Constructing language ideologies in a multilingual, second-grade classroom: A case study of two emergent bilingual students’ language-use during eBook composing

Abstract

Abstract Emergent bilingual students in the United States often attend schools that perpetuate English-only language ideologies. This article draws from qualitative data collected in a multilingual, second-grade classroom in the U.S. to explore how students co-constructed language ideologies across a schoolyear as they engaged in a daily eBook composing activity designed to counter the school s English-only policy and instead value the use of multiple languages. Conceptually, this paper draws upon the notion of language and literacy as social and ideological practices to demonstrate the ways students negotiated multiple, situated, and dynamic language ideologies about various heritage languages. Using data from two students with different heritage language backgrounds as telling cases, it is argued that students co-constructed language ideologies that valued their own and peers’ heritage languages, and that these ideologies were both connected to students’ school and peer worlds and influenced by their heritage language backgrounds.