The Importance of a Translanguaging Approach in Education
By Andrew Farrell
Translanguaging refers to the act of people who are multilingual using their entire language repertoire to communicate, or more specifically in order to learn in an academic environment. A translanguaging approach to teaching would mean that multilingual students would have opportunities to use any language they have access to in a school setting. Students who are multilingual in the current school system in the United States often need to conform to specific language expectations, mainly learning to read, write, and speak in English. By teaching with translanguaging in mind, teachers can enable their students to use their whole knowledge base and be comfortable expressing their whole selves. Often, even when children are able to use their home language in school, it is mostly used separately from English. This separation stems from the way languages are socially constructed rather than how language really operates in someone’s brain, and results in an academic hierarchy between the languages. According to García, “Translanguaging does away with language hierarchies, and returns the power to the speaker”. ("Ofelia García - Translanguaging”, 00:04:55).
García ("Ofelia García - Translanguaging”) also speaks about the importance of translanguaging as a foundational “stance” when approaching teaching. She argues that translanguaging should not be seen as scaffolding, but rather as an avenue to transformation and learning in and of itself. The reason a Spanish-speaking child should be able to use their Spanish in school is not just so that they can work towards understanding content and using more English. It is because allowing children to approach issues using translanguaging allows them to approach learning with everything they have. García maintains that, “When translanguaging is not taken into account, you are doing injustice to the children”, because, “all bilingual communities translanguage. It is the norm in bilingual communities”, and therefore, “if you don’t take translanguaging into account, you are instructing the children with less than half of their repertoire and you are assessing only less than half of their repertoire, so of course they are always going to do poorer than monolingual children” ("Ofelia García - Translanguaging”, 00:09:17).
Teachers who are entrenched in the current system of bilingual learning where languages are separated and English is centered may have a difficult time adapting to these ideas. Crisfield believes that, “To see it in action is to clearly understand the significant benefits for learners, in terms of their own language development, their English development, their content learning, and their social development” (00:01:39). Many authors support this view, maintaining that a new approach, one that integrates translanguaging theories, is more beneficial to students. According to Ariza, “By allowing language learners to utilize their existing language knowledge for pre‐thinking skills in order to perform academically in an additional language, students will have a richer comprehension of the academic tasks” (1).
Because translanguaging is a process that happens in the everyday lives of multilingual children, even at a very early age, an approach to teaching that takes this into account is beneficial at all ages. Axelrod & Cole write that “our data contribute to a growing body of research that demonstrates that even kindergarten-aged children naturally translanguage, apply strategies taught in one language to another language without being formally instructed to do so, and actively seek formal instruction during the production of bilingual texts” (147). Also, because most multilingual children are not in schools or classes that offer structured support to multilingual children, let alone full dual language programs, it is essential that teachers in any classroom, including those who may not speak the languages their students do, have access to educational resources that will help them use translanguaging theories in their everyday practice.
The current state of multilingual and bilingual education in the United States can take different forms, but we can learn a lot about the lens through which these programs are viewed simply by looking at the nomenclature that is widely used to refer to children who speak more than one language. “English as a second language” (ESL), “English as a New Language” (ENL), and now “English Language Learners” (ELL). As the terminology evolves with the times, it’s focus stays consistent: In the mainstream, language learning is framed around English, and the goal of learning English. This is not only problematic in terms of the impact it has on Spanish Speakers, both in school and society, but it is also simply not an effective way to teach language skills.
García writes about how, “The traditional bilingual programs of the past have always considered the two languages as separate bounded entities” (“Latino kindergarteners” 42). She argues that this stifles the potential of the children in these programs. She believes it should not be “about adding a second language” but rather is “about developing complex language practices that encompass several social contexts” (“Latino kindergarteners” 44). She also argues that this process really fails the children when it comes to assessment, because “U.S. schools continue to insist in learning and assessing an English academic standard. And in the few educational situations in which Spanish is also acknowledged, it is the Spanish academic standard that is taught and assessed”. García puts forth that this is akin to teaching a child as if they are two separate monolingual children, which does not allow their true potential as a multilingual speaker to flourish (“Latino kindergarteners” 44). Burr & Crisfield agree, “We are faced with the bizarre scenario of schools successfully transforming fluent speakers of foreign languages into monolingual English speakers, at the same time as they struggle, largely unsuccessfully, to transform monolingual English speakers into foreign language speakers” (2). These priorities reflect a double standard about multilingual speakers. A native English speaker who speaks Spanish is viewed as someone who has gained a useful skill, but a native Spanish speaker is viewed as a threat to the dominant language culture.
García also finds that despite this separation of languages at most schools, the children almost always find ways to exercise their translanguaging in the other spaces available to them. Translanguaging is a natural part of being bilingual. Gort writes, “the research evidence is clear: bilingual children's translanguaging is systematic and purposeful, demonstrating that children are actively, flexibly, creatively, and effectively attempting to communicate and make meaning using their broad range of linguistic resources” (238).
Promoting the use of translanguaging is not only beneficial to individual children, but can also impact the greater Spanish-speaking community. Multilingual children in the school system in the U.S. are often facing many other challenges in their lives, on top of the mismatch between their abilities and the way they are treated in school. By teaching them using translanguaging theories, they are able to see their culture and background valued in an academic setting. Families are often torn between the apparent choice between making sure their children learn English to succeed in the U.S., or making sure their children don’t lose the culturally important language of their family. García proposes that such a choice should never have to exist, that languages are not, in fact, separate at all. ("Ofelia García - Translanguaging”). By integrating translanguaging into their practice, teachers may also be able to involve the families of their students more in their learning, and those families in turn may be able to be more involved in the school. Children will feel less pressure to assimilate when they see themselves reflected in the way they learn, rather than excluded from it.
