The Role of Translanguaging in Computational LiteraciesDocumenting Middle School Bilingualsrsquo Practices in Computer Science Integrated Units

Sara VogelThe Graduate Center City University of New York

New York NY

Christopher HoadleyNew York University

Brooklyn NY

Laura Ascenzi-MorenoBrooklyn College City University of New York

Brooklyn NY

Kate MenkenQueens College City University of New York

Queens NY

ABSTRACTBilingual education has described a process called translanguagingby which students use linguistic resources across and beyond mul-tiple named languages to learn Here we examine how bilinguallearners translanguage while learning computer science Thesemiddle schoolers participated in a curricular intervention whichinfused computational thinking into their Spanish-English bilinguallanguage arts class Through a descriptive qualitative methodol-ogy we document classroom moments supporting four claims 1)studentsrsquo translanguaging blurs linguistic disciplinary and modalboundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined with stu-dentsrsquo other literacies 3) studentsrsquo attitudes about language andthe contexts around them play a role in their translanguaging and4) students translanguage to engage in specific CT practices

CCS CONCEPTSbull Social and professional topicsrarr Computational thinkingK-12 education Cultural characteristics

KEYWORDSComputer Science for All Middle School Bilinguals Translanguag-ing Computational Literacies English Language LearnersACM Reference FormatSara Vogel Christopher Hoadley Laura Ascenzi-Moreno and Kate Menken2019 The Role of Translanguaging in Computational Literacies Document-ing Middle School Bilingualsrsquo Practices in Computer Science IntegratedUnits In Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo19) February 27-March 2 2019 Minneapolis MNUSA ACM New York NY USA 7 pages httpsdoiorg10114532873243287368

1 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICALFRAMEWORK

Humans use language as a primary way to communicate and tolearn This is as true in computer science as it is in other school

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal orclassroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributedfor profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citationon the first page Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than theauthor(s) must be honored Abstracting with credit is permitted To copy otherwise orrepublish to post on servers or to redistribute to lists requires prior specific permissionandor a fee Request permissions from permissionsacmorgSIGCSE rsquo19 February 27-March 2 2019 Minneapolis MN USAcopy 2019 Copyright held by the ownerauthor(s) Publication rights licensed to ACMACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5890-31902 $1500httpsdoiorg10114532873243287368

subjects Translanguaging a recent theory from the fields of ap-plied linguistics and bilingual education posits that people fluidlycall into action their full meaning-making repertoires includingtheir linguistic resources (eg knowledge of Spanish andor Eng-lish vocabulary) semiotic resources (eg drawing intonation) andsocial practices (eg conventions for greeting joking etc) [13]Translanguaging argues that the way people ndash especially bilingualand multilingual people ndash assemble language features often defiescategorization into traditional named languages (like ldquoSpanishrdquo orldquoFrenchrdquo) [29] in a single interaction people may use words frommultiple languages gestures and even emoji and other resourcesfrom the environment and technology to make meaning

Translanguaging is a relevant theory to apply in K-12 CS learn-ing environments In such classrooms students are not just ex-pected to write compilable code they are expected to collaborateto produce meaningful projects for particular users to deepen theirunderstanding of concepts in a particular subject area and to thinkcritically about the impacts of technology [2] In these activitieslanguage takes on a central role Students communicate to a rangeof audiences using dynamic configurations of spoken and writtenhuman and programming languages through modalities such ascomments in code paper prototypes UML diagrams and a host ofother resources in other words they translanguage In introducingtranslanguaging to the CS education field we do not equate pro-gramming languages with named languages like French or Chinese(as some states have controversially done by enabling students tofulfill foreign language graduation credits with CS courses [4]) butrather recognize the ways computer science is taught and learnedwith and through language

As CS for All initiatives are implemented in more schools serv-ing multilingual students itrsquos imperative to consider the role thatstudentsrsquo language resources might play in learning There is how-ever an absence of research documenting translanguaging in CSeducation How do students especially emergent bilinguals (stu-dents with diverse linguistic backgrounds who may be learningEnglish in school) draw upon their diverse language repertoiresHowmight teachers support students to translanguage in ways thatpromote engagement with CS concepts and practices How canclassroom communities work across language differences so all canlearn Past studies demonstrated how ldquotalk specifically when usedconsciously and productively in an introductory CS curriculumfor young learners can shape the process of development of CT[computational thinking]rdquo [16] We build on this by consideringhow students make meaning in CS ed using language beyond ldquotalkrdquo

and how their language use is shaped by their diverse profiles andexperiences Translanguaging has been mentioned in CS educationstudies of Indian tertiary schooling contexts mostly to describehow teachers used both English and Hindi [30] or Tamil [32] toteach programming to students who have been schooled througha vernacular language Those studies however do not provideresearchers and practitioners with an understanding of the charac-teristics of studentsrsquondashespecially young bilingual studentsrsquondashlanguagepractices while they engage in CS and the relationship of studentsrsquotranslanguaging to computational thinking concepts or practices

In this paper we report preliminary findings from a study weconducted using a descriptive qualitative research methodology ata bilingual Spanish-English middle school program where teachersinfused computational thinking into other subjects Specifically wedocument a series of classroom moments which help support fourmain claims 1) studentsrsquo translanguaging practices in CS learningcontexts blur linguistic disciplinary and modal boundaries 2) com-putational literacies are intertwined with the many other literaciesstudents bring with them 3) studentsrsquo language attitudes and activ-ity contexts around them play a role in their translanguaging 4)students translanguage in order to engage in specific CT practices(like remixing and abstraction) Finally we discuss how evidence oftranslanguaging among bilingual learners has implications not onlyfor how bilingual students might learn computer science but forunderstanding monolingual learnersrsquo use of language during CS ac-tivities and how teachers might support students to translanguagepurposefully while they learn CS

2 RESEARCH CONTEXT21 Bilingual Students and CS EducationThe context for this study is a research practice partnership (RPP)called Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLaCS)which grapples with a core problem of practice facing schools anddistricts implementing CS for All policies how to meaningfullyinclude emergent bilingual students The linguistic diversity ofthe countryrsquos school-aged student population is the highest it hasever been [19] The close to 10 percent of the US public schoolstudents that are classified as ldquoEnglish Language Learnersrdquo [5]often face many challenges as they navigate the school systemnearly 60 percent of ELLs in every state live in families whoseincome falls below 185 percent of the federal poverty line [15] theyoften attend schools of variable quality [8] where administratorsand teachers have limited knowledge about language learning andbilingualism [26] they are unfairly evaluated by assessment policiesthat measure them against monolingual English standards [24]and often experience subtractive models of education that do notbuild on their language or cultural backgrounds [25] For theseand other factors emergent bilinguals graduated at below-averagerates (66 percent to 84 percent nationally in the 2015-16 schoolyear) [3] There is no data available on the rates of these studentsrsquoparticipation in CS education

22 The New York City ContextThe home base of our RPP is New York City where this problemof practice is a particularly important one Here the Departmentof Education has committed to teaching CS perspectives practices

and concepts in at least one meaningful 10-25 hour instructionalunit per grade band (K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12) to all 11 million students inNYC While there are tools such as the NYC DOE Computer ScienceEducation Blueprint [27] to guide this implementation there are fewresources for teachers of emergent bilinguals In NYC 41 percentof students speak languages other than English at home [28] and125 were categorized as English Language Learners in the 2015-16 school year [9] Simply translating curricula and software intomultiple languages is insufficient to deal with our cityrsquos variabilityin learnersrsquo linguistic backgrounds which includes 155 languagesother than English [9] Students use a variety of language practicesand vary in terms of country of birth educational history race andlanguage among other factors [10] Because of this diversity withinthe population and because this diversity is not static schoolsimplementing NYCrsquos CS4All policy must come to understand theirstudentsrsquo languaging practices and devise responsive and flexibleapproaches to CS curriculum design and implementation

To address these challenges the PiLaCS RPP brought togetherNew York City-based university researchers with teachers at threepublic schools in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Man-hattan Multilingualism is woven into the fabric of that communityForty-eight percent of area residents are foreign-born with two-thirds of them from the Dominican Republic The neighborhoodis within the NYC DOErsquos District 6 which had the highest shareof students classified as ELLs in the City (nearly 29 percent) [1]This study focuses in on one of the schools that participated inthe RPP in the 2017-18 school year a public 6th-8th grade middleschool where 51 of the student population was categorized withthe ELL designation that year At this school parents and care-givers of Spanish-speaking emergent bilingual students can opttheir children into a bilingual program where the school policyis to alternate the language of instruction between Spanish andEnglish by day This paper will focus on data from two sixth andseventh grade dual-language arts classes where teachers and stu-dents tend to use language flexibly despite the official languageallocation policy (Other schools in the project integrated CS intoother subjects such as Science)

23 Our Curriculum Design Lenses and ProcessTeachers and researchers in the RPP co-designed CS-integratedunits of study taking into consideration studentsrsquo language back-grounds language objectives they were expected to meet in Englishand Spanish content objectives in Language Arts and computa-tional thinking (CT) objectives Our team designed projects for stu-dents to complete within the Scratch programming environmentand community because it is available in more than 40 languagesand can be used in many disciplines and kinds of projects As weselected the CT objectives to focus on in the units we drew onBrennan et alrsquos [6] definition of CT in Scratch which includesconcepts (eg loops and conditionals) practices (eg debuggingand remixing) and perspectives (eg participating in computing toexpress connect question)

