Reframing Bilingual Acquisition and Theory: An Insider Perspective Through a Translanguaging Lens

This exploratory study developed a process for reinterpreting previously published research studies in the bilingual literature. Three previously published studies on bilingual phonological acquisition were revisited due to the following characteristics: (a) they applied a theoretical framework for bilingual speech production developed by white bilingual researchers, the dual-systems hypothesis, and (b) project data were interpreted without the input and perspective of researchers representative of the community being studied. This study aims to provide a guide for the readership to reinterpret developmental speech and language studies on bilingual children through (a) the theoretical framework of translanguaging, which was developed by minoritized bilingual scholars and members of the community being studied, and (b) community Insider lenses, or the perspectives of research team members whose lived linguistic experiences match those of the target population studied.

Original interpretations of data were reexamined and reinterpreted incorporating (a) a research team member from the target community and (b) a novel theoretical lens developed by members of the target community called translanguaging.

Original findings were extended through the application of translanguaging as a theoretical lens. New interpretations of original data were uncovered when a researcher from the Latinx community was involved in the data interpretation process. New insights were gained on phonological acquisition in bilingual Spanish-English-speaking preschoolers by applying a reinterpretation framework.

Differences in data interpretation reveal that translanguaging may improve understanding of languaging in bilingual/multilingual communities. Implications for development of representative research teams when examining minoritized pediatric populations are also discussed.