Translanguaging in Poetry: The Intersection Between Writing and Identity Among Bilingual Students

ANGELICA DA SILVA

Perhaps the most memorable encounter many of us had with poetry in recent years was Gorman’s recitation of “The Hill We Climb” during the 2022 U.S. presidential inauguration. Following the event, Gorman’s poem, delivered with power and precision, became a viral sensation. As June Jordan once stated, “Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth” (as cited in Quiroz-Martinez, 1998, para. 4), and Gorman’s truth resonated with her community.

This paper describes how translanguaging and poetry were used to empower heritage speakers to share their truth while also facilitating writing and identity development.

Multifaced Intervention

The poetry lesson described here was part of a research study conducted in a southern, rural area in the U.S. A total of 183 high-school, heritage Spanish students received affinity group and writing intervention on a weekly basis for 10 weeks. Classes alternated between affinitygroup meetings and writing. Each module was dedicated to a different writing genre. Poetry was the second module and took place during weeks three and four.

Affinity Groups

Affinity groups are meetings in which members share a common, social identity and discuss related personal experiences (Douglas, 2008). Members of the group often experience similar interactions with the out-group. Similarities create a safe space for members to talk freely, release frustrations, receive validation, and learn coping skills that can help foster intergroup interactions (Tatum, 2017). In the context of this study, affinity-group meetings also served to discuss the issues that would become the topic of their upcoming writing assignment.

Cognitive Writing Strategies

Contemporary writing research led to the conceptualization of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) (Graham & Perin, 2007), which provides teachers with concrete strategies to explicitly teach students the composition process. The practice guide provided by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) - Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively (Graham et al.,

Translanguaging in Poetry: The Intersection Between Writing and Identity Among Bilingual Students

2016) - recommends the explicit teaching of writing strategies using the Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle: planning, goal setting, drafting, evaluating, revising, and editing (p. 6).

Translanguaging

Different from code-switching, where multilinguals shift languages or other sociolinguistic aspects to accommodate the audience, translanguaging refers to the use of one’s full linguistic repertoire without language boundaries (Otheguy et al., 2015). Translanguaging is consistent with additive multilingualism, which has been found more successful than subtractive strategies focused on English-only practices (Collier & Thomas, 2017; San Miguel, 2020). Thus, it can be an enabling factor for bilingual writing.

Lesson Implementation

The theme for the lesson was bi-multilingualism. During the affinity group, students were placed in groups of 6-8 and had to answer the following question: “Is bilingualism an advantage?”

The hook was a YouTube video depicting Dr. José Medina reciting his poem titled mi primer amigo (Medina, 2020). The poem describes Medina’s experience as a non-English speaker in kindergarten, where he made a best friend despite language barriers. Nonetheless, his friend would call him a “wetback,” and, at the time, Medina did not understand what it meant. Next, students were instructed to discuss the video, create a list of pros and cons of being bilingual, discuss this, and take a position.

The following class was dedicated to writing. The first 10 minutes were used to discuss the Model-Practice-Reflect instructional cycle. Students learned explicit strategies mentioned on the IES’s practice guide (Graham et al., 2016), along with examples on how to implement them in their own writing. Because most poems are short in comparison to other genres, we wanted students to focus on planning, goal-setting, and choosing the correct vocabulary to deliver their message. Translanguaging was encouraged throughout class discussions and individual writing.

Findings

During affinity group, the majority of students concluded that bilingualism is an advantage because it connects them to their heritage, and it enables them to communicate and help family, friends, and community members who are not bilingual. Nonetheless, students also pointed to disadvantages such as the struggle to learn two languages, having a dual identity, and being subject to discrimination. The poem below, written by a student, exemplifies many of these themes:

Dos Maneras

I love how I can speak two languages, Hablar con mis padres and talk to my sister. Having two ways to communicate.

Two ways to hear,

Two ways to talk,

Two ways to get insulted.

“Mira este gringo gordo,” “They need to go back to where they came from.”

Sure is nice being insulted in two ways. Being insulted by my own people in Español, Having to do my best to stay in control.

Sure speaking Spanish has many benefits, I can talk to my parents y hablar con mi hermana.

I love how I can speak two languages....

Discussion

Second-language (L2) socialization in various, discursive communities may lead to changes in how L2 users perceive themselves and are perceived by others (Pavlenko, 1998). Some identity aspects such as linguistic, racial and ethnic, cultural, gender, and social identities lead to renegotiation (Pavlenko, 2001).

Translanguaging in Poetry: The Intersection Between Writing and Identity Among Bilingual Students

The act of writing can be disruptive because it presents an opportunity to gain control over self and the world through the conversion of private reflection into public knowledge (Pavlenko & Lantoff, 2001). This way, telling one’s truth can be a political act (Quiroz-Martinez, 1998) because it requires the analysis of self and its sociopolitical environment. Since language is often the vehicle used to navigate between L1 and L2 communities, it cannot be excluded from the analyses.

Here, translanguaging was an important tool for the student-author above to express his experiences. He used Spanish to indicate his preference when speaking with his parents and English when speaking with his sister. Later, he also used different languages to exemplify discrimination by different language communities: “Mira este gringo gordo,” / “They need to go back to where they came from.”

Implications

Because language and identity are interconnected, encouraging translanguaging in poetry can help students develop a deeper understanding of their socio environment and linguistic abilities. This deeper understanding can potentially empower students to become better writers and gain agentive power.

References

Collier, V. P., & Thomas, W. P. (2017). Validating the power of bilingual schooling: Thirtytwo years of large-scale, longitudinal research. ARAL, 1–16. https://static1. squarespace.com/static/5d854ac170e64a71d1de71d3/t/5d9cb55f26d64b4456

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Douglas, P. H. (2008). Affinity groups: Catalyst for inclusive organizations. Employment Relations Today , 34(4), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20171

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high school-A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Alliance for Excellence in Education.

Graham, S., Bruch, J., Fitzgerald, J., Friedrich, L., Furgeson, J., Greene, K., Kim, J., Lyskawa, J., Olson, C.B., & Smither Wulsin, C. (2016). Teaching secondary students to write effectively (NCEE 2017-4002). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: http://whatworks.ed.gov

Medina, J. (2020, January 19). Mi primer amigo [Video]. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWodoQ2WCQ

Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281-307.

Pavlenko, A. (2001). “In the world of the tradition, I was unimagined”: Negotiation of identities in cross-cultural autobiographies. International Journal of Bilingualism , 5(3), 317–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069010050030401

Pavlenko, A., & Lantolf, J. (2001). Second language learning as participation and the reconstruction of selves. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 155-177). Oxford University Press.

Quiroz-Martinez, J. (1998). Poetry is a political act: An interview with June Jordan. COLORLINES. Retrieved from https://www.colorlines.com/articles/poetry-political-act

San Miguel, G. (2020). Contested policy: The rise and fall of federal bilingual education in the United States, 1960-2001 (Volume 1) (Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series). University of North Texas Press.

Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. Basic Books. (Original work published in 1999)

About The Author

Angelica DaSilva is a Literacy Studies PhD student and graduate assistant at Middle Tennessee State University. She is interested in research that focuses on students of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and prepares teachers to meet the ever-growing linguistic demands in the classroom.