Two other key concepts framing the collaborative design pro-cess were translanguaging pedagogy and literate programming [20]Translanguaging pedagogyndashthe idea that teachers should leveragestudentsrsquo dynamic language resources to support their learning ndash

has been applied in many teaching and learning fields to advanceequity in education especially for emergent bilinguals [11] Tradi-tional bilingual pedagogies focus on the extent to which studentsrsquopractices conform to standard named languages locating ldquoprob-lemsrdquo in students that schools could ldquofixrdquo [33] Translanguagingpedagogy instead embraces speakers who have been traditionallymarginalized for their language practices in education and policyThis pedagogy encourages teachers to understand and build onstudentsrsquo repertoires [12] much in the way that culturally relevantand responsive models ask teachers to build on studentsrsquo culturalpractices [21 22] Culturally relevant [14] and responsive [31] com-puting approaches have been readily taken up in the CS educationcommunity as part of efforts to broaden participation in the field Inthis study we applied translanguaging pedagogy to the design of CSlearning environments to promote equity in this discipline for emer-gent bilinguals Our other guiding principle literate programmingis a concept many associate with Donald Knuthrsquos programming en-vironments which supported turning English into pseudocode andfinally into computer code plus embedded comments His broaderphilosophy helps us view programming not as the mere construc-tion of code for a computer to execute but as texts humans willread write and discuss just as people interact around other texts

With these lenses in mind we developed curriculum that pro-vided multiple opportunities for students to draw upon their lan-guage resources and to communicate about with and throughcode First teachers described their knowledge of students andtheir languages practices Then they surfaced the specific subject-area content objectives that they were expected to cover in theirtypical units of study Together we discussed how language andcontent objectives might be enhanced through integration with CSand studentsrsquo interests and practices This process led to uniqueCS-integrated unit plans which were relevant to studentsrsquo experi-ences and language resources At the school in this study we wereinspired by another initiative at the school that had brought au-thors of young adult novels to classrooms to read and dialogue withstudents Sixth and 7th grade language arts students produced threeScratch projects a remix of a simple ldquotelenovelardquo dialogue a remixof a project where users could practice conducting a bilingual ldquoin-terviewrdquo of a character or an author of a story they read and a ldquotalkshowrdquo style project featuring a bilingual dialogue between bookcharacters or authors Teachers planned individual lessons in theunit to ensure that there were ample opportunities for students tomake sense of code through writing drawing and speaking aboutit bilingually for example though annotations of code printed onpaper and the commenting feature within Scratch

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODSThe research question guiding our analysis was how when andwhy do students translanguage (draw on a range of linguistic so-cial and semiotic resources) as they learn computational thinkingGiven that not much is known about the performance of emergentbilinguals in CS education our study seeks to explore the terrainwe are not interested in evaluating a particular intervention againsta set of criteria but rather aim to better describe studentsrsquo languageuse For this our study follows a naturalistic qualitative descriptiveparadigm [23] We draw from a methodology in applied linguistics

called ldquomoment analysisrdquo [34] which seeks to analyze the creativ-ity and criticality of multilingualsrsquo language-in-use at importantldquotranslanguaging momentsrdquo as well as research participantsrsquo sense-making and metacommentary about those practices

To conduct moment analysis the researcher collects both record-ings of naturally occurring interactions and metalanguaging data ndashthe commentary of language users about their language practicesand decisions In this study researchers conducted 50 hours of class-room observation during periods when teachers were conductingthe CS-integrated units During observations researchers recordedfield notes and audio of whole class discussions and of small groupsof particular focal students at work on unit activities We took pho-tographs of studentsrsquo screens and collected student work samplesWe also conducted focus groups with students which combinedquestions from artifact-based interviews [7] ndash meant to elicit com-munication about particular computational thinking practices likeremixing debugging and experimenting ndash with questions meantto elicit studentsrsquo meta-commentary about their language choices

The findings we present below were generated through a se-ries of analysis procedures We flagged moments in our field notesand student work samples that showcased the creativity of stu-dentsrsquo translanguaging andor their engagement with computa-tional thinking We brought some of these examples to the broaderRPP team to reflect upon Two collaborative descriptive inquirysessions (CDI) [17] were conducted with our teamrsquos teachers andresearchers centered around these artifacts CDI protocols set outa focus question ask those present to first describe using non-evaluative language what they noticed and then to use those notic-ings to prompt inferential answers to the focus question plus rec-ommendations and action During CDI sessions researchers andteachers from these schools and others described student workexamples and commentary from focus groups sharing what wethought they demonstrated about studentsrsquo learning

4 FINDINGSOur analysis substantiated four existence proof claims about stu-dent translanguaging We saw that 1) studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a role intheir translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order to en-gage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction) In thesection below we describe sample critical moments that illustrateeach of these claims Due to space limitations we can not include allof the relevant critical moments supporting these claims howeverwe detected no contradictory examples in our much larger datasetof field notes and analytic memos

41 Moment 1 ldquoPredictingrdquo CodeIn one activity seventh graders were given ldquoScratch cardsrdquondasha re-source produced by the Scratch Education community to serve asstarter ldquorecipesrdquo for projects These particular cards were written inEnglish Students were asked to predict on a sticky note what theythought the code on the card would make happen on the screen

Choose a sprite from the library

Or paint a new one

You can choose a different effect from the menu

Or type in a different number Then press the space bar again

To clear the effects click the stop sign

Figure 1 The Scratch card that Julio used tomake his sticky-note prediction

One student Julio who had arrived in New York from the Domini-can Republic the previous school year wrote ldquoEl personaje cabiael color conforme a la vanderita por ejemplo rojo azul y verde Sonmi predisionrdquo Translation ldquoThe character changes color along withthe little flag for example red blue and green is my predictionrdquo

This example supports claims one and two First it demonstrateshow studentsrsquo translanguaging blurs linguistic boundaries betweennamed languages Julio told us he was more comfortable usingSpanish over English At the same time he drew on the Englishhe knew and EnglishSpanish cognates such as colorcolor to helphim interpret the English text and Scratch codes on the card Hethen recast his understanding of the English card on his stickynote in a way that made sense to him (using Spanish) In thisexample Julio also translanguaged ldquobeyondrdquo named languagesHis response employs the word ldquovanderitardquo a term that he andpeers spontaneously generated to refer to the green flag buttonin Scratch (ldquovanderitardquo is a diminutive form of the Spanish wordbandera meaning flag spelled phonetically by Julio) Even if hisresponse is written using language forms that might not appearin formal dictionaries he is using his repertoire to help him makemeaning of the code Julio may also be interpreting the graphicfeatures of the Scratch card such as the images of the butterflychanging color Supporting claim two is the idea that his responsefeatures words that are frequently employed in the language artsdiscipline such as ldquoel personajerdquo (the character) and ldquopredisionrdquo(prediction spelled by Julio in Spanish with invented spelling) Bydrawing on all of his linguistic and semiotic resources ndash includingEnglishSpanish cognates images and discipline-specific words ndashJulio expresses his budding understanding of concepts such as howcomputer programs include events that trigger various behaviors

42 Moment 2 ldquoI donrsquot like SpanishrdquoIn one activity students were asked to remix a simple project wheretwo sprites dialogue in Spanish with each other in a kind of ldquote-lenovelardquo As Jack a sixth grade student who said he grew up inthe US but identified as Dominican was working on his remix heexpressed that he wanted to change the conversation to Englishstating ldquoI donrsquot like Spanish itrsquos too hardrdquo Many of the peers he

called on for support with his project however typically used Span-ish in their interactions with him One student spoke in mostlySpanish as she showed him how to use Google Translate to changethe text strings of his project from one language to another

As the unit progressed Jack wanted to share his work on Scratchwith his peers and it became necessary for him to translanguageAt times he used English words he knew his bilingual peers wouldunderstand at other times he practiced oral and written Spanishsupplementing words with gestures (pointing at particular parts ofthe screen) and also engaging with them digitally through ldquolikesrdquoon Scratch projects (selecting the heart or star icons on projectpages) In one instance Jack observed another student remixinghis own project in the Spanish language interface of Scratch thenmodified his own code using the English language interface tomatch hers (Scratchrsquos interface allows changing not only the userinterface elements between English and many other languages italso changes the keywords displayed on the code blocks)

Jackrsquos teacher knowing he was reluctant to practice Spanishconsciously paired himwith a student whomore often used Spanishand would benefit from Jackrsquos preference for English In this wayboth students had authentic contexts for practicing new languageand in the end Jackrsquos remix featured a great deal of Spanish textwhich helped him ensure his work would be accessible to his class-mates After presenting his project to the class he stated ldquoWhenI was working with [female student] she was helping me withsome of the words because they were had misspellings in SpanishAnd I was helping her with the ones that she had misspellings inEnglish I liked peer editing because I need help sometimes withmy grammarrdquo

This example supports our third claim that studentsrsquo languageattitudes and the activity contexts around them play a role in theirtranslanguaging Jackrsquos initial attitude made him resistant to useSpanish in his Scratch projects and interactions with peers aroundScratch As he discovered given his peersrsquo language preferencesand his desire to share his Scratch project and process with themhe would benefit from occasionally using language he found ldquotoohardrdquo The teacherrsquos strategic pairing of Jack with a student morecomfortable using Spanish pushed both students to practice newforms of language expanding their repertoires

