Transgressive translanguaging: theorizing the corriente

Abstract

ABSTRACT Translanguaging in classrooms opens spaces for multilingual students to engage in learning across the full range of their linguistic repertoire. We argue that one result of translanguaging pedagogy is that it can transform the talk-for-learning in the classroom and create a corriente or flow of ideas that is more free and less constrained than traditional classroom interactional patterns. However, what has been lacking in the translanguaging literature to date is an examination of if, when, and how teacher-student translanguaging actually does disrupt the traditional interactional structures of classrooms in ways that enhance student meaning-making. This article theorizes the translanguaging corriente at the discourse level using moment analysis to analyze data from two video datasets of elementary-grade lessons with emergent bilingual students in Texas and México with two extended excerpts illustrating the creative and critical potential of the translanguaging corriente. Pedagogical practices facilitating the corriente are also identified.