What is translanguaging and what’s its place in the classroom?

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This was a really popular topic judging from the poll, with lots of members saying it was a pity they couldn’t make the live chat. We shared a couple of questions to guide the conversation, but as always the topic developed quite naturally with lots of engagement from everyone there.

  • Is translanguaging something we can/should plan into our lessons or should it be more organic? What are the benefits of each approach?
  • Do you think it can/should be used at any age or level?

As you can imagine, the first question we looked at was What is translanguaging? Although we had all read up a little more since the topic came up in the coffee break last week, nobody felt like an expert on the topic, so we shared some useful blogposts as a starting point:

Eowyn Crisfield has prepared a couple of blogposts on the topic and there’s also a link to the recording of her webinar in one of these posts:

This is the post Ceri shared in the Hub ahead of the chat:

As well as a short article in Spanish:

The roots of translanguaging are in bilingual education rather than ELT and the original idea was embedded in an immersive environment.

We discussed how it could be introduced as a ‘methodology’ in an ELT context, where students, parents and other stakeholders might be averse to using the learners L1 in the classroom. It would be important to explain the rationale for translanguaging – and using that term rather than saying ‘speaking in (Spanish)’ and what the benefits of it are.

Benefits of translanguaging

For example, we suggested that brainstorming could be done in any language as it allows learners to give more ideas at the initial stage of a task. By restricting learners to using just L2, we may be limiting the amount of emergent language which comes out. Translanguaging also allows learners to show what they know without a linguistic barrier, which can be very motivating.

We also considered that learners could reflect on how they completed a task afterwards: what did you use L1 for and why? Efficiency? A lack of linguistic knowledge? Was it something as simple as a mispronounced word which your peers didn’t understand so you resorted to using L1 to say it? We suggested that this reflective stage could be carried out with different people than those you worked with in the initial activity to allow you to pool resources and perhaps fill in the gaps if there was a linguistic need.

Another suggestion was that we could provide learners with more independence by having them reflect on L1 use for linguistic gaps and finding the missing structures or words themselves, either in the class or for homework.

We can raise learners’ awareness of their own abilities in this way and give them more agency, putting a positive spin on ‘what couldn’t you say in English?’ by asking ‘what do you want/need to learn?’

What’s its place in the classroom?

There was some chat about whether it should be explicit or passive – we considered the fact that when learners go into breakout rooms in the online classroom, they may well be using L1 until the teacher shows up. However, if they are completing the task and the final product is correct, should it matter how they got there? This led on to the question of whether we should explicitly tell them to do something in L1 (which then stops being translanguaging as such).

We also thought about the different stages in a lesson where translanguaging can occur: in the input, process, product or at a more personal level, in how learners take notes.

We talked briefly about the positive effect that translanguaging could have on learners who aren’t bilingual but who are learning in a bilingual system. Those who speak both languages, and perhaps even more so those whose parents speak both languages, are at an advantage to those who only speak one language if certain content is only given in one language.

Another question was why it seems to be ‘a thing’ now! We talked very briefly about how L1 use has become more acceptable in the ELT classroom, and mentioned Guy Cook and Philip Kerr. Here are a couple of open-source references:

And also how it could be included on pre-service courses – within a five-week course there are significant constraints – but judicious use of L1 could be mentioned.

Another quick thought to add here was to make plurilingualism a part of the school culture – having posters of phrases in a variety of different languages, being a ‘language-friendly’ school and normalising the fact that people use different languages.

Practical ideas for the classroom

One thing which was highlighted was the need for learners to have more functional classroom language to express themselves more succinctly. When you ask a question and a learner responds, “I don’t know”, what do they really mean?

  • I don’t understand the question.
  • I understand the question but I don’t know the answer.
  • I know the answer but don’t know how to say it in English.

There was a suggestion of using the learners’ L1 as a resource to elicit target language by going into class and saying, ‘Someone said this to me, but I don’t know what it means.’ (like one of those staged lead-ins where you pretend you’ve broken your arm to elicit certain responses from the class)

Have learners write a first draft of a text in (Spanglish) – you can feedback on some features of the text, such as structure and content if you speak their L1, and then in the second draft they can look at translating their ideas

Cloze activities (especially multiple choice) – have learners think about the word that would fit the gap in their L1. If it’s a multiple choice cloze, they can then look at the options and see if what they thought is there (and then critically think about whether that’s actually the answer)

Translanguaging, code-switching and mediation

There was a bit of chat about the crossover here – does translanguaging involve mediation? Are code-switching and translanguaging the same thing? We felt that code-switching perhaps involved more cognitive effort – you know something in one ‘code’ and then have to recode it; on the other hand, translanguaging is using the languages you have to communicate. We also said that code-switching covers more than just moving from one language to another and we code-switch within a language – dialects and regional varieties, formal and informal register, how we speak to certain people or others. And regarding mediation, we felt that perhaps the original idea of mediation was that there was some kind of barrier which needed to be addressed; for example, this could be that you’ve discussed a topic in L1 but the feedback needs to be done in English (the barrier here being task constraint).

Other bits and bobs which don’t quite fit into the sections above!

  • VYLs are less aware of a distinction between languages and we use translanguaging a lot with them as we build their receptive and productive vocabulary
  • Translanguaging isn’t only oral communication and we can also consider body language as a means of communication
  • Languages which have come about from a mixing of L1s aren’t a random use of language. For example, in llanito (which is the language they speak in Gibraltar) has a grammar to it
  • Translanguaging is about shared culture as well as language – we noted that in the session today we were all Spanish speakers and so although we spoke English, if we threw in a word in Spanish there probably wouldn’t be any problem and we all nodded when llanito was mentioned, which is much more about location than language

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