Language Is Identity: Telling and Reading the Right Kinds of Stories

The field of reading instruction has long valued storytelling for literacy development, but what kinds of stories are bi/multilingual students exposed to at school? Through the cognitive phenomena of conceptual metonymy and metaphor, this article links language to identity and exposes practices that act to fracture the identities of bi/multilingual students, redefined here as "active bilingual learners/users of English" (ABLE). Three teacher practices are detailed for creating a school world that reflects the identities of ABLE students: (1) using content-based story retells, (2) critically questioning the display of languages on school walls and in dual-language books, and (3) co-constructing stories with ABLE students and their family/community members. Examples of these practices are provided, concluding with Language is Identity Awareness (LiIA) activities and how to activate critical consciousness through translanguaging pedagogy. Opening up space for critical translanguaging pedagogy is needed to start telling, writing, and reading the right kinds of stories.