Google Translate and Biliterate Composing: Second-Graders' Use of Digital Translation Tools to Support Bilingual Writing

Research is needed exploring how teachers and students in English-medium schools transform classrooms to welcome and value bilingualism and biliteracy. This article draws on social literacies and placed resources perspectives to explore how one classroom of second-grade students used Google Translate as a tool to support their biliterate composing. Constant comparative analyses revealed three patterns related to students' use of this tool. Students used Google Translate to support their inclusion of bilingual text and to interact with peers. They also negotiated limitations around the use of Google Translate. Examples of each pattern are used to illustrate how students interactionally engaged with this tool, using it to position themselves as bilingual authors and language learners, and grappling with material and ideological baggage (e.g., standardized language ideologies) the tool brought to the classroom. Implications for educators working in similar contexts are discussed, including how the use of digital translation tools can foster students' bilingual writing by offering in-the-moment spelling and vocabulary support. Further discussion includes how the use of Google Translate might contribute to shifting monoglossic classroom ideologies towards ones that value multilingualism.