How English-Speaking Teachers Can Create a Welcoming Environment that Allows Students to Maintain and Utilize their Language through Translanguaging: A Qualitative Case Study

Abstract

This study analyzed how English-speaking teachers created a welcoming environment to allow students to maintain and utilize their first language through translanguaging in a high school class of English-language learners. This case study applied funds of knowledge as a theoretical framework to focus on how a ninth-grade class with two qualified English language arts teachers acquired new knowledge using five types of funds of knowledge: academic and personal background knowledge, accumulated life experiences, world views, and skills in an Urban-Multicultural Classroom. In a year-long effort, the researcher interviewed teachers and students, took field notes, collected instructional planning documents, and photographed students’ artifacts. The findings show that students grew in their construction of self-identity, developed their proficiency in two languages, and flourished in their multicultural competency while earning good grades.