The document discusses translingual education as a phenomenon, methodology, and ideology that can promote social justice and educational renewal. It provides examples of how translingualism was observed in the linguistic landscape of Harrison, NJ and describes two classroom activities incorporating students' native languages that demonstrate a translingual methodology for teaching English. The presentation argues that translingual education moves beyond monolingual and multilingual approaches by viewing languages and literacies as fluid and dynamic.
1. “ Translingual Education as a Phenomenon, a Methodology and an Ideology to Promote Social Justice and educational renewal” National Network for Educational Renewal 2011 Annual Conference David Schwarzer – Mary Fuchs – Chris Hermosilla Montclair State University
This restaurant is an excellent example of linguistic diversity in Harrison and the of the fluidity of translingualism. Initially from the exterior, it appears the restaurant serves (and delivers) Chinese food. The yellow sign includes both Chinese characters and English words.
But a closer glance reveals the restaurant, which is Chinese-operated, also serves Peruvian-Chinese fusion food. In the 19 th and 20 th centuries, Chinese immigrants in Peru began to use Peruvian ingredients for their cooking and Latin American cooking techniques. As a result, “chifa” or “chaufa” was born. The two words, “chifa” or “chaufa” come from a Spanish pronunciation of the Mandarin words, “chi fan” or “chao fan,” meaning “to eat rice” or “fried rice.” This sign, therefore, is not only evidence of a Peruvian community In Harrison, but also the mixing of a Chinese-American restaurant with Peruvian-Chinese fusion food. For example, the sign here is in English, Spanish, and a Spanish pronunciation of a Chinese word. “Seafood” is English, “Arroz” is Spanish for rice, and “Chaufa,” meaning the rice is specially prepared.
Much like the Chinese/Peruvian restaurant, this Harrison storefront displays a combination of words and phrases from multiple languages. The store offers a variety of services – it is a travel agency and bank, which the owners have signified with English words like “travel” and “money transfer.” The store also advertises access to the internet, with Spanish words and phrases, like “internet café” and “cyber café.” Other phrases like “fax, copias & P.O. Box,” are a fluid mixture of English and Spanish. Most importantly, this sign was purposely created by the store owner in a permanent manner, by affixing adhesive letters to glass and ordering a printed plexi-glass sign. The design was created and assumingly vetted by a number of people, members of the community who approved of the language use inherent in it.
In our final example, we compare the efforts of a furniture store, whose owners presumably do not speak Spanish, in their efforts to communicate with the Spanish-speaking community in Harrison. Here, five different signs indicate Paiva ’s Furniture store has moved around the corner, in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. The Spanish sign reads “Vaya a arrinconar y despues a hacer una izquierda, al lado de Elks.” If you plug this sentence into an online translator, it means “Go to corner and then make a left next to Elks.” But in Spanish, the sentence sounds rather clumsy. If the owner was Spanish-speaking, he would most likely write the sign as, “Ir a la esquina y girar a la izquierda, estamos al lado de Elks.”
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