Translingual Discursive Spaces in Language and Arts Lessons

Flexible multilingual pedagogies such as translanguaging pedagogies are promising stepping stones towards a more equitable access to educational resources for students of different backgrounds. Recent research in Luxembourgish preschool, Year 1 and Year 2 classes, show that teachers have begun to implement such pedagogies by encouraging the deployment of the students’ full linguistic repertoires, including their home languages. Little attention has however been paid to the later years of primary school where the achievement gap between students with and without a migration background is particularly high. The present qualitative longitudinal study focusses on students in Years 4 and 5 and examines to what extent they deploy their linguistic repertoires in interaction with their peers. Drawing on observations, recordings and interviews, this paper explores the language use of two Portuguese-speaking 4 graders in Language and Arts lessons. Findings show that the students mobilize their linguistic and cultural resources to different extents and, hereby, open or close translingual discursive spaces for further exchange. The findings should contribute to the understanding of multilingual students’ language practices and provide insight into how their linguistic and cultural resources can be capitalized on.