Session 2: What is translanguaging?

Summary

Dr. Athelia Garcia explains translanguaging as the use of a child's full linguistic repertoire to make meaning without distinguishing between languages. She differentiates it from code-switching, emphasizing its internal, strategic nature beneficial for bilingual education. Garcia advocates for leveraging children's language resources in teaching, suggesting it's applicable for all teachers and programs, including monolingual teachers who can act as co-learners. She stresses the importance of designing bilingual spaces and allowing for language interaction to develop children's language, knowledge, and social-emotional identities, contributing to a more equitable society.

Takeaways

• 🗣️ Translanguaging allows bilingual children to use their full linguistic repertoire to make meaning, without rigidly distinguishing between languages.
• 📚 It is a pedagogical approach that encourages students to read in one language and discuss or write in another, utilizing all their language resources.
• 🔄 Translanguaging is different from code-switching, which is an external viewpoint about switching between named languages, while translanguaging is an internal process based on a unified language system.
• 🎓 Bilingual children have one language system with linguistic features associated with both languages, and they learn to suppress certain features depending on the context.
• 🧠 Translanguaging leverages students' full communicative resources, allowing them to learn and perform better in both languages.
• 👩‍🏫 Monolingual and bilingual teachers can both implement translanguaging, though monolingual teachers may need to rely more on community resources, technology, and student input.
• 💻 With tools like Google Translate, monolingual teachers can also engage in co-learning with students, allowing them to learn from the children's diverse linguistic resources.
• 🔍 Translanguaging is not random; it is a strategic and intentional process, requiring planning for specific learning objectives in the classroom.
• 📖 In dual-language or bilingual programs, there needs to be space for students to use both languages together, compare them, and experience them in interrelation, reinforcing their bilingual identity.
• 🌍 Translanguaging can be transformative, shifting how students view bilingualism and allowing them to see their languages as intertwined parts of their authentic selves, rather than as separate entities.

Q & A

What is translanguaging?

Translanguaging is the use of a bilingual individual's full linguistic repertoire to make meaning, without viewing their languages as entirely separate systems. It involves the fluid use of linguistic resources from different languages for learning and communication.

How does translanguaging differ from code-switching?

Translanguaging and code-switching are different in that code-switching involves switching between distinct languages based on external social or national language boundaries, while translanguaging is an internal, psychological process where bilinguals use their full linguistic resources as a single system.

What role does translanguaging play in education?

Translanguaging can be used as a pedagogical tool to leverage students' bilingual abilities. It allows students to use their linguistic resources flexibly, such as reading in one language and discussing or writing in another, to enhance their understanding and learning.

Can monolingual teachers use translanguaging in their classrooms?

Yes, monolingual teachers can use translanguaging by leveraging students' linguistic resources and creating opportunities for them to use their full linguistic abilities. Teachers may rely on students, parents, community resources, and technology to support this process.

What is the relationship between translanguaging and social justice?

Translanguaging promotes a more equitable society by challenging linguistic hierarchies and allowing students to see their bilingualism as an asset. It fosters a more inclusive environment where different languages are valued equally, contributing to social justice and fairness.

What is the significance of planning in translanguaging pedagogy?

Effective translanguaging requires strategic planning, where teachers intentionally design opportunities for students to use their full linguistic repertoire. This involves setting specific translanguaging objectives alongside language and content objectives to facilitate deeper learning.

How can translanguaging be applied in dual language bilingual classrooms?

In dual language bilingual classrooms, translanguaging can be used to allow students to perform in both languages while maintaining flexibility. Teachers can compare and contrast languages, use bilingual texts, and create spaces for students to experience their languages together.

What are the challenges for monolingual teachers using translanguaging?

Monolingual teachers may face challenges in translanguaging since they cannot rely on their own knowledge of the students' other languages. They must be co-learners, relying on students' linguistic abilities, community support, and technological tools to help students make meaning.

How does translanguaging transform students' perceptions of their languages?

Translanguaging helps students see their languages as interconnected rather than separate. This transformation enables them to appreciate the fluidity and completeness of their bilingual identities, rather than viewing one language as superior to the other.

What is the role of bilingualism in translanguaging?

Bilingualism is central to translanguaging, as it taps into the natural interaction between languages that bilingual individuals experience. It promotes the idea that bilinguals use all their language resources together, enhancing communication and learning in both languages.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Introduction to Translanguaging and Its Definition

Athelia Garcia introduces herself as a professor of urban education and begins discussing the concept of translanguaging. She defines translanguaging as the use of a child's full linguistic repertoire to create meaning, emphasizing that bilingual children possess a single language system with features from multiple languages. She contrasts translanguaging with code-switching, explaining that translanguaging is an internal, psychological process, whereas code-switching is an external phenomenon tied to national language boundaries.

05:05

📚 Translanguaging as a Pedagogical Approach

Garcia elaborates on translanguaging as a pedagogical tool that leverages bilingual children’s language abilities, allowing them to switch between languages when reading, writing, or discussing content. She emphasizes that translanguaging is not random but strategic, designed to help children fully utilize their linguistic resources for learning. The focus is on ensuring that children use all available language resources to foster understanding and educational development, which differs from the traditional view of code-switching.

10:05

👩‍🏫 Can Everyone Use Translanguaging?

