“When People Don't Know Me, They Think…”: Fostering a Multimodal Translanguaging Space that Leverages Students' Voices

Abstract

AbstractThis article describes the design and implementation of a project from a translanguaging pedagogical stance. The research presented seeks to understand how translanguaging as a multimodal practice shapes the experiences of students in a traditional English Language Arts 8th‐grade classroom and how students leveraged their multimodal semiotic repertoires to explore identity expression. The article provides a framework for understanding translanguaging as a multimodal practice and discusses how it is embedded strategically in the design of instruction in a class in which many of the students are emergent bilinguals. It analyzes the process of producing short videos in which students critically examine how they were perceived by others and who they really are and presenting data that examine how students defy deficit perspectives and use their multimodal communicative repertoires to curate self‐representation.