43 Moment 3 Interviewing a bachateroIn one activity students were shown an interactive Scratch projectin which the user simulates interviewing the author of a novelthrough multiple choice QampA The teachers at this school recom-mended that students remix the project by choosing a differentauthor or book character to interviewmdashbut students had other ideasStudents selected figures from sports such as Stephen Curry or popculture like Nicki Minaj and the reggaeton artists Bad Bunny andOsuna One 7th grade student Diani decided she wanted users ofher project to interview her favorite bachata singer Romeo SantosThis required her to draw on what she knew about this artist to askhim informed questions and to import photos from the internetThis detail provides evidence for our second claim that studentsthink about computational practices such as remixing in integratedwayswith their own interests and literacy practices they are familiarwith ndash in this case her knowledge of pop culture As Diani planned

Figure 2 The remix plan that Diani drew on paper before coding in Scratch

her remix of the ldquoMeet the Authorrdquo project her teacher gave her anopportunity to look at the code for the project ndash represented withEnglish code blocks on the right side of a handout ndash and to planout her modifications on the left side of the handout before usingthe digital Scratch interface To complete this task Diani engagedin translanguaging across linguistic and modal boundaries sup-porting our first claim She translanguaged across named languageboundaries because the subject of her interview was himself a well-known bilingual person For this her character Santos ldquosaysrdquo tousers ldquoHola Irsquom Romeo Santos el cantante bachatero [the bachatasinger] Ask me your questionrdquo and the questions she would enableusers to ask the singer included ldquoWhatrsquos is your namerdquo ldquoCuandonacisterdquo [When were you born] and ldquoYou have girlfriendrdquo

The representation of her remix plan also employed modes be-yond written language She drew representations of Scratch codeblocks using English keywords (the ldquosay for one secrdquo and ldquofor-everrdquo blocks in the figure) While the handout was printed in blackand white Diani colored certain code blocks in orange correspond-ing to the color of many common Scratch blocks She also drewinvented blocks which featured Spanish and English keywordssuch as the first orange block pictured at the top of her drawingwhich has the keywords ldquoAl preguntar [flag]rdquo which would literallytranslate to ldquoWhen you ask the flagrdquo This representation combinesthe ldquoAl presionar [flag]rdquo block and the ldquopreguntarrdquo blocks in theSpanish interface of Scratch (ldquoWhen [flag] clickedrdquo and ldquoaskrdquo blocksin the English interface) The way she translanguages across modaland linguistic boundaries in this example is reminiscent of theway beginning writers sound out words and use invented spellingto help them write a story This aspect of the classroom momentdemonstrates the range of linguistic and modal resources studentsdraw upon supporting claim 1

Further down the page she combined the commands ldquoanswer- say - answerrdquo in a representation of a block next to English andSpanish text of questions she wanted Santos to answer While there

is no such code block it captures a simple algorithm for a back-and-forth conversation between people in an interview In thisinstance Diani translanguages as she employs the computationalthinking practice ldquoabstractionrdquo or creating steps to represent thereal-world phenomena she is interested in Diani translanguagesas she plans her remix and engages in abstraction This momentsupports our fourth claim that students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices

44 Moment 4 Bilingual conversation withShakira

In a second project students were asked to use Scratch to por-tray a dialogue between an interviewer and a character of a bookJulio and his partner Yadira decided their interviewee would beEsperanza the main character of the novel House on Mango StreetThey took their time deciding who the interviewer would be Firstthey discussed choosing Nicki Minaj the pop singer but decidedagainst it since she only speaks English They then considered aSpanish-speaking pop singer but decided that her particular ac-cent in Spanish would be too difficult for them to emulate whenrecording It was important to the students that they be able toprovide the voices for these characters Shakira they determinedwould be the perfect person to interview Esperanza because shecan bridge two languages and would help amplify the audienceof their Scratch project When asked why it was important thatthe interviewer speak both languages Julio responded ldquoporquetambieacuten la gente que hable ingleacutes tambieacuten al verlo puede entenderun poco de lo que se estaacute hablando y la gente que hable espantildeoltambieacuten no se desincluyerdquo [because people who also speak Englishcan understand a little bit of whatrsquos being talked about and thepeople who speak Spanish also wonrsquot be excluded] The dialogbetween Julio and Yadira as they discuss their chosen charactersand Juliorsquos comments describing why he values the bilingualism inhis project supports claim three that studentsrsquo language attitudesand the activity context play a role in translanguaging We also

Figure 3 Julio and Yadirarsquos script for their Scratch dialoguefeaturing Shakira

see studentsrsquo translanguaging help them use computing to expressand connect with local audiences ndash key computational thinkingperspectives [6] supporting claim 4

Julio and Yadira wrote a script for their characters using bothEnglish and Spanish Given they wanted to ask at least one questionusing all English they chose to practice writing out the standardEnglish sentence structure for questions As they recorded (andre-recorded) their dialogue as audio in the ldquosoundrdquo section of theScratch software the students translanguaged between modes ndashtheir written text and their oral interpretation of it Students drewon disciplinary literacies that are encouraged in their languagearts class (making inferences about charactersrsquo emotions based ontext-based evidence) as they imagined how the characterrsquos toneof voice would change if she were to meet the famous ShakiraAs they sequenced the code blocks to animate their sprites theirspeech was peppered with Scratch keywords in both Spanish andEnglish Throughout the planning process and as they built theirproject this pair of students translanguaged across and beyondnamed languages modalities and code (supporting claim 1)

5 DISCUSSIONGuided by the theory of translanguaging this study aimed to docu-ment the diverse language practices of bilingual students and to val-idate them as meaning-making resources in computer science edu-cation Through moment analysis we generated four claims that weillustrated with examples namely 1) that studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a rolein their translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction)

Similar to the literate programming philosophy we see evidencethat students can and do use their full linguistic repertoire as theyleverage into new competencies and discourses They express com-putational ideas through code and many other associated repre-sentations such as sprites audiofiles text and so on These ideasare not divorced from other literacies the students bring to bear

whether it is their literacy in the norms and forms of a telenovelaor their understandings of how to craft a message for a particularaudience Nor are their computing practices divorced from theirvalues about languages and bilingualism Studentsrsquo computing inthis project was driven by their desire to connect with their bilin-gual peers who had varying experiences with English and Spanishwhich meant their choices about sprites and scripts were tied upwith their perceptions of their own and othersrsquo language use More-over as students came to value their own fluency in Scratch it wasdeeply influenced by how that skill intersected with their culturallinguistic and disciplinary literacies

Our original research question asked about the use of translan-guaging while students learn computational thinking In the class-room profiled in this study doing computer science meant becom-ing a part of the classroom community though use of multiplenamed languages code and shared references to pop culture andbooks These moments shifted our view away from translanguagingas a process that co-occurs with or mediates learning computationalthinking and encouraged us to begin considering computationalliteracies as the real goal through the lens of translanguaging Byldquocomputational literaciesrdquo we mean ways of creating and communi-cating about with and through computational artifacts (like codedatasets and models) for particular purposes and in and for com-munities In this way computation is participating in a communityof discourse ie being able to co-construct meaning with a largercommunity of interlocutors [18] Viewing CS as participating incomputational literacies prompts educators to ask the questionldquoWhat conversation is this code a part ofrdquo

Translanguaging has implications not only for how emergentbilingual students use home language and English as they partici-pate in computational literacies but also how all students includingmonolingual students leverage across and beyond human and com-putational languages and representations It also means that educa-tors should not treat computer science education as pursuing fixedlearning progressions of computational concepts with lsquoremediationrsquoor lsquodifferentiationrsquo for emergent bilinguals Rather educators mustthink more about how to join the varied literacies students bringto the classroom with potential computational literacies they couldparticipate in through translanguaging This is as true for teachersof monolingual learners as it is for emergent bilinguals since eachstudent brings their distinct repertoires and values to the domainof computation Translanguaging provides an important lens tohelp us describe and support this process Understanding studentsrsquotranslanguaging can help teachers design CS projects and lessonsthat support all learners more equitably

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the students and teachers that par-ticipated in this research This material is based on work supportedby the US National Science Foundation under Grant Nos CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446 Any opinions findings and conclusionsor recommendations expressed in this material are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience Foundation

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035

has been applied in many teaching and learning fields to advanceequity in education especially for emergent bilinguals [11] Tradi-tional bilingual pedagogies focus on the extent to which studentsrsquopractices conform to standard named languages locating ldquoprob-lemsrdquo in students that schools could ldquofixrdquo [33] Translanguagingpedagogy instead embraces speakers who have been traditionallymarginalized for their language practices in education and policyThis pedagogy encourages teachers to understand and build onstudentsrsquo repertoires [12] much in the way that culturally relevantand responsive models ask teachers to build on studentsrsquo culturalpractices [21 22] Culturally relevant [14] and responsive [31] com-puting approaches have been readily taken up in the CS educationcommunity as part of efforts to broaden participation in the field Inthis study we applied translanguaging pedagogy to the design of CSlearning environments to promote equity in this discipline for emer-gent bilinguals Our other guiding principle literate programmingis a concept many associate with Donald Knuthrsquos programming en-vironments which supported turning English into pseudocode andfinally into computer code plus embedded comments His broaderphilosophy helps us view programming not as the mere construc-tion of code for a computer to execute but as texts humans willread write and discuss just as people interact around other texts

