ABSTRACT This paper investigates the privileges and consequences of bidialectalism for Black Americans, focusing on the interplay between Black English (BE) and Standard American English (SAE). Seeking to find what are the benefits of bidialectalism for Black Americans this study employs narrative inquiry as its methodology, incorporating personal anecdotes, vignettes, and scholarly perspectives to highlight the significance of preserving one’s home language while navigating the societal expectations tied to SAE. Findings indicate that the deliberate and strategic practices of codeswitching and/or code-meshing among participants reveals BE as a means of establishing and maintaining relationships within the Black community, serving as a marker of identity, community, and resilience. Conversely, SAE is employed to seek validation and credibility in professional spaces and, at times, when communicating with individuals outside of the Black community. These linguistic adaptations functions as both a tool for social mobility and a potential source of cultural tension, underscoring the emotional, social, and professional complexities of code-switching, in particular, including issues of authenticity and belonging. This study contributes to the broader conversation on language, power, and identity, advocating for the recognition of linguistic diversity and the validation of Black English as a legitimate and valuable form of communication.

ABSTRACT I reflect on autobiographical experiences to unpack non-dominant language (NDL) learners’ educational barriers. I connect my lived experiences as an English learner and educator to multilingual learners in Nepal, who are deprived of education in the mother tongue. I aim to proffer input for language policy, planning, and pedagogical development to minimize language-based disparities in schools and support language maintenance. This approach allows me to deeply engage with impactful events, actions, and relationships as an English learner and teacher and helps me relate my school-based experiences to linguistically marginalized children. By unpacking parental literacy, literacy in the home language, corpus planning, home-school distance, pedagogical practice, school environment, discriminatory practice, and language attitude as critical issues affecting multilingual children’s schooling, this narrative identifies and calls for attention to multilingual children’s invisibility in school. This study has direct implications for NDL children’s school access and success, and NDLs’ maintenance as it helps enrich our understanding of NDL children’s multilayered school-based barriers from a unique sociolinguistic context. This study informs language advocates, policymakers, educators, and researchers who are concerned about the roots of academic disparity among NDL children and the endangerment of NDLs as a consequence of unjust language policy and practice.

ABSTRACT This study examined teachers’ adherence to the language of instruction in dual language education (DLE) programs among teachers in 19 kindergarten through 3rd grade Spanish-English two-way DLE immersion classrooms (n = 5, 90/10 model; n = 14, 50/50 model). Teachers were observed toward the beginning and end of the school year to determine adherence rates of teacher talk by role, teacher talk by purpose, and teacher redirections of students not speaking the target language. Adherence for teacher talk was high across the school year but was lower for assistant teachers compared to lead teachers. Adherence for instructional talk and behavior management talk was also high, though rates were lower for behavior management talk in the fall for the 90/10 model. Redirections of students not speaking the target language were highest in the fall but negligible in the spring during English whole group instruction in the 50/50 model, and redirections were low but increased over time for teachers providing Spanish instruction. Redirection rates were especially low during small group or individual work time. Implications for future research and considerations for supporting teachers’ adherence to the language of instruction are discussed, including accounting for practices (e.g., translanguaging) reflecting updated views about language separation.

ABSTRACT There is a growing need for teachers to engage linguistic diversity additively and equitably in the classroom in a way that empowers multilingual learners and the knowledge they bring. Translanguaging offers a potentially transformative approach to teaching that centers the agency of multilingual learners to critically and creatively disrupt the language borders of their classrooms. The purpose of this article is to review foundational and current translanguaging research as a theory of language as well as a pedagogical practice. It also proposes an approach to translanguaging as a qualitative research methodology, demonstrating a translanguaging pedagogical framework can be supplemented with analytic criteria to represent a qualitative research methodology that meets the multidisciplinary needs of translanguaging in research and practice. Finally, it discusses how future translanguaging inquiry can engage critical frameworks and multidisciplinary methodologies that center teachers and analysis of their agency to enact translanguaging pedagogies for multilingual learners.

