Although early writing is considered an essential pathway to language and literacy development for preschool-age children (i.e., 3- to 5-years-old), it tends to receive less priority when compared to reading in early childhood (EC) education. To bolster teachers’ early writing practices, researchers have closely examined the nature of the writing instruction and experiences that occur in EC classrooms. In this multiple methods study, we capitalized on a purposeful sample of 30 classrooms where children demonstrated higher language gains to examine and describe how early writing experiences were implemented in these contexts. Using deductive and inductive approaches, we explored various characteristics of writing events that occurred, including the grouping format, activity setting, instructional foci, and teachers’ supportive strategies to understand how these characteristics worked together to shape teacher-child writing interactions. We found that the written product and instructional foci were linked to teachers’ use of specific strategies, which ultimately shaped children’s participation in writing, particularly children’s engagement with different components of writing (i.e., handwriting, spelling, and composing). Findings of this study provide important insight into the dynamic interplay of environmental, instructional, and interactional factors that shape writing instruction and experiences in EC classrooms.

Shared reading is a crucial site for children’s emerging reading skills when children engage affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively in the reading process. To inform a more holistic, collective, and inclusive view of observable engagement in read aloud (RA) behaviors, authors examined EB preschoolers’ micro-moment engagement behaviors to understand how they recruit their verbal and embodied modes to attend to RAs and how these behaviors align with prior engagement typologies. A phenomenological approach was implemented to examine EB preschool students’ moment-to-moment, multimodal forms of engagement across three video recorded RAs that consisted of 258 units of analysis. Findings reveal that EB preschoolers’ attentiveness and attention divergence during RA activities were showcased across a multimodal continuum but did not necessarily indicate disengagement or inattention. Opportunities for children’s contemplation were constrained by social and behavioral expectations of their compliance, and within less dialogic RAs, these expectations undermined children’s multimodal means of textual engagement in favor of their quiet, undivided display of attention. Findings have implications for recognizing the role of young children’s multimodal expression in supporting their engagement and interactions in RA in ways that may contribute to their developing reading skills and outcomes.

Although existing research describes how teacher candidates (TCs) have incorporated translanguaging pedagogies through practice-based assignments, little research closely examines how TCs engage in discursive shifts, or moment-to-moment linguistic decisions, in translanguaging pedagogies during literacy instruction in their field placement internships. Drawing on a larger study that utilized practitioner inquiry with an ethnographic approach, we analyzed TCs’ literacy instruction for their discursive shifts in which TCs and elementary students 1) engaged in translanguaging 2) spoke about named languages 3) attempted to draw upon multilingual students’ cultural and linguistic knowledges. Our analyses of TCs’ discursive shifts during translanguaging read-alouds showed that TCs employed more or less effective and affirming discursive shifts to position multilingual students as linguistic experts. TCs also employed certain discursive shifts that gave multilingual students more opportunities to share cultural and linguistic knowledge unknown to the TCs and peers than others. Lastly, TCs engaged in discursive shifts that provided multilingual students space to advocate for their linguistic, cultural and textual rights. We conclude by discussing the findings and sharing implications on developing effective and affirming uses of translanguaging pedagogies in literacy instruction.

Translanguaging theory highlights the dynamic use of multiple languages and communication modes by multilingual people in their daily experiences. Museums are informal family learning spaces where multilingual families use languages and other semiotic resources to create learning opportunities for their children. Using a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis and multimodal interaction analysis, I examined how a multilingual family uses translanguaging practices to organize their family learning in museums and the role of pointing gestures as part of their translanguaging repertoires in multilingual family learning. The analysis of two literacy events highlights that a child and his mother translanguaged with various semiotic resources to organize museum performances, joint attention, and telling, and that pointing gestures played a role in constructing a translanguaging space as they organized the two performances. Pointing involved the family in reading signage texts and allowed the mother to translate them for the child. Viewing translation as part of the translanguaging repertoire, this study recognizes the importance of the role of pointing gestures in constructing family learning at museums, enriching children’s schooling and literacy learning in classrooms. I argue that recognizing pointing as a critical component of translanguaging allows educators to develop strategies that leverage families’ unique repertoires to support multilingual students’ language and literacy learning.