With these lenses in mind we developed curriculum that pro-vided multiple opportunities for students to draw upon their lan-guage resources and to communicate about with and throughcode First teachers described their knowledge of students andtheir languages practices Then they surfaced the specific subject-area content objectives that they were expected to cover in theirtypical units of study Together we discussed how language andcontent objectives might be enhanced through integration with CSand studentsrsquo interests and practices This process led to uniqueCS-integrated unit plans which were relevant to studentsrsquo experi-ences and language resources At the school in this study we wereinspired by another initiative at the school that had brought au-thors of young adult novels to classrooms to read and dialogue withstudents Sixth and 7th grade language arts students produced threeScratch projects a remix of a simple ldquotelenovelardquo dialogue a remixof a project where users could practice conducting a bilingual ldquoin-terviewrdquo of a character or an author of a story they read and a ldquotalkshowrdquo style project featuring a bilingual dialogue between bookcharacters or authors Teachers planned individual lessons in theunit to ensure that there were ample opportunities for students tomake sense of code through writing drawing and speaking aboutit bilingually for example though annotations of code printed onpaper and the commenting feature within Scratch

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODSThe research question guiding our analysis was how when andwhy do students translanguage (draw on a range of linguistic so-cial and semiotic resources) as they learn computational thinkingGiven that not much is known about the performance of emergentbilinguals in CS education our study seeks to explore the terrainwe are not interested in evaluating a particular intervention againsta set of criteria but rather aim to better describe studentsrsquo languageuse For this our study follows a naturalistic qualitative descriptiveparadigm [23] We draw from a methodology in applied linguistics

called ldquomoment analysisrdquo [34] which seeks to analyze the creativ-ity and criticality of multilingualsrsquo language-in-use at importantldquotranslanguaging momentsrdquo as well as research participantsrsquo sense-making and metacommentary about those practices

To conduct moment analysis the researcher collects both record-ings of naturally occurring interactions and metalanguaging data ndashthe commentary of language users about their language practicesand decisions In this study researchers conducted 50 hours of class-room observation during periods when teachers were conductingthe CS-integrated units During observations researchers recordedfield notes and audio of whole class discussions and of small groupsof particular focal students at work on unit activities We took pho-tographs of studentsrsquo screens and collected student work samplesWe also conducted focus groups with students which combinedquestions from artifact-based interviews [7] ndash meant to elicit com-munication about particular computational thinking practices likeremixing debugging and experimenting ndash with questions meantto elicit studentsrsquo meta-commentary about their language choices

The findings we present below were generated through a se-ries of analysis procedures We flagged moments in our field notesand student work samples that showcased the creativity of stu-dentsrsquo translanguaging andor their engagement with computa-tional thinking We brought some of these examples to the broaderRPP team to reflect upon Two collaborative descriptive inquirysessions (CDI) [17] were conducted with our teamrsquos teachers andresearchers centered around these artifacts CDI protocols set outa focus question ask those present to first describe using non-evaluative language what they noticed and then to use those notic-ings to prompt inferential answers to the focus question plus rec-ommendations and action During CDI sessions researchers andteachers from these schools and others described student workexamples and commentary from focus groups sharing what wethought they demonstrated about studentsrsquo learning

4 FINDINGSOur analysis substantiated four existence proof claims about stu-dent translanguaging We saw that 1) studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a role intheir translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order to en-gage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction) In thesection below we describe sample critical moments that illustrateeach of these claims Due to space limitations we can not include allof the relevant critical moments supporting these claims howeverwe detected no contradictory examples in our much larger datasetof field notes and analytic memos

41 Moment 1 ldquoPredictingrdquo CodeIn one activity seventh graders were given ldquoScratch cardsrdquondasha re-source produced by the Scratch Education community to serve asstarter ldquorecipesrdquo for projects These particular cards were written inEnglish Students were asked to predict on a sticky note what theythought the code on the card would make happen on the screen

Choose a sprite from the library

Or paint a new one

You can choose a different effect from the menu

Or type in a different number Then press the space bar again

To clear the effects click the stop sign

Figure 1 The Scratch card that Julio used tomake his sticky-note prediction

One student Julio who had arrived in New York from the Domini-can Republic the previous school year wrote ldquoEl personaje cabiael color conforme a la vanderita por ejemplo rojo azul y verde Sonmi predisionrdquo Translation ldquoThe character changes color along withthe little flag for example red blue and green is my predictionrdquo

This example supports claims one and two First it demonstrateshow studentsrsquo translanguaging blurs linguistic boundaries betweennamed languages Julio told us he was more comfortable usingSpanish over English At the same time he drew on the Englishhe knew and EnglishSpanish cognates such as colorcolor to helphim interpret the English text and Scratch codes on the card Hethen recast his understanding of the English card on his stickynote in a way that made sense to him (using Spanish) In thisexample Julio also translanguaged ldquobeyondrdquo named languagesHis response employs the word ldquovanderitardquo a term that he andpeers spontaneously generated to refer to the green flag buttonin Scratch (ldquovanderitardquo is a diminutive form of the Spanish wordbandera meaning flag spelled phonetically by Julio) Even if hisresponse is written using language forms that might not appearin formal dictionaries he is using his repertoire to help him makemeaning of the code Julio may also be interpreting the graphicfeatures of the Scratch card such as the images of the butterflychanging color Supporting claim two is the idea that his responsefeatures words that are frequently employed in the language artsdiscipline such as ldquoel personajerdquo (the character) and ldquopredisionrdquo(prediction spelled by Julio in Spanish with invented spelling) Bydrawing on all of his linguistic and semiotic resources ndash includingEnglishSpanish cognates images and discipline-specific words ndashJulio expresses his budding understanding of concepts such as howcomputer programs include events that trigger various behaviors

42 Moment 2 ldquoI donrsquot like SpanishrdquoIn one activity students were asked to remix a simple project wheretwo sprites dialogue in Spanish with each other in a kind of ldquote-lenovelardquo As Jack a sixth grade student who said he grew up inthe US but identified as Dominican was working on his remix heexpressed that he wanted to change the conversation to Englishstating ldquoI donrsquot like Spanish itrsquos too hardrdquo Many of the peers he

called on for support with his project however typically used Span-ish in their interactions with him One student spoke in mostlySpanish as she showed him how to use Google Translate to changethe text strings of his project from one language to another

As the unit progressed Jack wanted to share his work on Scratchwith his peers and it became necessary for him to translanguageAt times he used English words he knew his bilingual peers wouldunderstand at other times he practiced oral and written Spanishsupplementing words with gestures (pointing at particular parts ofthe screen) and also engaging with them digitally through ldquolikesrdquoon Scratch projects (selecting the heart or star icons on projectpages) In one instance Jack observed another student remixinghis own project in the Spanish language interface of Scratch thenmodified his own code using the English language interface tomatch hers (Scratchrsquos interface allows changing not only the userinterface elements between English and many other languages italso changes the keywords displayed on the code blocks)

Jackrsquos teacher knowing he was reluctant to practice Spanishconsciously paired himwith a student whomore often used Spanishand would benefit from Jackrsquos preference for English In this wayboth students had authentic contexts for practicing new languageand in the end Jackrsquos remix featured a great deal of Spanish textwhich helped him ensure his work would be accessible to his class-mates After presenting his project to the class he stated ldquoWhenI was working with [female student] she was helping me withsome of the words because they were had misspellings in SpanishAnd I was helping her with the ones that she had misspellings inEnglish I liked peer editing because I need help sometimes withmy grammarrdquo

This example supports our third claim that studentsrsquo languageattitudes and the activity contexts around them play a role in theirtranslanguaging Jackrsquos initial attitude made him resistant to useSpanish in his Scratch projects and interactions with peers aroundScratch As he discovered given his peersrsquo language preferencesand his desire to share his Scratch project and process with themhe would benefit from occasionally using language he found ldquotoohardrdquo The teacherrsquos strategic pairing of Jack with a student morecomfortable using Spanish pushed both students to practice newforms of language expanding their repertoires

43 Moment 3 Interviewing a bachateroIn one activity students were shown an interactive Scratch projectin which the user simulates interviewing the author of a novelthrough multiple choice QampA The teachers at this school recom-mended that students remix the project by choosing a differentauthor or book character to interviewmdashbut students had other ideasStudents selected figures from sports such as Stephen Curry or popculture like Nicki Minaj and the reggaeton artists Bad Bunny andOsuna One 7th grade student Diani decided she wanted users ofher project to interview her favorite bachata singer Romeo SantosThis required her to draw on what she knew about this artist to askhim informed questions and to import photos from the internetThis detail provides evidence for our second claim that studentsthink about computational practices such as remixing in integratedwayswith their own interests and literacy practices they are familiarwith ndash in this case her knowledge of pop culture As Diani planned

Figure 2 The remix plan that Diani drew on paper before coding in Scratch

her remix of the ldquoMeet the Authorrdquo project her teacher gave her anopportunity to look at the code for the project ndash represented withEnglish code blocks on the right side of a handout ndash and to planout her modifications on the left side of the handout before usingthe digital Scratch interface To complete this task Diani engagedin translanguaging across linguistic and modal boundaries sup-porting our first claim She translanguaged across named languageboundaries because the subject of her interview was himself a well-known bilingual person For this her character Santos ldquosaysrdquo tousers ldquoHola Irsquom Romeo Santos el cantante bachatero [the bachatasinger] Ask me your questionrdquo and the questions she would enableusers to ask the singer included ldquoWhatrsquos is your namerdquo ldquoCuandonacisterdquo [When were you born] and ldquoYou have girlfriendrdquo

