Storytelling in a Bilingual Classroom Through the Lens of Epistemic Diversity and Translanguaging

Abstract

This case study explores the potential of storytelling as an academic activity, facilitated through translanguaging, to enhance epistemic diversity. By examining the intersection of epistemic diversity and translanguaging pedagogy, the study investigates how storytelling activities in a Turkish–English bilingual classroom impact young bilingual learners’ epistemic participation and linguistic flexibility in knowledge construction. The 18-week study involved classroom observations and verbal recordings of 15 fourth-grade Turkish–English bilingual students in Turkey. A translanguaging pedagogy framework, encompassing translanguaging stance, design, and shifts, was implemented to support students’ bilingualism. Thematic analysis reveals that Turkish–English bilingual learners dynamically select and alternate between their linguistic repertoires in Turkish and English, modifying noun, verb, and adjective phrases for meaning-making during the storytelling, regardless of the story's theme. The students employ translanguaging patterns functionally for clarification and elaboration, as well as translating content words and simple sentence structures, fostering a form of epistemic cognitive diversity. The findings demonstrate how storytelling activities can serve as a platform for epistemic diversity by allowing students to access and express knowledge through their full linguistic repertoire. The study highlights that translanguaging practices during storytelling not only facilitate language learning but also promote diverse ways of knowing and understanding. The research contributes to the field by explicitly linking translanguaging pedagogy to epistemic diversity in the context of storytelling activities. It suggests that such activities can be strategically designed to foster both linguistic flexibility and diverse knowledge construction among young bilingual learners. The implications of this study extend beyond language acquisition, emphasizing the potential of translanguaging pedagogy to cultivate epistemic diversity in bilingual educational settings.