Peer-to-peer translanguaging academic spaces for belonging: the case of Spanish as a heritage language

Abstract

ABSTRACT This ethnography analysis presents the translingual academic moments – moments in an academic interaction where both Spanish and English are used – of a group of six Spanish Heritage Language students who work as academic peer tutors in a Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program at a large public university. The analysis of peer-tutor interviews and transcriptions of tutoring sessions demonstrates that peer tutors translanguage with the two overarching goals of furthering their tutees’ academic literacy and building community, illustrating the extent to which translanguaging supported this peer-led Spanish heritage academic learning community. By exploring the goals with which Spanish heritage peer-tutors deployed translingual language in a non-classroom academic context, this work argues for the importance of critically examining heritage student translanguaging in academic contexts in order for researchers and educators to leverage bilingual students’ learning trajectories.