The representation of her remix plan also employed modes be-yond written language She drew representations of Scratch codeblocks using English keywords (the ldquosay for one secrdquo and ldquofor-everrdquo blocks in the figure) While the handout was printed in blackand white Diani colored certain code blocks in orange correspond-ing to the color of many common Scratch blocks She also drewinvented blocks which featured Spanish and English keywordssuch as the first orange block pictured at the top of her drawingwhich has the keywords ldquoAl preguntar [flag]rdquo which would literallytranslate to ldquoWhen you ask the flagrdquo This representation combinesthe ldquoAl presionar [flag]rdquo block and the ldquopreguntarrdquo blocks in theSpanish interface of Scratch (ldquoWhen [flag] clickedrdquo and ldquoaskrdquo blocksin the English interface) The way she translanguages across modaland linguistic boundaries in this example is reminiscent of theway beginning writers sound out words and use invented spellingto help them write a story This aspect of the classroom momentdemonstrates the range of linguistic and modal resources studentsdraw upon supporting claim 1

Further down the page she combined the commands ldquoanswer- say - answerrdquo in a representation of a block next to English andSpanish text of questions she wanted Santos to answer While there

is no such code block it captures a simple algorithm for a back-and-forth conversation between people in an interview In thisinstance Diani translanguages as she employs the computationalthinking practice ldquoabstractionrdquo or creating steps to represent thereal-world phenomena she is interested in Diani translanguagesas she plans her remix and engages in abstraction This momentsupports our fourth claim that students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices

44 Moment 4 Bilingual conversation withShakira

In a second project students were asked to use Scratch to por-tray a dialogue between an interviewer and a character of a bookJulio and his partner Yadira decided their interviewee would beEsperanza the main character of the novel House on Mango StreetThey took their time deciding who the interviewer would be Firstthey discussed choosing Nicki Minaj the pop singer but decidedagainst it since she only speaks English They then considered aSpanish-speaking pop singer but decided that her particular ac-cent in Spanish would be too difficult for them to emulate whenrecording It was important to the students that they be able toprovide the voices for these characters Shakira they determinedwould be the perfect person to interview Esperanza because shecan bridge two languages and would help amplify the audienceof their Scratch project When asked why it was important thatthe interviewer speak both languages Julio responded ldquoporquetambieacuten la gente que hable ingleacutes tambieacuten al verlo puede entenderun poco de lo que se estaacute hablando y la gente que hable espantildeoltambieacuten no se desincluyerdquo [because people who also speak Englishcan understand a little bit of whatrsquos being talked about and thepeople who speak Spanish also wonrsquot be excluded] The dialogbetween Julio and Yadira as they discuss their chosen charactersand Juliorsquos comments describing why he values the bilingualism inhis project supports claim three that studentsrsquo language attitudesand the activity context play a role in translanguaging We also

Figure 3 Julio and Yadirarsquos script for their Scratch dialoguefeaturing Shakira

see studentsrsquo translanguaging help them use computing to expressand connect with local audiences ndash key computational thinkingperspectives [6] supporting claim 4

Julio and Yadira wrote a script for their characters using bothEnglish and Spanish Given they wanted to ask at least one questionusing all English they chose to practice writing out the standardEnglish sentence structure for questions As they recorded (andre-recorded) their dialogue as audio in the ldquosoundrdquo section of theScratch software the students translanguaged between modes ndashtheir written text and their oral interpretation of it Students drewon disciplinary literacies that are encouraged in their languagearts class (making inferences about charactersrsquo emotions based ontext-based evidence) as they imagined how the characterrsquos toneof voice would change if she were to meet the famous ShakiraAs they sequenced the code blocks to animate their sprites theirspeech was peppered with Scratch keywords in both Spanish andEnglish Throughout the planning process and as they built theirproject this pair of students translanguaged across and beyondnamed languages modalities and code (supporting claim 1)

5 DISCUSSIONGuided by the theory of translanguaging this study aimed to docu-ment the diverse language practices of bilingual students and to val-idate them as meaning-making resources in computer science edu-cation Through moment analysis we generated four claims that weillustrated with examples namely 1) that studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a rolein their translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction)

Similar to the literate programming philosophy we see evidencethat students can and do use their full linguistic repertoire as theyleverage into new competencies and discourses They express com-putational ideas through code and many other associated repre-sentations such as sprites audiofiles text and so on These ideasare not divorced from other literacies the students bring to bear

whether it is their literacy in the norms and forms of a telenovelaor their understandings of how to craft a message for a particularaudience Nor are their computing practices divorced from theirvalues about languages and bilingualism Studentsrsquo computing inthis project was driven by their desire to connect with their bilin-gual peers who had varying experiences with English and Spanishwhich meant their choices about sprites and scripts were tied upwith their perceptions of their own and othersrsquo language use More-over as students came to value their own fluency in Scratch it wasdeeply influenced by how that skill intersected with their culturallinguistic and disciplinary literacies

Our original research question asked about the use of translan-guaging while students learn computational thinking In the class-room profiled in this study doing computer science meant becom-ing a part of the classroom community though use of multiplenamed languages code and shared references to pop culture andbooks These moments shifted our view away from translanguagingas a process that co-occurs with or mediates learning computationalthinking and encouraged us to begin considering computationalliteracies as the real goal through the lens of translanguaging Byldquocomputational literaciesrdquo we mean ways of creating and communi-cating about with and through computational artifacts (like codedatasets and models) for particular purposes and in and for com-munities In this way computation is participating in a communityof discourse ie being able to co-construct meaning with a largercommunity of interlocutors [18] Viewing CS as participating incomputational literacies prompts educators to ask the questionldquoWhat conversation is this code a part ofrdquo

Translanguaging has implications not only for how emergentbilingual students use home language and English as they partici-pate in computational literacies but also how all students includingmonolingual students leverage across and beyond human and com-putational languages and representations It also means that educa-tors should not treat computer science education as pursuing fixedlearning progressions of computational concepts with lsquoremediationrsquoor lsquodifferentiationrsquo for emergent bilinguals Rather educators mustthink more about how to join the varied literacies students bringto the classroom with potential computational literacies they couldparticipate in through translanguaging This is as true for teachersof monolingual learners as it is for emergent bilinguals since eachstudent brings their distinct repertoires and values to the domainof computation Translanguaging provides an important lens tohelp us describe and support this process Understanding studentsrsquotranslanguaging can help teachers design CS projects and lessonsthat support all learners more equitably

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the students and teachers that par-ticipated in this research This material is based on work supportedby the US National Science Foundation under Grant Nos CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446 Any opinions findings and conclusionsor recommendations expressed in this material are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience Foundation

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035

Choose a sprite from the library

Or paint a new one

You can choose a different effect from the menu

Or type in a different number Then press the space bar again

To clear the effects click the stop sign

Figure 1 The Scratch card that Julio used tomake his sticky-note prediction

One student Julio who had arrived in New York from the Domini-can Republic the previous school year wrote ldquoEl personaje cabiael color conforme a la vanderita por ejemplo rojo azul y verde Sonmi predisionrdquo Translation ldquoThe character changes color along withthe little flag for example red blue and green is my predictionrdquo

This example supports claims one and two First it demonstrateshow studentsrsquo translanguaging blurs linguistic boundaries betweennamed languages Julio told us he was more comfortable usingSpanish over English At the same time he drew on the Englishhe knew and EnglishSpanish cognates such as colorcolor to helphim interpret the English text and Scratch codes on the card Hethen recast his understanding of the English card on his stickynote in a way that made sense to him (using Spanish) In thisexample Julio also translanguaged ldquobeyondrdquo named languagesHis response employs the word ldquovanderitardquo a term that he andpeers spontaneously generated to refer to the green flag buttonin Scratch (ldquovanderitardquo is a diminutive form of the Spanish wordbandera meaning flag spelled phonetically by Julio) Even if hisresponse is written using language forms that might not appearin formal dictionaries he is using his repertoire to help him makemeaning of the code Julio may also be interpreting the graphicfeatures of the Scratch card such as the images of the butterflychanging color Supporting claim two is the idea that his responsefeatures words that are frequently employed in the language artsdiscipline such as ldquoel personajerdquo (the character) and ldquopredisionrdquo(prediction spelled by Julio in Spanish with invented spelling) Bydrawing on all of his linguistic and semiotic resources ndash includingEnglishSpanish cognates images and discipline-specific words ndashJulio expresses his budding understanding of concepts such as howcomputer programs include events that trigger various behaviors

42 Moment 2 ldquoI donrsquot like SpanishrdquoIn one activity students were asked to remix a simple project wheretwo sprites dialogue in Spanish with each other in a kind of ldquote-lenovelardquo As Jack a sixth grade student who said he grew up inthe US but identified as Dominican was working on his remix heexpressed that he wanted to change the conversation to Englishstating ldquoI donrsquot like Spanish itrsquos too hardrdquo Many of the peers he

called on for support with his project however typically used Span-ish in their interactions with him One student spoke in mostlySpanish as she showed him how to use Google Translate to changethe text strings of his project from one language to another

As the unit progressed Jack wanted to share his work on Scratchwith his peers and it became necessary for him to translanguageAt times he used English words he knew his bilingual peers wouldunderstand at other times he practiced oral and written Spanishsupplementing words with gestures (pointing at particular parts ofthe screen) and also engaging with them digitally through ldquolikesrdquoon Scratch projects (selecting the heart or star icons on projectpages) In one instance Jack observed another student remixinghis own project in the Spanish language interface of Scratch thenmodified his own code using the English language interface tomatch hers (Scratchrsquos interface allows changing not only the userinterface elements between English and many other languages italso changes the keywords displayed on the code blocks)

