Transnational Teachers Using Knowledge of Language for Developing Writing Strengths with U.S. Multilingual Learners

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IAFOR Conference Honolulu, Hawaii�Language Development, Communication, and Culture�January 6, 2025

Emily Zoeller, Edgewood College

Madison, Wisconsin, United States

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Problem

• Transnational teachers fill open teaching positions in U.S. settings to provide instruction to multilingual learners.
• In their new teaching setting, they encounter cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical differences (Bovill et al., 2015)
• Teacher preparation can support transnational teachers, but not enough is known about harnessing transnational teachers’ experiences for pedagogy in U.S. contexts.
• This is especially true for developing understanding about language.
• This study asked, how can a Transliteracy approach support transnational teachers in enacting language-focused writing instruction?

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Schooling environments for U.S. Multilinguals

• U.S. multilingual learners may learn in settings that are English-medium or bilingual education.
• Dual language models deliver instruction in both languages, with goals of biliteracy, bilingualism, and cultural competence. Most are Spanish/English.
• 82% of U.S. multilinguals are born in the U.S. (MIP, 2021).
• Dual language programs are expanding, and there is a shortage of bilingual teachers.
• Bilingual teachers have different paths to bilingualism and to becoming teachers.

Transnational teachers

• Transnationalism is “the condition of cultural interconnectedness and mobility across space” (Ong, 1999, p. 4); processes depend on national background, legal status, time in the U.S., and connections with home.

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• Navigating U.S. systems requires integration of new cultural values and linguistic practices of the adoptive community with norms and traditions from home.

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• Transnationals’ literacy paths and their literate identities are shaped by how this knowledge is treated in their new contexts (Taira, 2019).

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• Many transnational teachers were educated in monolingual settings rather than language contact zones (Pratt, 1991) like the United States.

Perspectives on language

Language is based on a system of choices of language structures used to achieve a communicative purpose (Halliday, 2014; Halliday & Hasan, 1985).

Language is action

that emerges within social and cultural contexts and often includes a hybridity

of registers and political languages (García, 2009; Pennycook, 2010).

Language play a role in students’ identity development; language beliefs and practices can address power relations and foster positive bilingual identity (Yosso, 2005; Norton, 2010)

A Transliteracy approach with a focal student

Zoeller & Briceño, 2022

Participants and focal students

Methods

• Multiple case-study design (Stake, 2006) was applied to three practicing bilingual teachers in K-5 dual language settings in a U.S. midwestern state.

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• Data included participant reflections from Transliteracy assignment and semi-structured interviews in Spanish and English.

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• Deductive coding focused on aspects of cultural and linguistic identity as transnationals along with knowledge of language.

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• Inductive coding was conducted to note lived experiencies, language beliefs and practices, and biliterate writing pedagogy.

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Findings

Knowledge of language as a system

"We paid close attention to the use of language for expressing ideas, language for connecting ideas, for interaction, and for creating cohesive texts. I am in the process of creating a useful chart with the most frequent words/expressions for

students to use in their narratives.”

-Raquel

“When it came to one of the skills that I asked my students to do, it was critically communicating the results [of a science experiment]. But I wasn’t very sure about how I wanted them to communicate the results in a written piece, so I

feel like those ideas can help to see that more clearly.”

-Lia

Knowledge of language as practice

“En nuestros países de origen hemos tenido una enseñanza muy diferente” (In our home countries we have had a very different teaching approach).

- Savannah

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“Puedo tener una comprensión más profunda de los factores que puedo destacar en la escritura de todos mis alumnos” (I can have a deeper understanding of

the factors I can highlight in all my students’ writing).

-Savannah

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“I don’t [normally] sit down individually with each student and

see what they understand and what they know, right? So this has been different.”

-Raquel

Knowledge of language as identity

“Estoy orgullosa de enseñar mi primer idioma—parte de lo que yo soy” (I am proud to teach my first language—part of who I am).

- Savannah

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“I feel like what is being honored, it’s all the knowledge and expertise and background

that [students] bring to the classroom and to the country. And I think it’s

especially important because maybe you have an accent or you make mistakes or

you don’t find the words or sometimes it’s just hard for you. It’s very easy to feel

like, ‘I used to be smart in my country.’ I feel like it’s the same for my students.”

- Lia

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Integration of language perspectives to develop pedagogy

Discussion

• Transnational teachers have unique potential, and support is needed in navigating new country contexts and pedagogy.

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• More research is needed to learn teacher knowledge and pedagogies from home country and how expertise can be honored in U.S. settings.

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• Teacher preparation can help educators integrate these different perspectives to provide opportunities for multilingual learners to learn disciplinary language and also “bring their entire selves—their language, with its multilingualism and multimodalities” (García, 2020, p. 562).

Further reading

Zoeller, E. & Briceño, A. (2022). "We can be bilingual rather than an English learner" Transnational teachers developing strength-based,  language-focused pedagogy. Teacher Education Quarterly, 49(2), 33-57. (open access!)

Thank you!