Translanguaging Practices Research Articles

The local‐international trend of Intercultural Communication through world Englishes and translanguaging

AbstractThis study investigates how world Englishes (WE) and translanguaging may be combined to enhance intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. First, this paper reviews WE contributions to Intercultural Communication and explores the potential of translanguaging in facilitating intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. Second, semi‐structured interviews were conducted to explore the perceptions and practices of WE, translanguaging, and intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication among Chinese university students with the aim to investigate how their experiences of WE and translanguaging enhance intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication within both local and global contexts. The findings revealed the possibility of integrating WE and translanguaging into the promotion of intercultural competence in Intercultural Communication. Such an integration of WE and translanguaging through the intercultural dimensions in English language learning can help enhance linguistic and cultural diversity, and equip individuals with the skills to effectively navigate the multilingual and multicultural world in response to diverse communicative needs.

Good practices of pedagogical translanguaging: A global overview of emergence, development, and classroom applications

This paper deals with the concept of translanguaging as a powerful tool for fostering inclusive education in linguistically diverse settings. Translanguaging, unlike traditional views of languages as separate, bounded systems, recognizes the flexible, integrated nature of multilingual communication. It highlights how speakers draw from their entire linguistic repertoires to construct meaning, depending on context and need. The paper aims to provide teachers in Transcarpathia with a comprehensive understanding of translanguaging and its pedagogical applications. It explores the historical development of the concept, its key characteristics, and its differentiation from code-switching. The paper also discusses the theory and practice of pedagogical translanguaging, highlighting its benefits for both teachers and students. It presents examples from various countries, including the United States, Italy, and South Korea, to illustrate how pedagogical translanguaging has been implemented in different educational contexts. One of the core principles of translanguaging is that all languages are valuable and can be used to support learning. Teachers can create a more inclusive and equitable classroom environment where all learners feel valued and respected via accepting this principle. Translanguaging can also help students to develop a deeper understanding of the world around them by allowing them to connect their experiences across different languages and cultures. In addition to its benefits for learners, translanguaging can also be a powerful tool for teachers. By using translanguaging strategies, teachers can create more engaging and interactive lessons that are relevant to their students’ everyday lives. Translanguaging can also assist teachers to develop their own language skills and to become more culturally sensitive. While the implementation of translanguaging in the classroom may require some initial training and planning, the benefits are well worth the effort. This paper provides valuable insights and practical guidance to support teachers in harnessing the power of translanguaging to enhance language acquisition, content comprehension, and overall student success.

Translanguaging, Literary Multilingualism and Exophony in Translation

This article focuses on the new term of ‘translanguaging’, first developed in applied linguistics and then critically discussed in critical multilingualism studies. The term foregrounds language use as opposed to language competence. In this way, translanguaging is understood as shaking up the commonly received ideas about standardised language. With such a term, new avenues of thought and research open up to better understand multilingual practices. The new proposed way of regarding multilingual practices as more ‘energeia’, processual, and varied – instead of a fixed entity or tool – takes centre-stage in this article. I analyse the term ‘translanguaging’ by way of two practices, literary translation on the one hand and exophony on the other hand. In choosing these two practices, I ask how can translanguaging help bring down old-established epistemic walls such as clear-cut ideas about Jakobson’s intra- and interlingual translation. These terminologies will thus be analysed by way of multi- and translingual texts to discuss the extent to which translanguaging practices can challenge current ideas about literary translation and multilingualism. In my discussion, I focus on two Brazilian authors; firstly, on Wilson Bueno’s Mar Paraguayo alongside its translation Paraguayan Sea by Erín Moure, and secondly, on Geovani Martins’s O Sol Na Cabeça alongside its translation The Sun on my Head by Julia Sanches. I show how a translanguaging approach does justice to the way in which these authors and narrators speak in their own languages as well as in and between other languages than their own (exophony). I draw on examples showing how the translators have gone about these particularities, at once reflecting on the process of creative writing and literary translation as an open-ended practice.

“I am not that teacher”: Latinx teachers’ linguacultural experiences and transformative practices as resources for hope

ABSTRACT Current educational trends show an increasing number of Latinx students in the U.S. school system and a shortage of Latinx teachers who mirror their experiences. To better understand how to attract more Latinx teachers to the profession, we must better understand Latinx educators’ language and cultural experiences and teaching practices. For this reason, this qualitative study explores Latinx teachers’ linguacultural experiences and teaching practices through two exploratory case studies on Latinx educators who serve Latinx students. Data was collected through interviews, digital stories, and the teachers’ lesson plans to explore the participants’ linguacultural experiences and teaching practices. Findings revealed that teacher participants positioned themselves as opposite to “that teacher”, a prototypical monoglossic teacher who hinders and belittles the multilingual experience. By adopting translanguaging practices, they leveraged their students’ linguacultural experiences, creating a pedagogy for hope and resistance. The study will discuss implications for transformative practices and the need for teachers’ who support Latinx students in the U.S.