Jackrsquos teacher knowing he was reluctant to practice Spanishconsciously paired himwith a student whomore often used Spanishand would benefit from Jackrsquos preference for English In this wayboth students had authentic contexts for practicing new languageand in the end Jackrsquos remix featured a great deal of Spanish textwhich helped him ensure his work would be accessible to his class-mates After presenting his project to the class he stated ldquoWhenI was working with [female student] she was helping me withsome of the words because they were had misspellings in SpanishAnd I was helping her with the ones that she had misspellings inEnglish I liked peer editing because I need help sometimes withmy grammarrdquo

This example supports our third claim that studentsrsquo languageattitudes and the activity contexts around them play a role in theirtranslanguaging Jackrsquos initial attitude made him resistant to useSpanish in his Scratch projects and interactions with peers aroundScratch As he discovered given his peersrsquo language preferencesand his desire to share his Scratch project and process with themhe would benefit from occasionally using language he found ldquotoohardrdquo The teacherrsquos strategic pairing of Jack with a student morecomfortable using Spanish pushed both students to practice newforms of language expanding their repertoires

43 Moment 3 Interviewing a bachateroIn one activity students were shown an interactive Scratch projectin which the user simulates interviewing the author of a novelthrough multiple choice QampA The teachers at this school recom-mended that students remix the project by choosing a differentauthor or book character to interviewmdashbut students had other ideasStudents selected figures from sports such as Stephen Curry or popculture like Nicki Minaj and the reggaeton artists Bad Bunny andOsuna One 7th grade student Diani decided she wanted users ofher project to interview her favorite bachata singer Romeo SantosThis required her to draw on what she knew about this artist to askhim informed questions and to import photos from the internetThis detail provides evidence for our second claim that studentsthink about computational practices such as remixing in integratedwayswith their own interests and literacy practices they are familiarwith ndash in this case her knowledge of pop culture As Diani planned

Figure 2 The remix plan that Diani drew on paper before coding in Scratch

her remix of the ldquoMeet the Authorrdquo project her teacher gave her anopportunity to look at the code for the project ndash represented withEnglish code blocks on the right side of a handout ndash and to planout her modifications on the left side of the handout before usingthe digital Scratch interface To complete this task Diani engagedin translanguaging across linguistic and modal boundaries sup-porting our first claim She translanguaged across named languageboundaries because the subject of her interview was himself a well-known bilingual person For this her character Santos ldquosaysrdquo tousers ldquoHola Irsquom Romeo Santos el cantante bachatero [the bachatasinger] Ask me your questionrdquo and the questions she would enableusers to ask the singer included ldquoWhatrsquos is your namerdquo ldquoCuandonacisterdquo [When were you born] and ldquoYou have girlfriendrdquo

The representation of her remix plan also employed modes be-yond written language She drew representations of Scratch codeblocks using English keywords (the ldquosay for one secrdquo and ldquofor-everrdquo blocks in the figure) While the handout was printed in blackand white Diani colored certain code blocks in orange correspond-ing to the color of many common Scratch blocks She also drewinvented blocks which featured Spanish and English keywordssuch as the first orange block pictured at the top of her drawingwhich has the keywords ldquoAl preguntar [flag]rdquo which would literallytranslate to ldquoWhen you ask the flagrdquo This representation combinesthe ldquoAl presionar [flag]rdquo block and the ldquopreguntarrdquo blocks in theSpanish interface of Scratch (ldquoWhen [flag] clickedrdquo and ldquoaskrdquo blocksin the English interface) The way she translanguages across modaland linguistic boundaries in this example is reminiscent of theway beginning writers sound out words and use invented spellingto help them write a story This aspect of the classroom momentdemonstrates the range of linguistic and modal resources studentsdraw upon supporting claim 1

Further down the page she combined the commands ldquoanswer- say - answerrdquo in a representation of a block next to English andSpanish text of questions she wanted Santos to answer While there

is no such code block it captures a simple algorithm for a back-and-forth conversation between people in an interview In thisinstance Diani translanguages as she employs the computationalthinking practice ldquoabstractionrdquo or creating steps to represent thereal-world phenomena she is interested in Diani translanguagesas she plans her remix and engages in abstraction This momentsupports our fourth claim that students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices

44 Moment 4 Bilingual conversation withShakira

In a second project students were asked to use Scratch to por-tray a dialogue between an interviewer and a character of a bookJulio and his partner Yadira decided their interviewee would beEsperanza the main character of the novel House on Mango StreetThey took their time deciding who the interviewer would be Firstthey discussed choosing Nicki Minaj the pop singer but decidedagainst it since she only speaks English They then considered aSpanish-speaking pop singer but decided that her particular ac-cent in Spanish would be too difficult for them to emulate whenrecording It was important to the students that they be able toprovide the voices for these characters Shakira they determinedwould be the perfect person to interview Esperanza because shecan bridge two languages and would help amplify the audienceof their Scratch project When asked why it was important thatthe interviewer speak both languages Julio responded ldquoporquetambieacuten la gente que hable ingleacutes tambieacuten al verlo puede entenderun poco de lo que se estaacute hablando y la gente que hable espantildeoltambieacuten no se desincluyerdquo [because people who also speak Englishcan understand a little bit of whatrsquos being talked about and thepeople who speak Spanish also wonrsquot be excluded] The dialogbetween Julio and Yadira as they discuss their chosen charactersand Juliorsquos comments describing why he values the bilingualism inhis project supports claim three that studentsrsquo language attitudesand the activity context play a role in translanguaging We also

Figure 3 Julio and Yadirarsquos script for their Scratch dialoguefeaturing Shakira

see studentsrsquo translanguaging help them use computing to expressand connect with local audiences ndash key computational thinkingperspectives [6] supporting claim 4

Julio and Yadira wrote a script for their characters using bothEnglish and Spanish Given they wanted to ask at least one questionusing all English they chose to practice writing out the standardEnglish sentence structure for questions As they recorded (andre-recorded) their dialogue as audio in the ldquosoundrdquo section of theScratch software the students translanguaged between modes ndashtheir written text and their oral interpretation of it Students drewon disciplinary literacies that are encouraged in their languagearts class (making inferences about charactersrsquo emotions based ontext-based evidence) as they imagined how the characterrsquos toneof voice would change if she were to meet the famous ShakiraAs they sequenced the code blocks to animate their sprites theirspeech was peppered with Scratch keywords in both Spanish andEnglish Throughout the planning process and as they built theirproject this pair of students translanguaged across and beyondnamed languages modalities and code (supporting claim 1)

5 DISCUSSIONGuided by the theory of translanguaging this study aimed to docu-ment the diverse language practices of bilingual students and to val-idate them as meaning-making resources in computer science edu-cation Through moment analysis we generated four claims that weillustrated with examples namely 1) that studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a rolein their translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction)

Similar to the literate programming philosophy we see evidencethat students can and do use their full linguistic repertoire as theyleverage into new competencies and discourses They express com-putational ideas through code and many other associated repre-sentations such as sprites audiofiles text and so on These ideasare not divorced from other literacies the students bring to bear

whether it is their literacy in the norms and forms of a telenovelaor their understandings of how to craft a message for a particularaudience Nor are their computing practices divorced from theirvalues about languages and bilingualism Studentsrsquo computing inthis project was driven by their desire to connect with their bilin-gual peers who had varying experiences with English and Spanishwhich meant their choices about sprites and scripts were tied upwith their perceptions of their own and othersrsquo language use More-over as students came to value their own fluency in Scratch it wasdeeply influenced by how that skill intersected with their culturallinguistic and disciplinary literacies

Our original research question asked about the use of translan-guaging while students learn computational thinking In the class-room profiled in this study doing computer science meant becom-ing a part of the classroom community though use of multiplenamed languages code and shared references to pop culture andbooks These moments shifted our view away from translanguagingas a process that co-occurs with or mediates learning computationalthinking and encouraged us to begin considering computationalliteracies as the real goal through the lens of translanguaging Byldquocomputational literaciesrdquo we mean ways of creating and communi-cating about with and through computational artifacts (like codedatasets and models) for particular purposes and in and for com-munities In this way computation is participating in a communityof discourse ie being able to co-construct meaning with a largercommunity of interlocutors [18] Viewing CS as participating incomputational literacies prompts educators to ask the questionldquoWhat conversation is this code a part ofrdquo

Translanguaging has implications not only for how emergentbilingual students use home language and English as they partici-pate in computational literacies but also how all students includingmonolingual students leverage across and beyond human and com-putational languages and representations It also means that educa-tors should not treat computer science education as pursuing fixedlearning progressions of computational concepts with lsquoremediationrsquoor lsquodifferentiationrsquo for emergent bilinguals Rather educators mustthink more about how to join the varied literacies students bringto the classroom with potential computational literacies they couldparticipate in through translanguaging This is as true for teachersof monolingual learners as it is for emergent bilinguals since eachstudent brings their distinct repertoires and values to the domainof computation Translanguaging provides an important lens tohelp us describe and support this process Understanding studentsrsquotranslanguaging can help teachers design CS projects and lessonsthat support all learners more equitably

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the students and teachers that par-ticipated in this research This material is based on work supportedby the US National Science Foundation under Grant Nos CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446 Any opinions findings and conclusionsor recommendations expressed in this material are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience Foundation

