Bangla and the identity of the heritage language teacher

5.1 Mili’s investment in the teaching of Bangla as a heritage language

Mili’s investment in teaching Bangla was strongly influenced by her ideological belief regarding the importance of maintaining Bangla heritage language of Bangladeshi Canadian children. Since the data collection started in September 2020, Mili was the only teacher who regularly taught at the school and missed only two classes when she got COVID. When Afreen asked Mili why she volunteered to teach Bangla at the school, Mili said, “Actually, I love to teach the children. This is the main thing. And Bengali is our mother tongue” (Interview, April 13, 2021). In Extract 1, Mili explained why children need to be aware of their parents’ mother tongue:

The above extract indicates that Mili’s beliefs and ideology about preserving children’s heritage languages led to her investment in the teaching of Bangla. For her, learning Bangla was associated with maintaining children’s Bangladeshi roots and was an important means of preserving the Bangladeshi heritage for the next generation. Mili was aware that immigrant languages such as Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi were becoming increasingly popular in BC. Although she acknowledged that children needed to learn Canada’s official languages, English and French, she emphasized that if children would not learn Bangla, Bangla would lose its importance as an immigrant language in BC. Further, Mili wanted children to prioritize learning Bangla over other extra-curricular activities (Extract 2):

Interestingly, as a result of the pandemic, Mili’s investment in Bangla went through important shifts when the Bangla school transitioned to the online platform. Mili noted in her interview on April 13, 2021, “I am comfortable with both [online and face-to-face teaching].” However, although Mili was comfortable with both platforms, she gave a number of reasons (Extracts 3, 4, and 5) why she preferred teaching Bangla online rather than in-person:

Although Mili was more comfortable with face-to-face teaching when she taught regular classes at the Vancouver School Board, she was more invested in online teaching as an HL teacher. Mili needed to navigate multiple identities and responsibilities (her profession, families, etc.), and online teaching enabled her to save time while she continued her passion for Bangla teaching:

Extract 4 signifies that Mili was more interested in online teaching as she could save her commuting time. Further, she could conveniently download photos from the Internet and use them as resources, while in face-to-face teaching, her workload was double due to the amount of time she had to dedicate to decorating the classroom.

Mili also preferred online teaching because she observed the increased investment of students in online Bangla learning (Extract 5):

Although Mili had to navigate the lack of teachers and resources in online teaching, the children’s increased investment and enjoyment in learning Bangla online contributed to Mili’s own investment in online teaching. This enthusiasm is supported by the data: before the pandemic, the in-person school had only 12 children, but during the pandemic, 21 children (aged 6–14) from different parts of BC joined the program, as well as two students from Ontario. Mili acknowledged that she sometimes missed the in-person classroom setting; nevertheless, she preferred online teaching.

While Mili was invested in the teaching of Bangla as a heritage language, she was also interested in the transcultural relationship between Bangla and English, and between Bangladeshi culture and Canadian culture. Both the translanguaging practices (Canagarajah 2013; Garcia and Li Wei 2014) and the multimodal practices (Jewitt and Kress 2003; Kendrick 2016) we observed in Mili’s teaching provide compelling illustrations of this transcultural investment. Although Mili was interested in teaching children their parents’ mother tongue and wanted them to value their roots and heritage, she also understood that children were living in Canada and were invested in Canadian cultural practices. She valued children’s identities and the capital they brought to the classroom and used them as affordances rather than constraints. She drew on translanguaging and multimodal practices in her teaching by leveraging her own and children’s full linguistic repertoire and diverse semiotic resources to promote children’s meaning making (Canagarajah 2013; Garcia and Li Wei 2014; Jewitt and Kress 2003; Kendrick 2016). To support this view, we provide three classroom examples.

In the first example, in a lesson that Mili taught on September 21, 2020, Mili showed children some Canadian maple leaves she created (Figure 2) and used examples of fall colors while discussing the six seasons of Bangladesh.

Figure 2:

Maple leaves Mili made.

In her interview, Mili noted that she used the “Canadian style of teaching” in the VBS classroom because children were familiar with this style. When Afreen inquired why she used examples of Canadian culture, Mili noted, in Extract 6:

Mili valued children’s cultural capital and believed that blending Bangladeshi and Canadian cultures in the lesson supported children’s progress in learning Bangla.