For all of the above reasons, it is essential that teachers, both those in bilingual and dual language programs, and also those who are not, develop their knowledge about translanguaging and work to implement strategies around it in their classrooms. This may be a challenge. According to Creese & Blackledge, “studies show that moving between languages has traditionally been frowned upon in educational settings, with teachers and students often feeling guilty about its practice. Research shows that codeswitching is rarely institutionally endorsed or pedagogically underpinned” (105). But it is a challenge that is worth overcoming if teachers want to build a community that is truly inclusive and welcoming to students from many backgrounds.
Sample Translanguaging Activities
The following are some simple activities that one might see in any 1st grade classroom taught in English. They have been updated to include translanguaging techniques in order to demonstrate how translanguaging can be incorporated into every day lessons, even in a general education and/or early childhood setting. Not all of these will work for all situations. Teachers will need to adapt lessons to the languages and abilities of the students in their classroom. For example, writing words on an alphabetical list might work well for languages that use Latin script, but not for Chinese. Pairing children together to have a discussion in their home language will work well if there are many students that speak the same language, but not if there are groups of only one or two. For younger children, writing will not be an option. These are a few examples of how these adaptations might be made.
1. Word Wall
Objective:
Students will create a word wall by choosing words that begin with different letters, inclusive of different languages spoken in the classroom.
Activity:
The teacher will begin each day with a new letter, asking students to volunteer words that begin with that letter in Spanish or English. When a student volunteers a word, the teacher will write it and read it out loud with the students. Whether it is in English or Spanish, the teacher will ask if anyone in the class knows how to say the word in any other language, and add that word to the word wall as well.
2. Insects
Objective:
Students will recognize insects and describe the attributes of an insect.
Activity:
The teacher will introduce the topic by reading a book about insects to the class, in English. After this, the students will be given a short text in their home language to read about the parts of an insect, and encouraged to speak about what they learned about insects in their home language to other children who speak that language. Next, the children will share out to the class what they’ve discussed, answering questions from the teacher in English. Finally, the teacher will label the parts of an insect in all languages, asking students to provide the names of the parts in the home language in which they read.
3. Family Interviews
Objective:
Students will conduct interviews, gathering data about their friends and family.
Activity:
The teacher will explain what an interview is, and ask students to contribute questions that they think an interviewer might ask, writing all the questions in English. The teacher will then model interviews by choosing students to be interviewed, and recording the answers they give. Students will then be given time to write questions, this time in their home language, for an interview to be given to someone in their family. They will be asked to interview their family member in their home language for homework, and write down the family member’s answers. The next day, students will be asked to share the results of their interview with the class in English.
4. Rainforests
Objective:
Students will listen to and read “The Great Kapok Tree”, and be able to answer questions about what happens to the characters in the story, and why Rainforests are important.
Activity:
The teacher will read, or play audio of, the Spanish version of “The Great Kapok Tree” (“El Gran Capoquero“), in a small group for the Spanish-speaking children in the class. The students will discuss the book with each other in pairs. Later, the teacher will read “The Great Kapok Tree” to the whole class, in English, and ask questions about the story and its meaning.
As we can see in the above examples, the children are given the space and freedom to bring all of their knowledge into the lessons. They are not being asked to work and think in one language at a time, but rather approach their problem solving and the questions they are answering using all of their language. These simple activities are meant to encourage and scaffold the mixing of languages, formalizing this process. Ideally, as students become more accustomed to using translanguaging in an academic setting, the process will become more fluid for both the students and the teacher, and can be a natural part of any lesson.
Works Cited
Ariza, Eileen N. Whelan. "Translanguaging and the Benefits of Going Beyond Codeswitching: Some Practical Applications." The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching (2019): 1-5.
Axelrod, Ysaaca, and Mikel W. Cole. "‘The pumpkins are coming… vienen las calabazas… that sounds funny’: Translanguaging practices of young emergent bilinguals." Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 18.1 (2018): 129-153.
Bauer, Eurydice B. "Kindergartners' Writing in a Dual-Language Classroom." Language Arts 96.4 (2019): 213-223.
Burr, Eowyn Crisfield. "Challenging the monolingual habitus of international school classrooms." The International Schools Journal 37.2 (2018): 77-84.
Celic, Christina, and Kate Seltzer. "Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators." CUNY-NYSIEB. New York (2011).
Cole, Mikel W. "Translanguaging in Every Classroom." Language Arts 96.4 (2019): 244-249.
Creese, Angela, and Adrian Blackledge. "Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching?." The Modern Language Journal 94.1 (2010): 103-115.
Crisfield, E. “What is translanguaging, really?” Youtube, 16 May. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNOtmn2UTzI.
García, Ofelia. "Ofelia García - Translanguaging." Youtube, uploaded by MuDile, 11 Oct 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1CcrRrck0.
García, Ofelia, et al. "The translanguaging of Latino kindergarteners." Bilingual youth: Spanish in English-speaking societies 42 (2011): 33-55.
Gort, Mileidis. "Developing Bilingualism and Biliteracy in Early and Middle Childhood." Language Arts 96.4 (2019): 229-243.
Hamman, L., Beck, E., & Donaldson, A. “A Pedagogy of Translanguaging.” Language Magazine. Retrieved from 10 September 2018. https://www.languagemagazine.com/2018/09/10/a-pedagogy-of-translanguaging.
Hesson, Sarah, Kate Seltzer, and Heather H. Woodley. "Translanguaging in Curriculum and Instruction: A CUNY-‐NYSIEB Guide for Educators." CUNY-NYSIEB. New York (2014).
Wheeler, Rebecca S., and Rachel Swords. "Codeswitching: Tools of language and culture transform the dialectally diverse classroom." Language Arts. 81.6 (2004): 470-480.