A Systematic Review on Pedagogical Translanguaging in TESOL

Abstract

This systematic review analyzes 20 empirical articles on translanguaging (TL) pedagogies in ESL and EFL contexts. The review is guided by the following questions: (1) How is TL implemented across different teaching contexts? (2) What are the identified benefits and challenges in the implementation of TL in TESOL? (3) What are the identified future directions? Findings indicate that, in ESL contexts, educational equity was more emphasized in the implementation of TL pedagogies, whereas in EFL contexts, the TL pedagogies were more used for instruction reinforcement and creation of class rapport. Furthermore, in K-12 contexts, TL pedagogies were used for disciplining student behavior and promoting equal access to knowledge. In higher education, TL pedagogies empowered students in multilingual written and oral communication. Numerous benefits and challenges of implementing TL, along with future directions for research, were identified in the selected articles. TL pedagogies fostered an inclusive learning environment, increased students’ participation, and facilitated students’ English learning. The identified challenges included logistical issues in the implementation of TL strategies, along with strong adherence to language separation ideologies. For future research, the selected studies propose various topics including the effectiveness of TL pedagogies and call for expansion of research on pedagogical TL.