Bilingualism as a Borderland: Researching Youth’s Practices, Perspectives, and Positioning Between Languages

Abstract

Seen from a critical intersectional perspective, the experiences of bilinguals are embedded in liminal spaces between language and cultural practices. Yet, rather than leverage these novel and hybrid practices for learning, dominant paradigms in education have historically subtracted nondominant students’ home languages from their communicative resources. To similar effect, current trends in bilingual education promote language separation for equal development of languages severed from each other and from cultural contexts. Such reductive approaches to language education disregard the dynamic and heteroglossic language use documented in bilingual communities. Drawing on in-depth interviews with youth, written reflections, and artifacts of bilingualism, I explore these practices across/between languages by conceptualizing bilingualism as a borderland navigated by Spanish–English bilingual youth. Considering bilingualism as a liminal position foregrounds moments of tension and transition in the language and schooling trajectories of youth as they navigate the anguish and advantage of living in-between. Furthermore, I highlight the methodological implications of framing bilingualism as a borderland to inform research design in language and education fields.