ABSTRACT In this manuscript, we discuss the unique characteristics of critical bicultural-bilingual pedagogues. A sociocultural transformative framework anchors the notion of critical bicultural-bilingual pedagogues and builds on my own as well the work of other scholars. There are two overarching themes that are considered regarding critical bicultural-bilingual pedagogues: the embodiment of positive ethnic/cultural identity and critical consciousness – son concientizadas; and the enactment of Critical Bicultural-Bilingual Transformative Pedagogy. Testimonios of critical bicultural-bilingual pedagogues are provided to demonstrate how they engage in their work to ensure the success of bilingual learners. Testimonies are reflective of our oral traditions and are a liberatory act heightening our concientización. We suggest that critical bicultural-bilingual pedagogues are essential in the implementation of the bilingual education program, regardless of the program delivery type.

ABSTRACT Mainstream teachers’ views of emergent bilingual students have been well documented, but less is known about how bilingual dual language teachers understand bilingualism and their subsequent expectations of students based on those understandings. We used thematic analysis of focus group conversations to investigate and present the views of eight experienced bilingual dual language elementary teachers at two different schools. Drawing on social capital theory and the notion of the white listening subject, we found that despite teachers’ overwhelming belief in the importance of bilingualism and their desire for their students to develop bilingual abilities, they served as strict gatekeepers, reproducing monoglossic views of bilingualism leading to a deficit perspective that precluded seeing students’ multiple bilingual realities as strengths. The paper concludes with critical questions for various educational stakeholders as well as recommendations for teacher education and dual language education.

ABSTRACT This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of three high school students labeled Long-term English learners (LTEL) in a North Texas high school. This narrative inquiry study uses semi-structured interviews to restory the students’ lives, emphasizing the emergent themes of family (the strongest pillar) and the language of the home (Spanish). The metaphor of the bridge, a connector across language and culture, offers insights into the students’ perspectives of their developing identities as bilingual and bicultural youth. Regarding the theme family (the strongest pillar), the students perceived their families as connecting them to their cultural heritage, providing emotional/social bonds, and advancing their academic interests. Regarding the theme the language of the home (Spanish), the students valued Spanish as the language of the heart, interlinking them with their native roots. Moreover, the students’ narratives demonstrate the importance of integrating additive learning experiences at school, designed to support LTEL students’ native languages and cultures. The article concludes with a pragmatic discussion about cultivating inclusive schooling cultures for LTEL learners.

ABSTRACT This paper is the first to examine the longitudinal results of six years of implementation of Literacy Squared, a biliteracy model for Spanish/English speaking emerging bilingual students. This model includes paired literacy instruction with grade-specific time allocations for Spanish literacy and literacy-based ELD. Furthermore, cross-language connections are a vital component. This study uses descriptive statistics and correlations to analyze Spanish and English reading and English language proficiency data on a cohort of 58 emerging bilingual Latino students in four schools as they moved from kindergarten through fifth grade. Data show gains in students’ biliterate development. Findings have implications for bilingual instructional programs and support the research that providing students with literacy instruction in two languages allows students to develop their literacy skills simultaneously. In doing so, their literacy development is not hindered in either language, and they have the opportunity to obtain advanced levels of English proficiency.

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study explores how integrating multimodal writing opportunities in a second-grade dual language classroom opens up spaces for translanguaging practices in order to promote a more equitable and socially just access to biliteracy development for emergent bilinguals. A multimodal writing project that integrated writing and social studies was designed to provide students with opportunities to write in English and Spanish using digital tools. Data collected involved field notes, student work, students’ interviews, and videorecordings of students’ interaction while completing the writing tasks. Findings illustrate how the multimodal writing project afforded emergent bilinguals with opportunities to leverage their full linguistic repertoire to construct meaningful texts in both languages while integrating new features in both languages, establishing cross-linguistic connections, building metalinguistic awareness, and positioning as capable writers in both languages.

ABSTRACTProject Mathematics and English Language Development (MELD) is a sixth-grade mathematics intervention aimed at supporting English learners’ (ELs) development of academic language and mathematical knowledge. This article describes the MELD scaffolds and strategies for ELs with multiple examples, as well as survey and focus group data on the effectiveness of the scaffolds and strategies. The article is written for mathematics teachers and coaches who work with ELs so that they can apply the scaffolds and strategies to their curricula.