designing autonomous literacy experiences with emphasis on a target language with narrow goals or performances. Dynamic dual language instruction is more robust as it allows dynamic bilingual learners to engage with texts in ways that go beyond the language boundaries set by schools [4]. Translanguaging pedagogies can also expand the “repertoire of instructional materials” available to teachers and students [20] to better mobilize students’ linguistic resources for learning [21]. Overall, the goal of dynamic dual language programming includes designing robust literacy experiences inclusive of multimodal literacies to invite translanguaging as a tool for making meaning of content instruction [22] within scaffolded and supportive environments [23]. Such experiences focus on culturally and linguistically sustainability in their stance, design, and impact.
The research base on translanguaging pedagogies further compels educators to “soften linguistic boundaries” [20] in order to promote multilingualism, affirm students social and academic identities, and combat structural inequalities within language programs ([10], p. 440). This base signals a shift away from traditional paradigms on dual language education to increase equitable access to the benefits of bi-/multilingualism. Designing translanguaging classrooms requires teachers to take up translanguaging in their stance, instructional design, and pedagogical approaches [6]. From this perspective, a dynamic dual language instructional framework involves understanding the complexity of the linguistic repertoire of multilingual learners and designing classroom instruction that honors and develops student multicultural and multiple linguistic identities while learning across contexts.

3. Conceptual Framework: Dynamic Dual Language Instruction for Dynamic Bilingual Learners

Rooted in cultural and linguistically sustainable pedagogy, this conceptual framework for dynamic dual language instruction offers sound educational theory to support the program and instructional design for secondary dual language programs. Culturally and linguistically sustainable pedagogy “seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation” and “positions dynamic cultural dexterity as a necessary good and sees the outcome of learning as additive rather than subtractive, as remaining whole rather than framed as broken, as critically enriching strengths rather than replacing deficits” ([24], p. 1). This contrasts language programs taking a language acquisition approach, which, historically, were “based largely on monolingual children” ([25], p. 3) and sought to support student learning of two or more languages as separate skills, valued differently, and used disparately for academic purposes. Instead, this study considers the research in the context of education for simultaneous bilingual learners, which “pushes the power of cross-linguistic research…since bilingual children are their own controls on a number of variables (such as personality, age, cognitive ability, etc.) that can confound studies of monolingual children” ([25], p. 3). For example, García [26] conceptualized the term dynamic bilingualism to describe students who have multiple, interconnected linguistic resources that students can use to adapt to changing contexts and use as meaning making resources for learning. The terms simultaneous bilingual or dynamic multilingual learners reflect more social perspectives where language(s) are seen as an internal meaning-making resource [27], whereas the terms second language learner or English Language Learner (ELL) reflect an external or cognitive perspective on second language acquisition and looks at language as an external object for a learner to acquire [27]. A shifting nomenclature from second language learners to emerging bilingual learners to dynamic multilingual learners signifies a growth in understanding that the linguistic resources of today’s multilingual students developed simultaneously and are, in fundamental ways, inseparable.
Understanding the unique abilities of simultaneous bilingual children, dynamic dual language programming takes up culturally sustaining pedagogy to identify and use student multilingualism as a cohesive meaning-making resource within such social contexts as schooling. Providing culturally and linguistically sustainable dual language instruction begins with identifying the cultural assets and linguistic resources of our students and designing instruction in ways that will sustain these assets and allow students to use their resources as they develop academic identities. It is from a social perspective that we argue that teaching and learning for our dynamic multilingual students will be more sustainable when we take into consideration the inter-relationship of our dynamic multilingual students’ linguistic resources when planning instruction.
A culturally and linguistically sustaining approach to planning instruction for dynamic multilingual learners includes dynamic dual education programming that prioritizes translanguaging pedagogies. Scholars assert that “a pedagogy that truly sustains culture is one that sustains cultural practices (that are) too often excluded from classroom learning and leverages these as resources both for achieving institutional access and for challenging structural inequality” ([28], p. 304). “Translanguaging is one of these cultural practices. Thus, as Valdés (2017) observes, translanguaging pedagogy is a compelling example of a culturally sustaining pedagogy ([28], p. 304)”. Understanding translanguaging as a cultural practice, this framework pushes the field to consider translanguaging as a tool for teaching and as a tool for learning.

