A (dis)play on words: Emergent bilingual students’ use of verbal jocularity as a channel of the translanguaging corriente

Abstract

This study demonstrates how 3rd-grade Latin@ emergent bilingual students employed the use of types of juegos de palabras, or wordplay, within and across named languages to engage around the site of humor. Based on observations from their academic year, I employed ethnographic methods to delve into how these students created, participated in, and mobilized linguistic resources to implement intra- and inter-language play manifesting as multiple-meaning words, syllable reordering and punning within their mirthful interactions. By using a translanguaging corriente (García et al., 2017) framework to understand how this developed, I aspire to render visible their jocular practices of verbal adeptness with those in their classroom community. The implications that I suggest are that instances of mirth are a legitimate locus of Latin@ bilingual students’ linguistic and cultural expression as well as a promising form of communication worth our attention as theorists and practitioners.