In the second example, in a lesson that Mili taught on September 20, 2021, she leveraged children’s dominant language, English, to teach the national anthem of Bangladesh. The following Figure 3 shows the screenshot of the national anthem Mili shared with the class.

Figure 3:

Mili’s lesson on the national anthem of Bangladesh

When Mili showed the anthem (picture she found on Google) to the children, she used both Bangla and Roman scripts to maximize the communicative potential of the children. Mili was interested in teaching children how to sing the national anthem in Bangla, but she acknowledged the children’s dominant language. As children would not be able to read the Bangla script, Mili zoomed in on the Roman script (Figure 4) when children practiced singing the anthem.

Figure 4:

Mili’s lesson on the national anthem of Bangladesh (zoomed in on the Roman script).

Mili explained the meaning of the anthem in English to make it comprehensible to the students. In the questionnaire, Mili noted that “using English while teaching Bengali helps students to learn Bengali language effectively” (Questionnaire, January 27, 2021). Mili adopted translanguaging and multimodal practices as she flexibly used both English and Bangla and different modes (picture, zooming feature, etc.) to promote children’s meaning-making.

In the third example, from November 30 and December 7, 2020, we discuss the way Mili introduced show-and-tell activities to validate children’s identities and their capital (i.e., their translingual and multimodal resources). In the lessons Mili taught on show-and-tell activities, she encouraged children to show their toys, drawings, books, stories, etc., and discuss the artifacts with all the students in the class (Afreen and Norton 2023, in press). Students showed three types of show-and-tell in the lesson: artifacts, pets (e.g., cats, birds), and their own creations (e.g., stories, paintings, LEGO toys, earrings, etc.).

Mili believed that validating the identities of the children would make them more dedicated to learning Bangla; therefore, in the show-and-tell, she encouraged children to discuss why their show-and-tell objects were meaningful to them. When a student shared a story she wrote, Mili commented: ‘I loved the story you shared! Do you enjoy writing stories?’ Mili also applauded and praised students for sharing their creations in the class. For example, when a student showed the earrings she made for her mother, Mili applauded the student: ‘When did you make this? Your artwork is excellent!’

Doing show-and-tell in the online class gave children unique opportunities to show their pets and any available resources from their homes and to develop their relationships with their peers, which were restricted due to COVID-19. When asked about the show-and-tell activities, Mili said, in Extract 7:

When Afreen further inquired if encouraging children to harness their identities with a show-and-tell and other activities would make them more engaged in learning Bangla, she excitedly replied (Extract 8):

Extracts 7 and 8 show that Mili valued show-and-tell activity because this task enabled children to share their identities with their peers. Mili noted that this task was a “really big thing” for the children. Afreen also observed children’s enthusiasm when they shared their own creations, toys, etc., with their peers. When Mili started the show-and-tell session on December 7, 2020, Mili asked: “কে আগে দেখাবে?” [Who would like to show first?]. Most of the children unmuted their mikes on Zoom, raised hands, and started repeating, “আমি, আমি” [me, me]. Mili had to calm them down saying, “Yes! Yes! Okay! Okay! One by One! [laughing].”

Although Mili encouraged children to speak in Bangla during the show-and-tell, she allowed them to speak in English and later helped them to express their thoughts in Bangla. In the interview (Extract 9), Mili explained that she encouraged children to communicate their thoughts in English if they struggled to speak in Bangla during show-and-tell and storytelling activities so that children would not lose interest:

These classroom examples discussed above illustrate that while Mili wanted the children to learn about Bangla and their culture, roots, and heritage, she also valued and acknowledged that children were invested in Canadian cultural practices. She exercised her agency to use children’s and her own capital as affordances to teaching. Mili’s sens pratique or practical sense translated to translanguaging and multimodal practices as she drew on available linguistic and semiotic resources to encourage children to invest in Bangla HL learning.

5.2 Mili’s investment in Bangla teaching and her identity as a heritage language teacher

We now turn to our second research question: How does investment in the teaching of Bangla provide insight into Mili’s identity as a heritage language teacher? Our data suggest that Mili’s multifaceted HL teacher identity can be classified in four ways: her identity as a cultural mentor, a cultural innovator, a cultural collaborator, and an active community member.