4. Implementing Translanguaging Pedagogies

The conceptual framework (see Figure 1) for dynamic dual language programming was developed in the context of a large urban district in the Pacific Northwest. This partner district is home to the highest number of multilingual learners in their state and has a strong history of teaching biliteracy in elementary schools [29]. Aided politically by the Access to Linguistic Inclusion Act (HB 2056, 2021), school districts in the state of Oregon were enabled to increase opportunities for multilingual instruction. Under this law, the term “English Language Arts”, for example, became simply “Language Arts” for which students may receive equal credit in any language. In response to this law, the partner district began expanding their dual language program, and in the spring of 2024, researchers and school administrators collaborated to develop a framework to guide the expansion of their program to middle schools and high schools. Working together, we began conceptualizing instruction for dynamic multilingual learners after qualitatively studying the sociolinguistic landscape of their middle schools (study forthcoming). We first observed the way language was used, by whom, and for what purposes [30]. We also noted structural challenges in the way language arts classrooms were organized and the way language allocations (i.e., time and content areas) were planned. Following our initial observations, we noted that shifts were needed in educator dispositions and in the way classrooms were designed to create opportunities for translanguaging events.
Instructional frameworks can support translanguaging pedagogy as a practice by helping educators analyze and transform their pedagogy at the level of stance, classroom design, and moment-to-moment shifts [6]. Translanguaging as a stance includes taking up culturally and linguistic sustaining perspectives to inform dynamic dual language programming and planning instruction in dual language classrooms. Translanguaging design refers to how we strategically plan instruction to allow students to use all of their linguistic resources as tools for learning ([6], p. 61). A translanguaging stance is culturally and linguistically sustainable because it flexibly invites, fosters, and promotes diverse literacy and natural language practices. Creating entry points for translanguaging events to materialize in the classroom requires teachers to understand that all learning occurs through interaction [31]. In this way, dynamic dual language programming requires teachers to take up sociocultural perspectives to explore the diverse ways communities use language(s) as tools for engaging in social contexts such as schools. This contrasts traditional dual language programs that take up more cognitive perspectives where learning is centered on acquiring features of language taken apart from the learner’s social practices. While cognition plays a role in language classrooms, Table 1 includes examples of practices that support translanguaging when educators make a paradigm shift to include more social perspectives on how languages are developed and used in a dynamic dual language classroom.
While there are many entry points for encouraging translanguaging events in the classroom, translanguaging design for dynamic dual language programs includes broader approaches that are known to encourage diverse communicative practices. These approaches include content objectives, language objectives, and translanguaging objectives, which are “the planned ways of leveraging bilingualism and ways of knowing so that students can better access both content and language practices valued in school” ([6], p. 69). Classroom design for translanguaging makes sense for all grade levels but is particularly helpful within middle school and high school dual language programs that demand flexibility. An essential element of this conceptual framework is the idea that all instruction is designed from a multicultural perspective to encourage criticality and support the sociopolitical identity development of adolescent dynamic multilingual learners. Criticality distinguishes from critical thinking and calls teachers to design humanizing classrooms and help students explore and respond to the social contexts that affect them and their lives [33].
Educators can look at scholarship documenting approaches that are naturally conducive to translanguaging when designing instruction for dynamic, multilingual classrooms. This conceptual framework features inquiry design cycles, integrated dual language learning, multimodal literacies, and biliteracy as examples of translanguaging pedagogies as they are documented approaches that allow dynamic multilingual students to use all their cultural and linguistic assets when learning across grade levels and content areas. These approaches, described in Table 2 below, are not mutually exclusive nor are they an exhaustive list of translanguaging pedagogies. These approaches have a strong theoretical and empirical foundation, and they suggest potential areas for future research on instructional practices that support secondary dynamic multilingual students.
Teachers may take up any of the above examples of translanguaging pedagogies individually, or they may create a robust unit that draws upon each of the approaches. Figure 2 shows how a traditional Spanish language arts lesson using the text, Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez, 1997), could be transformed into a translingual, inquiry design cycle. Rather than taking a traditional approach to reading Cajas de Cartón and writing a narrative essay in a single target language, we created an expansive learning opportunity where students could critically examine the narrative of immigrants as presented by various news outlets and then be given tools for photojournalism to tell a more affirming narrative using rhetorical devices and themes from Jimenez’s mentor text. We share this sample unit map using Cajas de Cartón in an inquiry design cycle grounded in the dynamic dual language programming framework when teaching standards for narrative writing.