Exploring Preservice Teachers' Translanguaging Practices and Perceptions in Teacher Training: A Global Englishes Perspective

AbstractThis study explores how preservice English teachers in China perceive and leverage their Chinese and English linguistic repertoires in ELT methodology training, and how a reflective understanding of their use of these repertoires can contribute to their development as teachers. To understand how their practices and conceptualizations of language and teaching are in accord with an orientation toward or away from principles of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT), we drew on theories of translanguaging space and stance (García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017; Li, 2011) and the GELT framework (Rose & Galloway, 2019) to examine preservice teachers' experiences in teacher training. Through multimodal conversational analysis of lesson recordings, we found that preservice teachers created translanguaging spaces to utilize different languages in the critical negotiation of pedagogies. In addition, they displayed traslanguaging stance by strategically incorporating multimodal and multicultural resources in microteachings. We also carried out semistructured interviews in which the preservice teachers, influenced by factors such as language ideologies and curriculum design, displayed mixed views toward translanguaging practices in teacher training, and the ELT classroom. By investigating the feasibility of GELT in TESOL teacher training in China, this study emphasizes the need to empower preservice teachers as critical agents in terms of assessment design and curriculum delivery for sustainable Global Englishes‐oriented innovations to occur.

Unpacking English Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices of Translanguaging: A Case Study of Secondary Schools in China

Unpacking English Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices of Translanguaging: A Case Study of Secondary Schools in China

Translanguaging: Moving away from monolingual ESL classrooms and institutions

Translanguaging, defined as “the deployment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages” (Otheguy et al., 2015, p. 281), has great potential to play a key role in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms and institutions. This article first explores the origins and historical development of the concept of translanguaging before examining more general recent developments and applications of this concept internationally and in Australia. The final section provides suggestions for how to apply some of the principles of translanguaging in the adult ESL classroom, with a particular focus on specific translanguaging practices that have been used with Direct Entry English for Academic Purposes students.

Shuttling between language and content teaching: Exploring opportunities and challenges through collaborative autoethnography

This study investigated the experiences and histories of two teachers of both language and content classes to undergraduate students in Japanese universities, one a British anglophone speaker and the other a Japanese national. In Japan, with the spread of English-medium instruction (EMI) courses, issues of language use have stimulated much debate. As teachers of both English and applied linguistics, through a collaborative autoethnographic (CAE) approach, we explored issues of shuttling between Japanese and English, and of content acquired in both languages. Our findings revealed the nature of our translanguaging practices and related them to our epistemic beliefs and study histories abroad, noting the influence of those experiences and differing student attitudes towards our relative status as English speakers. Conclusions pointed to the benefits of the research methodology of CAE to co-construct our narratives and unpack how our personal backgrounds intersected with our current EMI pedagogies. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ BELIEFS ABOUT TRANSLANGUAGING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Background and Purpose: In recent years, there has been increased attention to translanguaging in educational research, particularly in higher education. The successful implementation of translanguaging practices depends on various factors, including the attitudes and beliefs of both teachers and students. However, there has been limited systematic review on this issue. This study aims to examine and synthesize existing literature on teachers’ and students’ beliefs regarding translanguaging practices in higher education contexts. Methodology: A systematic review was conducted, following PRISMA guideline. Research databases including Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC were searched with specific search terms ‘perception OR belief AND translanguaging’, resulting in the retrieval of 469 articles. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 28 articles were selected for ultimate thematic analysis. Findings: The analysis revealed that teachers’ and students’ beliefs regarding translanguaging were significantly shaped by their pre-existing values and knowledge, institutions’ policies, as well as the nature of courses or curricula. Despite the evident benefits of translanguaging pedagogy highlighted in the reviewed studies, teachers encountered challenges in its implementation. The study identified four primary areas of support needed for the implementation of translanguaging, encompassing teacher training, adjusting curriculum and assessment, fostering collaboration, and developing language policy. Contributions: This systematic review provides a comprehensive overview of the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of both teachers and students in implementing translanguaging practices in higher education. The study contributes to advancing knowledge and understanding of translanguaging in higher education, with implications for both theory and practice in this area. Keywords: Higher education, students’ beliefs, systematic review, teachers’ beliefs, translanguaging. Cite as: Wang, J., Hanafi Zaid, Y., Ibrahim, N. A., & Haladin, N. B. (2024). Teachers’ and students’ beliefs about translanguaging in higher education: A systematic review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 9(2), 402-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol9iss2pp402-419

Advancing the communicative language teaching agenda: what place for translanguaging in task-based language teaching?

