Translanguaging in content classes: A study of a trilingual preschooler.

Mari Heimlich and I, Shakira Bell, would like to share our research experience as undergraduate students at the Symposium of Student Scholars at KSU. Both of us have been involved with Dr. Choi’s research about her own trilingual children’s language practices at her home context. The research project is a qualitative research study that has many implications for all teachers who teach linguistically and culturally diverse students in schools. The project explores how two preschoolers make sense of and express meaning by drawing on all of their linguistic resources in a multilingual household where they speak Korean, Farsi, and English. It problematizes the fact that multilingual students come to schools required to speak only English and challenges a monolingual ideology pervasive in the U.S. Dr. Choi has been collecting audio, video recordings of her children’s conversations as well as writing her observations in her research notes. The major research questions are a) How does a trilingual preschooler draw on three languages, Korean, Farsi, and English to make sense of his world and to express meaning? And b) What are the implications of the trilingual preschooler’s translanguaging practices in formal schooling? The research findings so far show simultaneous multilingual preschoolers’ flexible and creative use of all languages in making meaning. The poster session includes two parts with the first part addressing translanguaging practices of a trilingual preschooler. The second part will address practical tips on how to support students’ home languages in elementary classes