A sojourning multilingual family's sense-making in a science museum: A repertoire approach

Abstract

Despite a growing scholarly interest in bilingual children's heritage language learning, little attention has been paid to how sojourner children learn their heritage languages in content areas at home and in their communities in preparation for return to their home country. This study examined how a Korean sojourner child, Jun, and his mother employed semiotic resources to create learning opportunities for Jun to engage with science discourse in a local science museum and expand his linguistic repertoires. Using ethnographic and multimodal interaction analysis methods, I analyzed Jun and his mother's interactions in a local science museum ten times over 18 months. Findings revealed that Jun's family created translanguaging spaces to meet their needs, such as learning and using their heritage language in the scientific examination. This study calls for partnership between parents and teachers and between schools and local museums to provide learning opportunities for sojourning multilingual children and families.