Interrupting Ideologies of Cultural Deficiency: Illustrating Curricular Benefits of Plurilingualism in a Kenyan Classroom.

In this paper, we exemplify the resourcefulness of using non-sanctioned ways of speaking in classroom communication within a cross-age literacy collaboration between elementary-level grade 5 and high-school level grade 9 students in Nairobi, Kenya. Our goal is two-fold: to contribute to scholarship that affirms this resourcefulness, and to respond to the need for more studies within western scholarship that are based on non-western linguistic and cultural contexts. Through spotlighting some dynamics of multilayered non-western linguistic practices, this study enriches available evidence for pedagogical planning in our contemporary pluralistic world. We employ discourse analysis grounded in an interactional sociolinguistics approach (Gumperz, 2003) to examine students' use of standard Kenyan English, Sheng, and Swahili. Overall, we argue for inclusivity at two levels: first, culturally inclusive teaching through tapping into active learner participation among other benefits of plurilingualism, and second, at the level of research through challenging western research traditions to achieve comprehensive up-to-date understandings of contemporary language use by broadening contexts of inquiry.

an: 129583802; source: Journal of Language & Literacy Education; docTypes: Article; pubTypes: Academic Journal;