The power of translingual language pedagogy in the college classroom: Situated student identities and culturally responsive teaching

This chapter focuses on how critical translingual language teaching and learning can empower students to move from being a recipient of disconnected language practices to becoming agents of change in their communities. Specifically, I use a rhetorician's perspective to argue that language teachers have a responsibility to incorporate culturally and socially responsive teaching practices that pay close attention to language students' situated identities, especially in relation to increasing students' awareness of how current social, cultural, and political issues impact their futures and the futures of their communities. I use the principles of action-based teacher research to provide examples from my own experiences as a language learner, and I show how these experiences have helped me to critically examine the intersections of language learning, culturally restrictive norms, and social inequities.