ABSTRACT Littlewood’s early stance on the use of students’ first language (L1) in the foreign language (L2) classroom was that maximum use of the target language (TL) enhances language acquisition. He suggested that this precept has been pervasive in every communicatively-oriented language teaching method and has also been widely accepted in official curricula in a range of contexts due to an understanding that TL use should be normative in classroom interactions. A strong rationale for advocating this ‘monolingual principle’ has been that, for many students, the L2 classroom provides the only opportunity to be exposed to the TL. Littlewood and Yu (2011. First language and target language in the foreign language classroom. Language Teaching 44, no. 1: 64–77) recognised, however, that teachers and students do make use of students’ L1 in L2 classrooms and suggested several ways in which teachers might do this legitimately. Furthermore, Littlewood (e.g. 2014. Communication-oriented language teaching: where are we now? Where do we go from here? Language Teaching 47, no. 3: 349–362) conceded that exclusive TL use has become subject to active questioning in recent years. The phenomenon of translanguaging takes arguments that support L1 use beyond Littlewood’s earlier suggestions. There are also implications for TBLT where extensive L2/TL use is the default position but where translanguaging practices are not necessarily at odds with the central task construct. This paper explores translanguaging in the contexts of TBLT and the monolingual principle.

Translanguaging Practices in Kotebe University of Education Classrooms and their Implications for Pedagogy

Ethiopia uses English as a medium of instruction for every subject, except for national language subjects, at tertiary level education. This policy is also applied at Kotebe University of Education (henceforth KUE). The education of bilingual and multilingual speakers is facing several challenges due to the medium of instruction. One of the problems is the prevalence of a monolingual instructional approach whereby instructions are carried out exclusively in English, and the place given to L1 use in any circumstances is less. This project attempts to explore the practice of translanguaging (multilinguals’ tendency to switch between languages) among students and teachers in KUE classes. By employing a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, data about the nature, types, and functions of local language use in classrooms were gathered. Combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods were implemented to analyze the data. The results indicated that local languages were used in classrooms for various purposes by students and teachers. Most of the students had positive attitudes towards the use of local languages. Teachers also confirmed that they used code-switching, code-mixing, and translation, in classrooms to meet their students’ communication needs.

English Medium Instruction in Higher Education: Global Trends, Challenges, and the Call for Multilingual Approaches

This review article examines the widespread adoption of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in higher education, driven by globalization and the need to prepare students for the international job market. While EMI aims to enhance English proficiency and academic and employment prospects, it also presents challenges in terms of linguistic equity, pedagogical effectiveness, and the academic success of students. Through a synthesis of research, this review explores the implications and challenges of EMI and scrutinizes the assumption that EMI inherently improves English proficiency alongside content learning. The article also critiques the monolingual ideology of EMI policies and advocates for the recent call by researchers for a multilingual approach that includes translanguaging practices to better accommodate the linguistic diversity of student populations. In doing so, it highlights the need for a critical reassessment of EMI implementation based on the suggestion that by integrating students’ wider linguistic resources, EMI can evolve from its monolingual origins to embrace a more effective and equitable multilingual framework.

Unpacking multilingual learners’ creativity in the TBLT classroom: a translanguaging perspective

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed a growing amount of research on TBLT, translanguaging, and creativity respectively. However, research on translanguaging and creativity has not yet been situated in the TBLT context, while creativity research in TBLT classrooms has not realised the role of learners’ full linguistic repertoire in creative meaning-making. To address this research gap, this qualitative study, conducted in a TBLT classroom at a Chinese university, explored how multilingual learners engaged in translanguaging practices to foster creativity and how they perceived their translanguaging practices. Data were collected from classroom observations, audio recordings, audio-simulated-recall interviews, and artefacts. Drawing on the theory of translanguaging, the 5A’s creativity framework, and the framework of moment analysis, this study revealed that multilingual learners agentively created translanguaging spaces where they promoted creativity through (1) bringing in past experience; (2) coordinating multilingual, multimodal, and multisensory resources; and (3) expressing multilingual identity. A contextualised 5A’s creativity framework was put forward to understand how these three types of translanguaging practices mediate the interactions among actors, audiences, and new artefacts within the affordances of the TBLT classroom. Implications for implementing translanguaging in TBLT to enhance creativity are discussed in terms of both micro-level teaching practices and macro-level education policy.

