This article discusses the results of an empirical study that examined the translanguaging practices of primary-grade, bilingual Latino students, as mediated by bilingual teacher candidates (TCs), in an after-school program in the southwestern United States. Expansive Learning theory, within the cultural-historical activity tradition, guided the…

This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classrooms to explore how teachers in these classrooms made sense of the everyday practice of bilingualism. Methodologically, this study relied on participant observation, video recording, and semi-structured interviews. Conceptually, this article draws on the…

This article explores how language ideologies--beliefs about immigrant students' language use--carry conflicting images of Spanish speakers in one New Latino Diaspora town. We describe how teachers and students encounter, negotiate, and appropriate divergent ideologies about immigrant students' language use during routine schooling…

Why do children from some minority groups and children living in poverty do poorly in school when compared to white middle-class children? Researchers have offered a large number of different answers to this question. One of the most popular answers has been based on the notion of "decontextualized language." This article argues that…

Introducing a distinction between language of ideas and language of display as a means of reconceptualizing what counts as "academic" language, I examine one brief stretch of talk by a small group of linguistically diverse 7th grade students in a U.S. mainstream social studies classroom designed to maximize academic and language…

This study explores schooling in prison for young Chicano bilingual men as they work toward their GED. Using Gee's notion of "mushfaking," the study focuses on the experiences of two young men, Benny and Flaco, who partially acquire, use, value, and believe in the power of academic register Discourses for "sounding smart"…

Many young children of Mexican heritage enter U.S. schools with knowledge of two language systems and emergent biliterate abilities. Bilingualism in young children may go unnoticed when instructional practices favor English. This case study describes how Lucía's bilingualism and emergent biliteracy parallel competencies essential to literacy…

Drawing on data recorded in two city markets, this article analyzes the language practices of workers and customers as they go about their daily business, with a particular focus on the ways in which linguistic resources, everyday tasks, and social spaces are intertwined in producing metrolingua francas. The aim of the article is to come to a…

This article investigates the linguistic tools employed by Hispanic Canadian families in their language socialization efforts of fostering sustained heritage language (HL) use. The article is based on data collected during a 1½-year ethnography, and focuses on the metapragmatic devices used in daily interactions. Utilizing analytic tools from the…

This longitudinal case study investigated how linguistic identity was constructed, constrained, and performed by three sisters, aged 1, 12, and 17, within one bilingual, transnational Ecuadorian-U.S. family. Data were collected over 14 months through weekly home visits that included participant observation, informal interviews, and…

This article examines how speakers of Kam Muang in Northern Thailand draw on distinct temporalities (the slow paced, long-term historical temporality of "longue duree"; the medium paced, autobiographical temporality of intermediate time frames; and the fast-paced, immediate temporality of the "courte duree") to conceptualize their community's…

This study investigated how immigrant parents describe and explain their family language policy concerning their child's preschool bilingual development, and also explored the factors linked to the parents' choice of bilingual or monolingual kindergarten for their child. The study design was based on a comparison of 2 groups of parents: those who…

Language-switching, attitude, and linguistic identity among 10th-grade female students in East Jerusalem are influenced by current political, social, and ethnic conflicts. The students make decisions to use English, Hebrew, and Arabic--the 3 regional languages--based on issues of hegemony and social influences. Participants in this study track…

This study examined opinions about some theoretical and practical tenets of bilingualism and bilingual education, as well as about the instructional use of English language learners' (ELLs) native languages in the classroom, of 77 teachers from Spain working in California as part of the California/Spain Visiting Teachers Program. In their…

The investigator compared the linguistic characteristics of Spanish and English language samples taken from English language learners (ELLs) diagnosed with an academic learning disability (LD) and ELLs in general education to determine if the errors and characteristics of their language use differ. There was a statistically significant difference…