This paper describes name-related literacy practices in a multilingual preschool classroom and their implications for emergent biliteracy. We draw on a translingual framework to understand children’s name-writing activities and how bilingual children’s early literacy interacts with, and at times disrupts, the written conventions of named languages. Drawing on fieldnotes, observations, and artifacts from a preschool classroom serving Spanish-English bilingual children, we examined how children and teachers used names as resources for early literacy learning. We found that names are (potential) gateways to letter-sound relationships across languages, that names teach that some features of writing are shared across languages and some are different, and finally that names differ from other kinds of words children encounter across languages. We discuss what those instances prompt us to (re)consider about name-related teaching and emergent biliteracy.

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly shifted primary-grade literacy instruction which had rarely been implemented online before the pandemic. Remote early literacy instruction is thus an emerging field of research, and research is needed to understand the affordances and limitations of this crisis-driven instruction and how it may inform early literacy instruction moving forward, both in remote and traditional settings. This mixed methods case study examined how 106 novice primary-grade teachers in the United States implemented literacy instruction in the remote platform during the COVID-19 pandemic with a desire to understand both successful and challenging literacy practices. The main data sources entailed 106 teacher interviews conducted using a semi-structured interview protocol and teacher self-ratings of their implementation of evidence-based literacy practices. Qualitative analyses of teachers’ perspectives yielded findings that remote early literacy instruction increased the involvement of families, required teachers to navigate multiple boundaries to implement literacy instruction, remote instruction was most conducive to teacher-led literacy instruction, and resulted in teachers’ difficulty knowing and addressing children’s literacy needs. Quantitative data analysis of Likert-scale questions about teachers’ early literacy instructional practices revealed teachers reported their highest quality literacy instructional practices as read alouds, collaboration with children’s families, and building an effective learning community for remote literacy instruction. Teachers rated their remote implementation of writing instruction, literacy assessment processes, and differentiation of literacy instruction as lower quality. The findings add to the literature by providing an in-depth understanding of remote early literacy instruction, successes and challenges reported by teachers providing literacy instruction to primary-aged children, and implications for post-pandemic instruction.

Rich oral language practices, including the opportunity and ability to participate in cognitively and linguistically challenging extended discourse, are foundational to early literacy development. To meet children’s needs in their first exposure to the languages of schooling, educators may engage students in extended discourse multilingually. The current study focuses on student-centered translanguaging conversations to examine strategies that preschool teachers employ to support young children’s emerging bilingual and biliteracy development in a Mandarin immersion preschool serving primarily non-heritage learners of Mandarin in the United States. Findings indicate that, despite the school’s Mandarin-only policy, teachers engaged in covert translanguaging practices to extend and deepen discourse. Specifically, teachers used 13 discourse strategies across two critical areas of schooling: translanguaging for (1) socializing students not just into the Mandarin language but into the norms of schooling; and (2) focusing not just on Mandarin language but also on content area learning. The study concludes with implications for schools and teachers.

This study explores the captivating world of toy unboxing videos as a space for emergent bilingual children to engage in translanguaging practices. Through the lens of translanguaging, which encourages the unrestricted use of full linguistic repertoires, this research examines the experiences of two five-year-old immigrant and emergent bilingual children, who employ linguistic repertoires from both English and Korean, within toy unboxing play. Toy unboxing play is not exclusive to these children alone but extends beyond as a shared phenomenon of new play among children across the globe. This ethnographic case study seeks to understand when and how translanguaging is employed in their toy unboxing play and explores the possibilities it opens for fostering inclusive views on linguistic practices among emergent bilingual children. In our findings, we argue that toy unboxing play can be a way of creating translanguaging space facilitating the deployment of children’s linguistic repertoires and contributing to their meaning-making and learning processes. The translanguaging practices exhibited by the children in their toy unboxing play demonstrate linguistic flexibility across three key domains: (1) playful interaction with toys and self, (2) emotional interaction with families and intimate others, and (3) transcultural interaction with peers and virtual audience. The study contributes valuable insights into the potentialities of translanguaging within the context of children’s play. Translanguaging emerges not only as a linguistic phenomenon but as a holistic approach to communication, reflecting the multifaceted nature of emergent bilingual children’s identities and experiences. The hybridized approach observed in their play underscores the importance of recognizing translanguaging as a way of being and belonging for children and families with transnational and transcultural backgrounds. By shedding light on the intricate interplay between language, culture, and play, this research deepens our understanding of inclusive and liberating translanguaging spaces for emergent bilingual children.