Using university students’ L1 as a resource: Translanguaging in a Puerto Rican ESL classroom

Abstract

Framed within Ruiz’s language-as-resource orientation, this article uses data from a college ESL classroom where a translanguaging approach was used for the teaching of a novel. After defining key terms, the article describes the linguistic context of higher education in Puerto Rico and its influence on one instructor’s Basic English course. Using qualitative inquiry throughout a month-long unit, the researchers describe a bilingual instructor’s translanguaging approach and how it enhanced the reading of Abraham Rodríguez Jr.’s The Boy Without a Flag. The findings present how the translanguaging approach was implemented by using literature circles as a strategy to promote collaborative learning across the two languages. Ultimately, the authors argue that the use of a translanguaging approach complements Ruiz’s language-as-a-resource orientation in that students’ home language and varying linguistic repertories are respected and weaved into this ESL course as resources for constructing meaning and building on students’ cultural knowledge.