Demystifying Language Mixing: Spanglish in School

This article poses the question of how educators can put into practice the valorization of the vernacular and its use as a pedagogical resource. It provides a critical sociolinguistic orientation toward the use of Spanglish in schools. It gives a short descriptive overview of the linguistic features of Spanglish and responds to some of the misguided notions about language mixing. The article then looks at the use of Spanglish among young bilingual students doing an in-school reading activity and considers the ways that students' use of English, Spanish, and Spanglish might inform how educators see language use in the classroom. Finally, it considers the ramifications of embracing Spanglish as a social language, one that reflects and projects Latin@ borderland identity.