Mapping Translanguaging Practices in The EFL Classroom: A Bibliometric Analysis 2015-2024

Purpose: This study examines the evolving field of translanguaging within English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Design/Methodology/Approach: A bibliometric analysis of research publication from 2015 to 2024, sourced from the dimension database, reveals key trends, influential authors, and the impact of technology on translanguaging practices in language learning. Findings: A flow in publications over this period highlights the growing interest ad recognition of translanguaging as a valuable pedagogical approach within EFL contexts. The research encompasses a diverse range of areas, including language, communication, culture, linguistics, education, curriculum, and pedagogy. This underscores the multifaceted nature of translanguaging and its relevance across multiple disciplines. Studies repeatedly demonstrate the positive benefits of translanguaging in EFL classrooms. These benefits include improved language acquisition, literacy development, student participation, and a more inclusive learning environment. The analysis identifies leading scholars whose work has significantly shaped the field and continues to guide the direction of translanguaging research. Furthermore, the study finds that integrating digital technologies into translanguaging practices further enhances language learning experiences. Research, Practical & Social implications: This study has important implications for educators, researchers, and policymakers engaged in EFL education. The evidence clearly supports the adoption of translanguaging approaches to maximize the learning potential of linguistically diverse students. Future research should explicitly examine the potential of translanguaging to develop creativity, critical thinking, and the influence of socio-political factors surrounding its implementation. The study’s findings highlight the need for educational policies that promote multilingualism and inclusivity in language classroom. Originality/Value: This study offers a novel contribution by systematically analyzing the development of translanguaging research within EFL education over a decade. Utilizing a comprehensive bibliometric approach, the study identifies key trends, influential authors, and the integration of digital technologies, highlighting the multifaceted benefits of translanguaging as an effective pedagogical approach that enhances language acquisition, literacy, and student participation, thus promoting a more inclusive and dynamic learning environment.

Translanguaging as Pedagogical Practice: Insight from Indonesian EFL Classroom

This study investigates the translanguaging as a pedagogical practice employed by English language teacher and students in EFL classroom, focusing on the reasons employed by teachers and students, the benefits and challenges encountered, and the achievement employed by teachers and students in English subject. Utilizing a case study design, this research involved in-depth interviews with English language teachers and students, complemented by classroom observations supported by document analysis to gather comprehensive insights. The study was conducted with a sample of 2 English language teachers and 6 students from MTSN 2 Kuantan Singingi. The findings reveal that the practice of translanguaging has a positive influence on English learning in EFL class from both teacher and students. The practice of translanguaging can accommodate both teacher and students’ language differences and as a form of preserving culture. The benefits identified include enhanced student engagement, accelerated learning comprehension through boosted creativity, and the development of an interactive learning environment. Challenges such as mismatch between target language and local language and time consuming in the literacy multilingual class. The study underscores the necessity of addressing these issues and highlights the importance of translanguaging in EFL classroom for their knowledge, background, and mother tongue are important to their education. This will make them become more active and use both languages. In other words, they’ll feel motivated.

Oral translanguaging in telecollaboration: Effects on EFL learner intercultural awareness, learning and communicative competence

This study reported the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development of twenty-one Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college students who participated in a five-week Taiwan-New Zealand telecollaboration program, Kindling, in a multimodal online environment. To this end we investigated 1) the association between their oral translanguaging practices and development of ICC, and 2) aspects of intercultural learning that impacted their translanguaging experience. Data included recordings of group-based online communication and reflection notes on their online Quality Talk (QT) discussions, to which we applied content analysis based on ICC framework. The findings indicated that oral translanguaging facilitated students' development of positive attitudes toward intercultural awareness and learning. Analysis of the cultural comparisons and perspective shifts recorded in their QT reflection notes revealed ways in which students experienced dynamic aspects of intercultural learning through oral translanguaging. These results encourage researchers and practitioners to provide opportunities for language learners’ ICC development and intercultural learning through oral translanguaging opportunities in digitally mediated socialization through telecollaboration.

