Translanguaging

This article presents an iterative study to bring out “practical and pedagogical issues of translanguaging in the classroom” (p. 491). The study involved interviews with three groups of stakeholders from four multilingual high schools: language education researchers, teachers, and multilingual learners. The authors interviewed a range of stakeholders to capture translanguaging “pedagogical challenges (real or perceived)” and their “views on those challenges” (p. 508). As a result, a total of…

In Wang’s (2019) study, the use of translanguaging pedagogies in Chinese Foreign Language (CFL) classrooms is explored in response to the challenges faced by both students and teachers as classrooms become more linguistically diverse. Traditionally CFL classrooms were dominated by monolingual teaching methods. As the number of students in these classrooms coming from diverse language backgrounds has increased, translanguaging has emerged as a strategy. Wang’s research, conducted through surveys and…

In this article, Williams (2022) investigates the use of gestures and models by fifth-grade emergent bilinguals during translanguaging in a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) science class in Hong Kong. The study, grounded in the theory of multiliteracies, views language as a semiotic system encompassing both linguistic and non-linguistic modes of communication. Conducted over nine months in an independent school, the research involved 10 fifth-grade students and analyzed video…

In a mixed-methods study, Zhou et al. (2021) explored students’ translanguaging practices within an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) middle school classrooms at an international school in China. Through classroom observations and interviews, the authors found students engaged in translanguaging for a variety of social and academic purposes, though some were unsure whether translanguaging should be accepted in formal contexts. The authors call for teachers to recognize the…