<i>La Jaula de Oro</i> : An Examination of Latinx Bilingual Adolescents' Translingual Practices and Language Outcomes in Critical Thinking and Complex Language Production

Purpose: This study uses a translanguaging orientation in assessment design. A translanguaging orientation adopts a poststructuralist view of multilingual practices. In the current application to measurement, we take a positivist approach, wherein we measure languages independently and general language use—or a translanguaging condition. In measuring “languaging practices,” we used this design to quantify Latinx adolescents' use of critical thinking language, language complexity, and productivity when they are translanguaging and discussing culturally situated narratives, corridos . Method: Fifty Latinx adolescents listened to and discussed Spanish corridos and English ballads in three different languaging conditions: closed Spanish, closed English, and translanguaging. Responses were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for indices of critical thinking language (i.e., metacognitive terms), language complexity (i.e., mean length of utterance in words, clausal density), and language productivity (i.e., total number of words and number of different words). Outcomes were compared across the language conditions. Results: Differences emerged in the use of critical thinking language, language complexity, and productivity based on language condition and age. There was no significant difference in the use of critical thinking language between the translanguaging and closed-English conditions, but there was less use in the closed-Spanish condition. Adolescents showed significantly greater language complexity and productivity when translanguaging than when using only Spanish or English. Older participants significantly outperformed younger participants on some measures of language complexity and productivity. Conclusions: This study underscores the value of allowing adolescents to employ their entire linguistic repertoire. Translanguaging and the use of culturally situated narratives enable opportunities to practice various features of “home” languages and positively affirm Latinx adolescents' cultural–linguistic identities and practices. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.32316378