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035

Figure 2 The remix plan that Diani drew on paper before coding in Scratch

her remix of the ldquoMeet the Authorrdquo project her teacher gave her anopportunity to look at the code for the project ndash represented withEnglish code blocks on the right side of a handout ndash and to planout her modifications on the left side of the handout before usingthe digital Scratch interface To complete this task Diani engagedin translanguaging across linguistic and modal boundaries sup-porting our first claim She translanguaged across named languageboundaries because the subject of her interview was himself a well-known bilingual person For this her character Santos ldquosaysrdquo tousers ldquoHola Irsquom Romeo Santos el cantante bachatero [the bachatasinger] Ask me your questionrdquo and the questions she would enableusers to ask the singer included ldquoWhatrsquos is your namerdquo ldquoCuandonacisterdquo [When were you born] and ldquoYou have girlfriendrdquo

The representation of her remix plan also employed modes be-yond written language She drew representations of Scratch codeblocks using English keywords (the ldquosay for one secrdquo and ldquofor-everrdquo blocks in the figure) While the handout was printed in blackand white Diani colored certain code blocks in orange correspond-ing to the color of many common Scratch blocks She also drewinvented blocks which featured Spanish and English keywordssuch as the first orange block pictured at the top of her drawingwhich has the keywords ldquoAl preguntar [flag]rdquo which would literallytranslate to ldquoWhen you ask the flagrdquo This representation combinesthe ldquoAl presionar [flag]rdquo block and the ldquopreguntarrdquo blocks in theSpanish interface of Scratch (ldquoWhen [flag] clickedrdquo and ldquoaskrdquo blocksin the English interface) The way she translanguages across modaland linguistic boundaries in this example is reminiscent of theway beginning writers sound out words and use invented spellingto help them write a story This aspect of the classroom momentdemonstrates the range of linguistic and modal resources studentsdraw upon supporting claim 1

Further down the page she combined the commands ldquoanswer- say - answerrdquo in a representation of a block next to English andSpanish text of questions she wanted Santos to answer While there

is no such code block it captures a simple algorithm for a back-and-forth conversation between people in an interview In thisinstance Diani translanguages as she employs the computationalthinking practice ldquoabstractionrdquo or creating steps to represent thereal-world phenomena she is interested in Diani translanguagesas she plans her remix and engages in abstraction This momentsupports our fourth claim that students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices

44 Moment 4 Bilingual conversation withShakira

In a second project students were asked to use Scratch to por-tray a dialogue between an interviewer and a character of a bookJulio and his partner Yadira decided their interviewee would beEsperanza the main character of the novel House on Mango StreetThey took their time deciding who the interviewer would be Firstthey discussed choosing Nicki Minaj the pop singer but decidedagainst it since she only speaks English They then considered aSpanish-speaking pop singer but decided that her particular ac-cent in Spanish would be too difficult for them to emulate whenrecording It was important to the students that they be able toprovide the voices for these characters Shakira they determinedwould be the perfect person to interview Esperanza because shecan bridge two languages and would help amplify the audienceof their Scratch project When asked why it was important thatthe interviewer speak both languages Julio responded ldquoporquetambieacuten la gente que hable ingleacutes tambieacuten al verlo puede entenderun poco de lo que se estaacute hablando y la gente que hable espantildeoltambieacuten no se desincluyerdquo [because people who also speak Englishcan understand a little bit of whatrsquos being talked about and thepeople who speak Spanish also wonrsquot be excluded] The dialogbetween Julio and Yadira as they discuss their chosen charactersand Juliorsquos comments describing why he values the bilingualism inhis project supports claim three that studentsrsquo language attitudesand the activity context play a role in translanguaging We also

Figure 3 Julio and Yadirarsquos script for their Scratch dialoguefeaturing Shakira

see studentsrsquo translanguaging help them use computing to expressand connect with local audiences ndash key computational thinkingperspectives [6] supporting claim 4

Julio and Yadira wrote a script for their characters using bothEnglish and Spanish Given they wanted to ask at least one questionusing all English they chose to practice writing out the standardEnglish sentence structure for questions As they recorded (andre-recorded) their dialogue as audio in the ldquosoundrdquo section of theScratch software the students translanguaged between modes ndashtheir written text and their oral interpretation of it Students drewon disciplinary literacies that are encouraged in their languagearts class (making inferences about charactersrsquo emotions based ontext-based evidence) as they imagined how the characterrsquos toneof voice would change if she were to meet the famous ShakiraAs they sequenced the code blocks to animate their sprites theirspeech was peppered with Scratch keywords in both Spanish andEnglish Throughout the planning process and as they built theirproject this pair of students translanguaged across and beyondnamed languages modalities and code (supporting claim 1)

5 DISCUSSIONGuided by the theory of translanguaging this study aimed to docu-ment the diverse language practices of bilingual students and to val-idate them as meaning-making resources in computer science edu-cation Through moment analysis we generated four claims that weillustrated with examples namely 1) that studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a rolein their translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction)

Similar to the literate programming philosophy we see evidencethat students can and do use their full linguistic repertoire as theyleverage into new competencies and discourses They express com-putational ideas through code and many other associated repre-sentations such as sprites audiofiles text and so on These ideasare not divorced from other literacies the students bring to bear

whether it is their literacy in the norms and forms of a telenovelaor their understandings of how to craft a message for a particularaudience Nor are their computing practices divorced from theirvalues about languages and bilingualism Studentsrsquo computing inthis project was driven by their desire to connect with their bilin-gual peers who had varying experiences with English and Spanishwhich meant their choices about sprites and scripts were tied upwith their perceptions of their own and othersrsquo language use More-over as students came to value their own fluency in Scratch it wasdeeply influenced by how that skill intersected with their culturallinguistic and disciplinary literacies

Our original research question asked about the use of translan-guaging while students learn computational thinking In the class-room profiled in this study doing computer science meant becom-ing a part of the classroom community though use of multiplenamed languages code and shared references to pop culture andbooks These moments shifted our view away from translanguagingas a process that co-occurs with or mediates learning computationalthinking and encouraged us to begin considering computationalliteracies as the real goal through the lens of translanguaging Byldquocomputational literaciesrdquo we mean ways of creating and communi-cating about with and through computational artifacts (like codedatasets and models) for particular purposes and in and for com-munities In this way computation is participating in a communityof discourse ie being able to co-construct meaning with a largercommunity of interlocutors [18] Viewing CS as participating incomputational literacies prompts educators to ask the questionldquoWhat conversation is this code a part ofrdquo

Translanguaging has implications not only for how emergentbilingual students use home language and English as they partici-pate in computational literacies but also how all students includingmonolingual students leverage across and beyond human and com-putational languages and representations It also means that educa-tors should not treat computer science education as pursuing fixedlearning progressions of computational concepts with lsquoremediationrsquoor lsquodifferentiationrsquo for emergent bilinguals Rather educators mustthink more about how to join the varied literacies students bringto the classroom with potential computational literacies they couldparticipate in through translanguaging This is as true for teachersof monolingual learners as it is for emergent bilinguals since eachstudent brings their distinct repertoires and values to the domainof computation Translanguaging provides an important lens tohelp us describe and support this process Understanding studentsrsquotranslanguaging can help teachers design CS projects and lessonsthat support all learners more equitably

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the students and teachers that par-ticipated in this research This material is based on work supportedby the US National Science Foundation under Grant Nos CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446 Any opinions findings and conclusionsor recommendations expressed in this material are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience Foundation

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035

Figure 3 Julio and Yadirarsquos script for their Scratch dialoguefeaturing Shakira

see studentsrsquo translanguaging help them use computing to expressand connect with local audiences ndash key computational thinkingperspectives [6] supporting claim 4

Julio and Yadira wrote a script for their characters using bothEnglish and Spanish Given they wanted to ask at least one questionusing all English they chose to practice writing out the standardEnglish sentence structure for questions As they recorded (andre-recorded) their dialogue as audio in the ldquosoundrdquo section of theScratch software the students translanguaged between modes ndashtheir written text and their oral interpretation of it Students drewon disciplinary literacies that are encouraged in their languagearts class (making inferences about charactersrsquo emotions based ontext-based evidence) as they imagined how the characterrsquos toneof voice would change if she were to meet the famous ShakiraAs they sequenced the code blocks to animate their sprites theirspeech was peppered with Scratch keywords in both Spanish andEnglish Throughout the planning process and as they built theirproject this pair of students translanguaged across and beyondnamed languages modalities and code (supporting claim 1)

5 DISCUSSIONGuided by the theory of translanguaging this study aimed to docu-ment the diverse language practices of bilingual students and to val-idate them as meaning-making resources in computer science edu-cation Through moment analysis we generated four claims that weillustrated with examples namely 1) that studentsrsquo translanguagingpractices in CS learning contexts blur linguistic disciplinary andmodal boundaries 2) computational literacies are intertwined withthe many other literacies students bring with them 3) studentsrsquolanguage attitudes and activity contexts around them play a rolein their translanguaging and 4) students translanguage in order toengage in specific CT practices (like remixing and abstraction)

