Emergent bilingual students’ translation practices during eBook composing

Abstract

As culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms become increasingly common, research looking at ways teachers can support language and literacy practices of all students in these spaces is needed. Using qualitative methods, this project examined second-grade, multilingual students’ practices during a Writing Workshop activity that invited them to use both their heritage languages and English. Specifically, this study investigated the translation practices developed by students over the course of one school year as they translated for one another by adding heritage language audio recordings to eBooks. Across the year, students developed and used increasingly more sophisticated translation practices, including: (1) full text, (2) word-by-word, (3) phrase-by-phrase, and (4) stop/clarify. The study also explored how students positioned themselves and others as they engaged in these translation practices. Findings suggest that, as students requested translation and bid to act as translators, they interactionally positioned themselves and others as holding valuable linguistic resources.