As a Bangla heritage language teacher, Mili took on the identity of a cultural mentor. Mili often discussed topics on Bangladeshi culture to instill in children an understanding of significant events, national symbols, and the heritage of Bangladesh. For example, in a lesson Mili taught on October 19, 2020, she shared a small story on “আমাদের দেশ” [Our country] that discussed the national bird, the national flower, the national fruit, and the national fish of Bangladesh (Figure 5).

Figure 5:

Mili’s lesson on “আমাদের দেশ” [Our country].

When Mili showed the above photo, she said: ‘This story is all about amader desh, our country.’ After sharing the story, she asked students to share what they understood. When a student responded that the paragraph talked about “popular things” of Bangladesh, Mili responded:

Of course, they are popular, but they are not only popular, they are [the text is] saying these are জাতীয় ফল, national fruit [and other national symbols]. National means they are so special. They are not only popular, they are so special to us.

In this classroom example, Mili appreciated the student’s response though the student used “popular” instead of “national,” and Mili explained that the symbols she talked about were not only popular but also special. In the lesson, Mili repeatedly used “our” and “us” while talking about Bangladesh, denoting her shared Bangladeshi identity with the children. Extracts 1 and 2 discussed above also exhibit a shared identity between her students and herself. In these Extracts, Mili noted that she was interested in teaching children their “own language,” “roots,” and “their mother tongue.”

Although Mili was from Bangladesh and understood the language, culture, and identities of Bangladeshis, she was also a Bangladeshi-Canadian and recognized the complex identities and ideologies of immigrant communities. While Mili was invested in passing on the Bangladeshi heritage and culture to the next generation, she also acknowledged that these children were either Canadian-born or Canadian immigrants. She valued children’s identities, multilingual practices, and Canadian cultural practices, as demonstrated in the three classroom examples on maple leaves, national anthem, and show-and-tell activities discussed earlier. As a cultural mentor, Mili helped the children navigate their past, present, and future, and supported them in negotiating their transcultural identities as Bangladeshi Canadians, not only as Bangladeshis.

Mili’s investment in teaching Bangla as a heritage language also disclosed her identity as a cultural innovator. Mili developed innovative strategies to teach a complex heritage language like Bangla and made it accessible to children who did not know the Bangla alphabet and had a low Bangla oral proficiency. She believed that she did not need many resources to teach Bangla online as she could create her own resources, as illustrated in Extract 10:

Mili was confident that her knowledge and creativity enabled her to make appropriate resources. She created various teaching materials using available resources from home and online to teach Bangla. In her lessons, she adopted multimodal practices along with translanguaging practices. For example, when Mili taught the Bangla alphabet, she made flashcards on the Bangla alphabet and words, and used them along with the Bangla alphabet book. Figure 6 below shows six screenshots Afreen took when Mili used flashcards and books to teach the Bangla alphabet.

Figure 6:

Flashcards and books Mili used to teach the Bangla alphabet and words.

Mili also developed innovative strategies to teach Bangla writing. In Extract 11, she explained how she created strategies to teach children Bangla writing using the Zoom whiteboard:

Mili referred to her strategies of Bangla writing as a “Canadian style of teaching,” which she acquired from her teaching experience in Canada. Afreen also observed that Mili’s strategies to teach Bangla writing were effective. The following three screenshots (Figures 7, 8, and 9) from two of her lessons show how she used multimodal resources (i.e., flashcards, gesture, whiteboard, and the example of the alligator’s mouth) and taught the Bangla letter ক on the Zoom whiteboard using the example of the alligator’s mouth.

Figure 7:

Mili showing the example of an alligator’s mouth.

Figure 8:

Flashcards Mili used to show the letter ক and two-letter words.

Figure 9:

Mili wrote ক on the Zoom whiteboard.

In the lesson, Mili used her hands to demonstrate the example of the alligator’s mouth and its resemblance with the letter ক (Figure 7). She also used two flashcards -- one showing the letter ক and the other showing some two-letter words (Figure 8). The two-letter words that Mili showed used ক and other Bangla letters that also resembled an alligator’s mouth. Figure 9 shows the screenshot of the Zoom whiteboard where Mili wrote ক. As illustrated in Figure 9, Mili developed innovative strategies by drawing horizontal lines on the whiteboard to mimic a ruled notebook. Her strategies enabled children to clearly understand her instructions, mentally trace the letters, and replicate them on their notebooks.