Similar to the literate programming philosophy we see evidencethat students can and do use their full linguistic repertoire as theyleverage into new competencies and discourses They express com-putational ideas through code and many other associated repre-sentations such as sprites audiofiles text and so on These ideasare not divorced from other literacies the students bring to bear

whether it is their literacy in the norms and forms of a telenovelaor their understandings of how to craft a message for a particularaudience Nor are their computing practices divorced from theirvalues about languages and bilingualism Studentsrsquo computing inthis project was driven by their desire to connect with their bilin-gual peers who had varying experiences with English and Spanishwhich meant their choices about sprites and scripts were tied upwith their perceptions of their own and othersrsquo language use More-over as students came to value their own fluency in Scratch it wasdeeply influenced by how that skill intersected with their culturallinguistic and disciplinary literacies

Our original research question asked about the use of translan-guaging while students learn computational thinking In the class-room profiled in this study doing computer science meant becom-ing a part of the classroom community though use of multiplenamed languages code and shared references to pop culture andbooks These moments shifted our view away from translanguagingas a process that co-occurs with or mediates learning computationalthinking and encouraged us to begin considering computationalliteracies as the real goal through the lens of translanguaging Byldquocomputational literaciesrdquo we mean ways of creating and communi-cating about with and through computational artifacts (like codedatasets and models) for particular purposes and in and for com-munities In this way computation is participating in a communityof discourse ie being able to co-construct meaning with a largercommunity of interlocutors [18] Viewing CS as participating incomputational literacies prompts educators to ask the questionldquoWhat conversation is this code a part ofrdquo

Translanguaging has implications not only for how emergentbilingual students use home language and English as they partici-pate in computational literacies but also how all students includingmonolingual students leverage across and beyond human and com-putational languages and representations It also means that educa-tors should not treat computer science education as pursuing fixedlearning progressions of computational concepts with lsquoremediationrsquoor lsquodifferentiationrsquo for emergent bilinguals Rather educators mustthink more about how to join the varied literacies students bringto the classroom with potential computational literacies they couldparticipate in through translanguaging This is as true for teachersof monolingual learners as it is for emergent bilinguals since eachstudent brings their distinct repertoires and values to the domainof computation Translanguaging provides an important lens tohelp us describe and support this process Understanding studentsrsquotranslanguaging can help teachers design CS projects and lessonsthat support all learners more equitably

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the students and teachers that par-ticipated in this research This material is based on work supportedby the US National Science Foundation under Grant Nos CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446 Any opinions findings and conclusionsor recommendations expressed in this material are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience Foundation

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035

REFERENCES[1] 2015 An Economic Snapshot of Washington Heights and Inwood Technical Report

2-2016 Office of the State Comptroller New York City httpswwwoscstatenyusosdcrpt2-2016pdf

[2] 2016 A Framework for K-12 Computer Science Education httpsk12csorg[3] 2017 Common Core of Data Americarsquos Public Schools Technical Report National

Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovccdtablesACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16asp

[4] 2017 Supporting the Study of World Languages and Com-puter Science httpswwwactflorgnewsposition-statementssupporting-the-study-world-languages-and-computer-science

[5] 2018 The Condition of Education English Language Learners in Public SchoolsTechnical Report National Center for Education Statistics httpsncesedgovprogramscoeindicator_cgfasp

[6] Karen Brennan Michelle Chung Wendy Martin Francisco Cervantes Bill Tallyand Mitchel Resnick [n d] Computational Thinking With Scratch OnlineHarvard Graduate School of Education and the Education Development CenterInc httpscratchedgseharvardeductindexhtml

[7] Karen Brennan and Mitchel Resnick 2012 Using artifact-based interviews tostudy the development of computational thinking in interactive media designVancouver BC Canada httpscratchedgseharvardeductfilesAERA2012pdf

[8] Virginia P Collier and Wayne P Thomas 2017 Validating the Power of BilingualSchooling Thirty-Two Years of Large-Scale Longitudinal Research AnnualReview of Applied Linguistics 37 (Sept 2017) 203ndash217 httpsdoiorg101017S0267190517000034

[9] Division of English Language Learners and Student Support 2018 EnglishLanguage Learner Demographics Report for the 2016-17 School Year TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyres3A4AEC4C-14BD-49C4-B2E6-8EDF5D873BE4223369201617DemographicReportFINALSpring20191pdf

[10] Ofelia Garciacutea 2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century A Global Perspective(1 edition ed) Wiley-Blackwell Malden MA Oxford

[11] Ofelia Garciacutea Susana Ibarra Johnson and Kate Seltzer 2017 The TranslanguagingClassroom Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning Caslon PublishingPhiladelphia

[12] Ofelia Garciacutea and Tatyana Kleyn (Eds) 2016 Translanguaging with MultilingualStudents Learning from Classroom Moments Routledge New York

[13] Ofelia Garciacutea and Li Wei 2014 Translanguaging Language bilingual-ism and education Palgrave Macmillan Pivot London United Kingdomhttpwwwpalgravecom2Fpage2Fdetail2Ftranslanguaging-ofelia-garcia2F3Fisb3D9781137385758

[14] Joanna Goode and Jane Margolis 2011 Exploring Computer Science A CaseStudy of School Reform TOCE 11 2 (2011) 12 httpsdoiorg10114519930691993076

[15] Grantmakers for Education 2013 Educating English Language Learners Grant-making Strategies for Closing Americarsquos Other Achievement Gap Techni-cal Report httpsedfundersorgsitesdefaultfilesEducating20English20Language20Learners_April202013pdf

[16] Shuchi Grover and Roy Pea 2013 Using a Discourse-intensive Pedagogy andAndroidrsquos App Inventor for Introducing Computational Concepts to MiddleSchool Students In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo13) ACM New York NY USA 723ndash728 httpsdoiorg10114524451962445404

[17] Margaret Himley and Patricia F Carini 2000 From Another Angle ChildrenrsquosStrengths and School Standards the Prospect Centerrsquos Descriptive Review of theChild Teachers College Press Google-Books-ID ERNnJChzRywC

[18] Chris Hoadley and S Favaro [n d] Digital literacy in higher education In TheSAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (1 edition ed) J Michael Spector(Ed) SAGE Publications Inc 221ndash223

[19] Megan Hopkins 2016 Beliefs in context Understanding language policy im-plementation at a systems level Educational Policy 30 4 (2016) 573ndash605httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770895904814550073

[20] D E Knuth 1984 Literate Programming Comput J 27 2 (Jan 1984) 97ndash111httpsdoiorg101093comjnl27297

[21] Gloria Ladson-Billings 1995 But thatrsquos just good teaching The case for culturallyrelevant pedagogy Theory into practice 34 3 (1995) 159ndash165 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoipdf10108000405849509543675

[22] Gloria Ladson-Billings 2007 Pushing Past the Achievement Gap An Essay onthe Language of Deficit Journal of Negro Education 76 3 (2007) 316ndash323

[23] Lincoln Yvonna S and Guba Egon G 1985 Naturalistic Inquiry (1st edition ed)SAGE Publications Beverly Hills Calif

[24] Kate Menken 2010 NCLB and English Language Learners Challenges andConsequences Theory Into Practice 49 2 (April 2010) 121ndash128 httpdxdoiorg10108000405841003626619

[25] Kate Menken Tatyana Kleyn Laura Ascenzi-Moreno Nabin Chae Nelson Floresand Alexander Funk 2009 Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English LanguageLearners in High School Phase II Technical Report Report submitted to NewYork City Department of Education

[26] KateMenken and Cristian Solorza 2015 Principals as linchpins in bilingual educa-tion The need for prepared school leaders International Journal of Bilingual Edu-cation and Bilingualism 18 6 (2015) 676ndash697 httpskatemenkenfileswordpresscom201110menken-solorza-2015-principals-as-linchpins-publishedpdf

[27] New York City Department of Education [n d] CS4All Blueprint TechnicalReport New York City

[28] Office of English Language Learners 2013 2013 Demographic Report TechnicalReport New York City Department of Education New York NY httpschoolsnycgovNRrdonlyresFD5EB945-5C27-44F8-BE4B-E4C65D7176F802013DemographicReport_june2013_revisedpdf

[29] Ricardo Otheguy Ofelia Garciacutea andWallis Reid 2015 Clarifying translanguagingand deconstructing named languages A perspective from linguistics Applied Lin-guistics Review 6 3 (2015) 281ndash307 httpsdoiorg101515applirev-2015-0014

[30] Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer 2015 Classroom Versus Screencast for NativeLanguage Learners Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Program-ming In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technologyin Computer Science Education (ITiCSE rsquo15) ACM New York NY USA 290ndash295httpsdoiorg10114527290942742618

[31] Kimberly A Scott Kimberly M Sheridan and Kevin Clark 2015 Culturallyresponsive computing a theory revisited Learning Media and Technology 40 4(2015) 412ndash436 httpwwwtandfonlinecomezproxygccunyedudoiabs101080174398842014924966

[32] Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj Kasama Ketsuriyonk Jignesh M Patel and RichardHalverson 2018 Does Native Language Play a Role in Learning a ProgrammingLanguage In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on ComputerScience Education (SIGCSE rsquo18) ACM New York NY USA 417ndash422 httpsdoiorg10114531594503159531

[33] Richard R Valencia 2010 Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking Educationalthought and practice Routledge New York amp London httpsbooks-google-comezproxygccunyedubookshl=enamplr=ampid=80tZBwAAQBAJampoi=fndamppg=PP1ampots=RIXnFaVYlxampsig=XxQZsK_KNg66wj3bxzoQ6aL9Qp8

[34] Li Wei 2011 Moment Analysis and translanguaging space Discursive construc-tion of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain Journal of Pragmatics43 5 (April 2011) 1222ndash1235 httpsdoiorg101016jpragma201007035