5. Discussion

Developing a conceptual framework is a critical step when initiating dual language program planning. In research, a conceptual framework is an argument about why the topic one wishes to study matters, determines if the means to study it are appropriate and rigorous, and links together all of the elements of a project (e.g., research questions, research design, analysis, and findings) ([42], p. 4). Likewise, conceptual frameworks in dual language program planning can ensure that programs are grounded in strong educational theory, that the materials and methods used in professional development are aligned and consistent with theoretical framing, and that there is relevant methodology for determining the success of the program. The conceptual framework for dynamic dual language programming proposed here is the result of a school–university partnership where researchers, administrators, and teachers work together to turn theory into practices that can be empirically examined and fill large gaps in research on culturally sustaining practices for dynamic multilingual learners in secondary settings. This conceptual framework suggests a paradigm shift and new instructional approaches that create entry points to use translanguaging as a tool for teaching and learning. It also frames future research on sustaining dual language programs in middle schools and high schools.

6. Conclusions

This conceptual framework details how to integrate translanguaging pedagogies in the secondary dual language classroom and offers directions for conducting research on best practices for promoting the academic success of multilingual students. It aims to highlight the critical nature of facilitating dynamic multilingualism by taking up culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy. The purpose of integrating translanguaging pedagogy into secondary dual language programs is to foster inclusivity, identity formation, responsiveness, academic, and social success and create positive and challenging learning environments. This framework also promotes equitable access to educational content while thinking critically about the role of language in the secondary content classroom. In addition to directions for future research, this conceptual framework can inform teacher education programs and in-service teacher observations and professional learning communities where researchers will continue to co-construct, with teachers, how to implement translanguaging pedagogies. Ultimately, this conceptual framework can empower educators to create culturally and linguistically sustaining dual language classrooms for multilingual students.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.C.H. and S.I.J.; writing—original draft preparation, J.C.H. and J.D.; writing—review and editing, J.C.H. and S.I.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Western Oregon University (protocol code 46537041, 21 June 2024).

