Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

Committee Chair

Lyn Wright

Committee Member

Ronald Fuentes

Committee Member

Leah Windsor

Abstract

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces “between class sessions” in school and at home contexts. This study focused on examining translanguaging moments that show the affordances of social spaces and practices of multilingual minority students across home and school contexts. The study was conducted following the translanguaging approach which combines conventional methods including ethnographic methods and newer analytical frameworks such as the ‘moment analysis’ used in this study. The data collected for the present study included interviews and naturally occurring conversations which were audio recorded by three multilingual ‘Kuteb speaking’ students within a total period of 8 weeks. Using the moment analysis which is the “spur of the moment analysis” of translanguaging practices, also within the framework of “translanguaging space”, the findings show affordances of different translanguaging spaces for conversations at school and in the same way the affordances of different translanguaging spaces for conversations at home contexts. The school setting provided the students with spaces for the expression of their multilingual identities through translanguaging practices for conversations in the contexts of conflict, marriage and school-built relationships, while the affordances of translanguaging spaces at home contexts opened-up spaces for more non-controversial conversations and casual talk in the context of talk with neighbors, family, and friends. Each translanguaging moment opened up unique translanguaging space (s) across contexts ranging from spaces for the expressions of identity to spaces for discourse on conflict. The findings in this study show the importance of the school context as unregulated space (s) involving discourse among equals in enhancing the multilingual students’ expressions of their multilingualism captured by translanguaging. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion in translanguaging research on ‘spaces’ afforded the multilingual students and points to the potential of translanguaging moments in understanding the complexity of multilingual behavior observed through language in unique spaces.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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