The classroom examples that we discussed earlier (examples on maple leaves, show-and-tell, national anthem, and our country) also provide evidence of Mili’s identity as a cultural innovator. In all these examples, Mili leveraged her own and the children’s identities, as well as translingual, multimodal, and cultural strategies to teach the Bangla heritage language creatively. This, in turn, led to engagement and investment on the part of the multilingual and multicultural children.

Mili was also invested in her identity as a cultural collaborator. When the school was closed due to COVID-19, Mili collaborated with Afreen to start the school online so that children could continue learning Bangla HL during the pandemic. Mili and Afreen were the only teachers who had some prior online teaching experience. Since other teachers had limited expertise in technology, transitioning to online HL learning became a daunting task. Mili and Afreen took the initiative to train other teachers to ensure the successful transition to online learning. Mili was thus a cultural collaborator as well as a heritage language teacher trainer. Mili trained teachers to use the Zoom whiteboard and showed them strategies to write Bangla letters on the online platform. Mili shared how she created flashcards and resources like maple leaves, used books and downloaded photos from the Internet with VBS teachers, and encouraged them to use various resources to make the classes interactive and engaging.

Mili also created a WhatsApp group for VBS teachers and VBS parents. In the teachers’ group, she shared resources, such as stories, photos, flashcard ideas, brief lesson plans, etc., to ensure other volunteer teachers felt supported while teaching Bangla. Since VBS teachers co-taught in the online classes, Mili collaborated with Afreen to provide technical support to teachers when they taught online. For example, Mili asked one of the teachers to share a Bangla story with the children, but the teacher did not have any resources or books on Bangla stories. Mili, therefore, collected a Bangla story on “ভালুক ও দুই বন্ধু” [The Bear and Two Friends] from her friend in Bangladesh and shared it in the WhatsApp group. When the teacher told the story in the class (classroom observation, November 30, 2020), she had difficulties in sharing the screen; therefore, Mili shared her screen (Figure 10) so that the teacher could comfortably discuss the story with the class.

Figure 10:

Mili shared her screen to show the story on “The Bear and Two Friends.”

Figure 11:

Mili’s investment in teaching Bangla as a heritage language and her identity as an HL teacher.

As a cultural collaborator, Mili ensured that VBS could run successfully during the pandemic to promote children’s Bangla HL learning despite the limited resources, funding, and trained teachers.

Mili’s investment in teaching Bangla as a heritage language and her identities as a cultural mentor, innovator, and collaborator were reinforced by her identity as an active community member. It is interesting to note that one of the reasons why Mili preferred online teaching was because the parents valued online teaching. As a member of the cultural community, Mili understood the lives of parents and respected not only what the students valued but also what the parents valued. The following Extracts 12, 13, and 14 support this view and illustrate that Mili acknowledged and understood students’ and parents’ investments in online heritage language learning. In Extract 12, Mili highlighted that both parents and children preferred online learning since it saved their commuting time:

Mili noted that parents and children were more interested in online teaching as they could join from any location. Mili also observed increased enthusiasm in learning Bangla in the pandemic (Extract 13):

In the questionnaire, Mili noted that online Bangla learning was “as good as face-to-face learning,” and children were more engaged in online learning than in in-person learning (Questionnaire, January 27, 2021). When asked if the online classes would continue after the pandemic, Mili replied, “I think so, I think so it will continue” (Interview, April 13, 2021).

Mili’s multifaceted identities as a heritage language teacher signify her sense of belonging to the Bangladeshi–Canadian community. In this context, she is part of a collective with shared goals and convictions to maintain children’s heritage language. As a member of the cultural community, she saw herself invested in the relationship with the community and supported other members of the community (parents, teachers, and children) to preserve the linguistic and cultural resources they brought to Canada. At the same time, she appreciated children’s Canadian cultural practices and helped them in negotiating their new transcultural identities as Bangladeshi–Canadians.