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Education 14 01052 g001
Figure 1. Conceptual framework: dynamic dual language instruction for dynamic multilingual learners.
Figure 1. Conceptual framework: dynamic dual language instruction for dynamic multilingual learners.
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Figure 2. Sample unit map of Cajas de Cartón.
Figure 2. Sample unit map of Cajas de Cartón.
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Table 1. Examples of planning instruction from a dynamic dual language perspective.
Table 1. Examples of planning instruction from a dynamic dual language perspective.
Traditional Dual Language ClassroomDynamic Dual Language Classroom
Moment-to-momentThe teacher asks a content-centered question in the target language. A student responds with codeswitching. Before evaluating the response, the teacher asks the student to recast their statement in the target language.Teacher: “What are the stages of the water cycle”?
Student: “The stages are evaporation, condensación, precipitación and collection”.
The teacher recognizes that the content area information is accurate and notes the student retained the content knowledge and delivered the information using both languages. The teacher gives the student credit for a correct answer and soon after helps the student make the cross-language connection between the suffix -ción (Español) and -tion (English).
Vocabulary LessonTeacher uses a slide deck to teach academic vocabulary in the target language using images for comprehensible input; students copy notes silently in a notebook using the target language.The teacher uses a partner activity where students work together to determine the meaning of new vocabulary words in the target language and then organize these words into a four-column chart including the translated term, a definition, and an image. Students use multiple languages and registers to collaboratively decipher the meaning of new words in the target language.
Education 14 01052 i001
CognatesA student uses a false cognate in a written response during English writing time (e.g., record/recorder in “I record one time I went to the beach”.) The teacher corrects the multilingual student during a writing workshop by modeling how to spell the English word, “remember”.The teacher plans for explicitly teaching the cognates appearing in a mentor text. The teacher has a cognate chart with visuals and examples displayed in the classroom throughout the unit.
During shared reading, students find and record cognates in a journal with a definition and visual. The teacher uses journals and anchor charts as part of a multilingual classroom ecology where students are taught and encouraged to make cross-language connections by being cognate detectives.
IdiomsThe teacher pre-teaches a new text by telling students what an idiom means in a target language.The teacher uses a variety of strategies (e.g., Así se Dice [32] to allow students to negotiate the meaning of idioms across languages and to think critically before directly translating an idiom. When a text includes the idiom, “He rained on my parade”, the teacher asks students to collaborate to find a Spanish idiom that best matches the intended meaning. Students may land on “Hay una mosca en la sopa”. When students come to an agreement on a new idiom, they add it to the classroom idiom chart to compare and contrast idioms in multiple languages.
Table 2. Instructional approaches for translanguaging pedagogies.
Table 2. Instructional approaches for translanguaging pedagogies.
Instructional ApproachesDefinition
Inquiry Design CyclesInquiry-based learning “scaffolds and integrates student learning and enables them to demonstrate that learning in differentiated, authentic ways” ([6], p. 72). Inquiry and translanguaging instructional design cycles engage students in exploring socially relevant topics and problem solving providing a context for natural language use and development through interaction. Culminating projects allow students to share solutions using multiple literacies.
Integrated Dual Language LearningIntegrated English Language Development refers to the established practice of providing English language development and sheltered instruction in the context of content area lessons (e.g., math, science, social studies, art, music, and language arts). Integrated dual language learning holds that English is not the exclusive system with academic registers. Languages other than English can and should be developed as content provided in multiple languages and disciplinary-specific discourse, from a functional linguistic perspective [34,35], can be taught in multiple languages.
Multimodal LiteraciesThe field of New Literacy Studies [36,37,38,39] promoted literacy as a social practice calling attention to diverse forms of learning and cultural ways of knowing and doing. This field emerged prior to the high stakes testing era (2001), which ultimately narrowed school-based literacies to the tested subjects of math, reading, and writing in standard English only. Adopting multimodal literacies seeks to bridge the literacy divide and disrupt what counts as (more and less) powerful forms of literacy [40]. In the school setting, this includes multimodal ways of acquiring and demonstrating new knowledge and skills. Multimodal literacies create a more interactive, inclusive, and accessible context for natural language use compared to traditional school-based, standardized literacies.
BiliteracyClassrooms designed for biliteracy invite teachers to pair Spanish and English literacy units to allow students to make connections across languages and to use both languages within a paired literacy lesson. This involves looking for strategic opportunities to integrate bilingual texts and opportunities to support reading, writing, oracy, and metalanguage in support of Spanish language arts and integrated, literacy-based English language development. Findings from research on paired literacy instruction in elementary classrooms indicate that students participating in paired literacy environments attain higher literacy outcomes in English and Spanish than traditional bilingual instruction with separate language environments [29,41].
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Caires Hurley, J.; Dougherty, J.; Ibarra Johnson, S. A Conceptual Framework Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies in Secondary Dual-Language Programs. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 1052. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101052

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Caires Hurley J, Dougherty J, Ibarra Johnson S. A Conceptual Framework Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies in Secondary Dual-Language Programs. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(10):1052. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101052

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Caires Hurley, Jaclyn, Jessica Dougherty, and Susana Ibarra Johnson. 2024. "A Conceptual Framework Supporting Translanguaging Pedagogies in Secondary Dual-Language Programs" Education Sciences 14, no. 10: 1052. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101052

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