Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Symposia Session

Dual language

All

Translanguaging comes in many shapes and sizes, ranging from cross-linguistic instruction that maintains separate spaces for the communicative use of each language to more holistic approaches that encourage students to draw readily on their entire linguistic repertoire to support their language development and academic achievement. The premise of this symposium is that translanguaging has considerable potential to enhance learning outcomes in immersion and dual language programs but that, given the variety of such programs, translanguaging practices need to be tailored to best suit specific contexts. Various factors such as program model (one-way or two-way) and students’ home language (minority or majority) serve to determine the appropriateness of different translanguaging practices. These practices need to be strategically implemented to support the development of bilingual proficiency but also tempered in favor of the minority language in order to circumvent the societal language imbalance that favours majority-language use.

This symposium will showcase four papers representing different instructional settings along a continuum of contexts:

1. Developmental bilingual program for simultaneous bilingual learners in Colorado (Sandra Butvilofsky)
2. Dual language bilingual programs in New York (Maite Sánchez & Kate Seltzer)
3. Spanish-English bilingual program for English L1 students in Alberta (Elaine Schmidt)
4. Immersion/dual language contexts serving both majority- and minority-language students in the U.S. (Tara Fortune & Diane J. Tedick)

The papers will be followed by a discussion led by discussant Roy Lyster addressing the similarities and differences in best translanguaging practices across contexts.