Integrating Translanguaging in Formative Assessments

The study "Integrating Translanguaging in Formative Assessments" investigates how a Chinese immersion classroom Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) educator adopts a translanguaging pedagogy approach to classroom assessments. Using the Translanguaging Design Cycle framework, the research analyses the perspectives of the teacher and students on how assessments reflect their multilingual identities. The researchers collaborated with a seventh-grade teacher to co-develop classroom lessons and assessments, collecting data through classroom observations, interviews, and student work. Their findings show that incorporating translanguaging boosts student engagement, confidence, and critical thinking, allowing students to use their full linguistic range and affirm their multilingual identities. The study advocates embedding translanguaging practices in assessments to authentically capture students' understanding and foster collaboration between educators and researchers. It recommends specialised training for teachers to equip them with practical strategies for effectively implementing translanguaging in assessments.

Multimodal practices of unpacking and repacking subject-specific knowledge in CLIL physics and chemistry lessons

BackgroundDifferent school subjects have their specific meaning-making practices for building and conveying knowledge. Research drawing on the Semantics dimension of the Legitimation Code Theory has noted the importance of shifting between levels of abstraction and context-dependency in knowledge-building. There is a need to better understand how such shifting between different levels of abstraction is accomplished with multimodal resources in classroom interaction. AimsThis study aims at exploring subject-specific knowledge construction as a form of translanguaging, i.e., as movement between different registers and multimodal resources of meaning-making. DataThe data comes from a Finnish teacher development project aimed at supporting CLIL teachers' professional development. This exploratory study analyses teachers’ knowledge-building practices in two STEM lessons video-recorded in the project, Physics and Chemistry. MethodsThe data is analysed using multimodal conversation analysis and analysis of semantic waves. Analysis focuses on how the teachers engage in unpacking and repacking subject-specific knowledge by talking, gesturing, as well as displaying, handling, and modifying various kinds of multimodal materials and artefacts. ResultsThe teachers were found to use a versatile set of multimodal translanguaging practices for unpacking and repacking. The findings also indicate complexity in semantic waves due to multimodal resources accomplishing simultaneous shifts in semantic gravity and density, with either aligning or diverging functions. ConclusionsThe simultaneous use of different multimodal resources and their potential to serve different functions point to the need to acknowledge the multidimensionality of semantic waves. The multimodal translanguaging approach also has implications for conceptualising subject-specific knowledge-building as inherently multimodal.

TRANSLANGUAGING PRACTICES AND RECONTEXTUALIZING LEARNING MATERIAL: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY OF GLOBAL CHINESE LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS USED IN SRI LANKA

Despite the abundance of studies investigating translanguaging pedagogy, recontextualizing learning material has rarely been a concern of recent studies. The present study employs content analysis and critical discourse analysis to examine two global CFL textbooks used in Sri Lanka to evaluate their compliance with translanguaging practices. Three imperative aspects of translanguaging pedagogy, namely representation of culture, instruction language, and nationalism and socio-cultural polarization were the key areas of concern in content analysis. In the culture domain analysis, references from the textbooks were fed into 10 child codes and 3 parental codes in NVivo12. The results demonstrated that there is a critical inequity in the representation of local and global cultures in the textbooks which is especially distinct in the interlocutors and their nationality options. Socio-cultural polarization of the source culture with the West was evident in the critical discourse analysis and adaptation was predominantly promoted as a unilateral affair where the foreign learner continually adapts to the target culture. The study proposes that contextual sensitivity and ideological impartiality should be ensured in recontextualizing textbooks for translanguaging practices in Sri Lanka from three aspects, namely incorporation of L1 into textbooks, integration of multiculturalism and freeing textbooks of ideological and hegemonic practices.

Mandarin/English dual language immersion teachers’ understanding of translanguaging pedagogy

Translanguaging pedagogy has gained wide recognition in the field of education as an effective approach to educate emerging bilinguals. This study examines how bilingual teachers understand and adopt this approach in Mandarin/English dual language immersion programs. Four elementary school teachers employed at three different Mandarin/English dual language immersion programs in California were interviewed in-depth about their perspectives on the use of translanguaging pedagogy and their translanguaging stance in their instruction. Guided by the constructs in the Translanguaging Allocation Policy model (Sánchez et al., 2018), the analysis revealed that teachers held an incomplete understanding of translanguaging pedagogy, largely due to a lack of understanding of the theoretical basis upon which translanguaging practices are built in varying teaching contexts. Thus, the teachers mostly resorted to translations as one of their main translanguaging pedagogical practices and saw it as a means to bridge understanding across two languages. In order to support the accessibility of translanguaging pedagogy to a broader range of practitioners, recommendations for professional development and teacher training as well as suggestions for the Translanguaging Allocation Policy model (Sánchez et al., 2018) are provided.