Prof. Ofelia García
Graduate Center, City University of New York
Session
10:00 am
Translanguaging: Uncovering networks and rejecting dualisms
Language theory and language education practice have had little to do with each other in the past. By centering the ways in which students do language in classrooms, and not simply on the teaching of a linguistic structure, translanguaging disrupts the dualism of theory and practice that has plagued the language education field. It is the careful observation of students as they orchestrate their language practices that generate theoretical perspectives about language and that lead us to uncover dynamic networks of signification that are most important for understanding language. By critically repositioning language within human beings in interactions and motion, translanguaging aims to recover the absences and silences that the study of language has often produced, and that language education has then reproduced. This presentation reflects on García’s own theoretical journey, as she worked with minoritized bilingual students in U.S. classrooms, and in particular with Deaf bilingual students, as the fallacy of traditional theories of bilingualism became apparent.
About the speaker
Ofelia García is Professor Emerita in the Ph.D. programs of Urban Education and of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has been Professor of Bilingual Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Dean of the School of Education at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, and Professor of Education at The City College of New York. Among her best-known books are Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective and Translanguaging; Language, Bilingualism and Education (with Li Wei, 2015 British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Award recipient). García has been the General Editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language and the co-editor of Language Policy (with H. Kelly-Holmes). She has. Co-edited the Mouton de Gruyter Series, Contributions to the Sociology of Language, since 2010. García was co-principal investigator of CUNY-NYSIEB (www.cuny-nysieb.org) from its inception in 2011 until 2019. García’s extensive publication record on bilingualism and the education of bilinguals is grounded in her life experience living in New York City after leaving Cuba at the age of 11, teaching language minority students bilingually, educating bilingual and ESL teachers, and working with doctoral students researching these topics. In 2016 García received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bank Street Graduate School of Education, and in 2017 she received the Charles Ferguson Award in Applied Linguistics from the Center of Applied Linguistics, and the Lifetime Career Award from the Bilingual Education SIG of the American Education Research Association. In 2018 she was appointed to the National Academy of Education and received The Graduate Center Excellence in Mentoring Award. In 2019 she received AERA’s Division G, Distinguished Contributions to Social Contexts in Education Research Lifetime Excellence Award, and also received AERA Leadership through Research Award from the Second Language Acquisition SIG. She was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.