Code-Meshing and Writing Instructionin Multilingual Classrooms

graphophonemic

code-meshing in-volves the intentional incorporation of more thanone language within writing to “exploit and blendthose differences” (Young et al., 2014, p. 43) in a waythat frees students to exercise identity and agencywithin their language use.

Researchers in bilingual education and bilitera-cy have understood code-switching as the oral useof two or more languages either within or acrosssentences (intrasententially or intersententially)

as evidenced bythe National Public Radio CodeSwitch project (https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/04/05/176351804/about-us)

Table 11.2 Transitional Devices

Give the same care and attention to your choice of verbs. You should especially avoid overusing the passive voice, in which the subject of the sentence does not perform the action as in “Tina was asked to go to the prom by Jake.” Usually the active voice sounds more vivid and more compelling, “Jake asked Tina to go to the prom.” And this sentence would be even better if you could replace the verb “asked” with one that gives a more specific account of the action: “Jake begged Tina to go to the Prom.” But don’t feel the need to eliminate the passive voice entirely. Sometimes you may not know who performed the action implied in the sentence, “my car was scratched” or you don’t want to admit responsibility for your own actions, “mistakes were made.” Just make certain that when you use a form of the verb “to be,” you do so for a reason and not in place of a verb that suggests a more vivid account. Ultimately, you want to avoid repetitively using any one verb in your writing. Vary your verb choices to create descriptive and engaging writing.

Consider also looking out for these vague terms and phrases: “The Government.” Try to specify if this term refers to state, local, or federal representatives, the people who vote them in, or to those who are paid through tax dollars, such as public school teachers, policeman, and armed service personnel. Another vague phrase is, “Since the beginning of time.” Try to specify when something actually begins. Personal computers, for instance, have not been around since the beginning of time, as one of my students wrote, but only since the late 1970’s. Avoid broad generalizations like, “All people want to have…” No matter how you finish that sentence, you probably won’t discover something that all people want to have. Again, specify which group of people and why they want to have it. You should also be on the lookout for words like, “stuff,” “things,” or “items,” if you can replace them with more concrete terms like, “scattered papers,” “empty oil cans,” or “half finished plates of food.”

After you’ve finished writing a draft of your essay, go back and underline all the vague and general terms to see if you can replace them with more precise diction, words that are clear and specific. Especially look out for the “s” word, and no, I do not mean the one that comes to almost everyone’s lips when they look in the rear view mirror and see flashing police lights. I mean “society.” By itself it can mean anything—the entire world, the specific part of the country you live in, the people who make the rules, the counter culture that resists the people who make the rules, to name just a few. If you can specify which “society” you are referring to, you will not only clarify your analysis but also discover new insights concerning the significance of your perspective to a specific group. And also try to avoid all the variations of society that do not provide additional clarity, such as: “in today’s society” or “in today’s modern complex industrial society.”