Translating Childhoods Immigrant Youth, Language, and Culture [Hardcover]

Though the dynamics of immigrant family life has gained attention from scholars, little is known about the younger generation, often considered invisible. Translating Childhoods, a unique contribution to the study of immigrant youth, brings children to the forefront by exploring the work they perform as language and culture brokers, and the impact of this largely unseen contribution.

Skilled in two vernaculars, children shoulder basic and more complicated verbal exchanges for non-English speaking adults. Readers hear, through children's own words, what it means be in the middle or the keys to communication that adults otherwise would lack. Drawing from ethnographic data and research in three immigrant communities, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana's study expands the definition of child labor by assessing children's roles as translators as part of a cost equation in an era of global restructuring and considers how sociocultural learning and development is shaped as a result of children's contributions as translators.

Translating Childhoods, a unique contribution to the study of immigrant youth, explores the "work" children perform as language and culture brokers. Children shoulder basic and more complicated verbal exchanges for non-English speaking adults. Readers hear, through children's own words, what it means be  the "keys to communication" that adults otherwise would lack. From ethnographic data and research, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana's study expands the definition of child labor by assessing children's roles as translators and considers how sociocultural learning and development is shaped as a result.

Marjorie Faulstich Orellana is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at UCLA.

"Orellana tracks immigrant children in Los Angeles, Chicago, and a Chicago suburb to explore the work children do translating for others. From the author's l.