Professor, graduates make global impact with book

June 22, 2026 — DENTON — A multilingual English and language arts classroom sounds paradoxical, but Mandy Stewart, a professor in the School of Education’s Literacy and Language division, has spent her career exploring the idea. With it, she has experienced success in classrooms across the world.
 
In her latest book “The Multilingual ELA Classroom,” published June 16, Stewart highlighted five former TWU students and their work incorporating biliteracy development opportunities into the classroom for students from all language backgrounds. Language backgrounds of students ranging from grades Pre-K through 12th grade included Arabic, Bulgarian, French, Korean, Malayalam, Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian and Filipino, among others.
 
“You would think there would be a language barrier to make their ELA classroom multilingual since they did not speak those languages,” Stewart said of her former students. “However, we discovered there are far more possibilities than you can imagine.”
 
Stewart grew close with her graduate students featured in the book. They had either earned their Certificate of Biliteracy or their Master of Arts in Multilingual and Multicultural Studies at TWU 一 in some cases both.
 
“Getting to go into their classroom and work alongside them as colleagues was great as I could see how the theory they were learning in class was being put into practice,” Stewart said. “Each one is so unique and has their own way to pursue language equity in their classes. They truly embrace the phrase I always say to my students: Language is people and that’s who we teach.”

The practice so integral to Stewart’s research is to incorporate a student’s heritage language into lessons as a resource for learning with English — instead of focusing on English only.

Using that approach as a guidepost, middle school teacher Victoria Bohannon created a multifaceted project to help her students engage in high level ELA standards that included reading, writing, listening, speaking and creating across languages. The project focused on food trucks and a student amazed Stewart with his work on the project that included writing a final essay, building a 3D food truck, creating a menu and making a speech, all using English and Spanish. 

“Earning my master’s degree was one of the many checkboxes on my bucket list, but I never imagined that journey would lead to becoming a featured educator in a published book,” Bohannon said. “Working alongside incredible educators across Texas and around the world has been a dream come true. I am so grateful for Dr. Stewart and all of the amazing professors at Texas Woman’s University who helped reignite my torch and my passion for education.”
 
Another TWU graduate, elementary teacher Maria Torres, helped Stewart refine multilingual teaching methods with Ukrainian students in Denton. Stewart would later teach Polish teachers to incorporate the same practices with Ukrainian refugee students in their schools.
 
“I learned so much about multilingual learners and how to better support students and families from all around the world,” Torres said. “I was so inspired by so many amazing educators, especially Dr. Stewart, whose mentorship had such a big impact on me.”
 

Stewart’s work with the Polish teachers led to a European award for innovation in language teaching. It also gave Stewart the opportunity to share research in France, recently doing a radio interview for the University of Orléans about “The Multilingual ELA Classroom.”
 
That was just part of her international tour. She’ll be speaking with French teachers about creating a multilingual French language arts classroom. Stewart will also be testing her ideas with adolescent refugees at a boarding school and has been contacted by others to take part in a grant to incorporate teaching approaches across Europe to preserve heritage languages of migrant people.
 
“The work these five teachers have done is having a global influence,” Stewart said. “It continues to grow and I’m honored to be able to use my own little research agenda to hopefully make the world a better place in a small way.”

Learn more about The Multilingual ELA Classroom

Page last updated 12:56 PM, June 22, 2026