Garcia addresses whether translanguaging is limited to bilingual educators and students, asserting that any teacher, including monolingual teachers, can adopt a translanguaging approach. She emphasizes the importance of a co-learner mindset, where the teacher recognizes the linguistic resources students bring to the classroom. While monolingual teachers may need to rely more on student input and external resources, they can still implement translanguaging effectively. However, their approach will differ from that of bilingual teachers.

🌍 The Role of Technology and Community in Translanguaging

Garcia discusses the role of technology and community in facilitating translanguaging, particularly for monolingual teachers. She stresses that translanguaging is crucial for helping children develop language skills, knowledge, and identities. It also contributes to creating a more equitable society by challenging linguistic hierarchies. Even in English-medium programs, it’s important to incorporate students’ native languages to enhance learning and ensure language development is inclusive of their full repertoire.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Dual Language Bilingual Classrooms

Garcia explains that dual-language programs must ensure students have opportunities to practice both languages. However, she cautions against isolating languages completely, as bilingual students do not function as two monolinguals but as bilingual individuals. Teachers should design bilingual spaces that allow students to use both languages flexibly, acknowledging that different students may be at varying levels of proficiency. This flexibility fosters a deeper understanding of bilingualism and supports the students' bilingual identity.

📖 Translanguaging in Practice: Bringing Two Languages Together

In bilingual instruction, Garcia suggests incorporating activities that bring both languages together, such as comparing languages, reading bilingual texts, or writing plays in two languages. She highlights the importance of providing students with experiences where both languages are used simultaneously, reflecting their authentic bilingual lives. This approach helps students understand how to navigate different audiences and purposes while utilizing their full linguistic repertoire.

🔄 Translanguaging as Transformation, Not Just a Scaffold

Garcia concludes by emphasizing that translanguaging should not be viewed only as a scaffold to support English instruction but as a transformative practice. It reshapes how we think about bilingualism and helps children see both languages as integral to their identity, rather than treating them as separate entities. Translanguaging is a strategy that promotes deeper understanding and development, influencing both how children perceive their languages and how they interact with the world.

Keywords

💡Translanguaging

Translanguaging is the use of a bilingual individual's full linguistic repertoire to make meaning without strictly separating languages. In the video, it is described as a method where bilingual children leverage all their language skills fluidly, for example, reading in one language and writing in another. The concept is central to the discussion, emphasizing its role in education and pedagogy.

💡Linguistic repertoire

Linguistic repertoire refers to the complete set of language skills and features that a person can use for communication. In the video, this term is used to highlight how bilingual children have a single, unified language system, which they draw from depending on the communicative situation. It emphasizes the flexibility and range of language resources in translanguaging.

💡Code-switching

Code-switching is the act of alternating between two languages based on social or conversational contexts. The speaker contrasts code-switching with translanguaging, noting that while code-switching focuses on moving between distinct languages, translanguaging is an internal, fluid process where the bilingual speaker uses their language system as a whole.

💡Epistemological difference

Epistemological difference refers to the difference in understanding or conceptualization between two ideas or practices. In the video, the speaker mentions that code-switching and translanguaging are epistemologically different, with code-switching being externally imposed (by nation-states and schools) and translanguaging being an internal, psychological process reflecting how bilingual individuals actually think and communicate.

💡Pedagogy

Pedagogy refers to the method and practice of teaching. In the video, translanguaging is presented as a pedagogical strategy that leverages bilingual children’s full language capabilities to enhance learning. It emphasizes the role of teachers in strategically planning for translanguaging to aid children's educational development.

💡Monolingual teacher

A monolingual teacher is someone who speaks and teaches in only one language. The speaker explains that even monolingual teachers can apply translanguaging techniques in classrooms with bilingual students, though they may rely more on students, technology, and external resources to facilitate learning. This term highlights the adaptability of translanguaging pedagogy across different teacher profiles.

💡Dual language bilingual classroom

A dual language bilingual classroom is a setting where two languages are taught and used for instruction. The video emphasizes that such classrooms should incorporate translanguaging, allowing students to use both languages fluidly instead of isolating them. This helps students understand and navigate their bilingual identities more effectively.

💡Strategic translanguaging

Strategic translanguaging refers to the deliberate and planned use of translanguaging techniques to achieve educational goals. The speaker stresses that translanguaging should not be random, but thoughtfully integrated into lesson plans to help students make meaning and improve their performance in one or both languages. This idea is key to understanding translanguaging as a structured pedagogical tool.

💡Bilingual identity

Bilingual identity refers to the sense of self that a person develops based on their ability to navigate two languages and cultures. The speaker discusses how translanguaging helps students embrace their bilingual identity, recognizing both languages as interconnected and valuable. It contrasts with the traditional view of bilingualism as two separate linguistic systems.

💡Language hierarchy

Language hierarchy refers to the social ranking of languages, where some are considered more valuable or prestigious than others. In the video, the speaker argues that translanguaging can help dismantle these hierarchies by encouraging students to see both of their languages as equally important and interrelated. This concept is tied to the broader goal of creating a more just and equitable society.

Highlights

Translanguaging is the use of children's full linguistic repertoire to make meaning, without distinguishing one language from another.

Bilingual children have one language system with features associated with different languages, which they learn to suppress or activate based on communicative contexts.

Translanguaging is not random; it's strategic and serves as a pedagogy that uses students' linguistic resources to support learning.

Code-switching and translanguaging are epistemologically different. Code-switching is an external viewpoint focused on separate named languages, while translanguaging is internal, centered on the bilingual child's language system.

Translanguaging allows bilingual students to use all their language resources, for example, reading in one language and writing in another.

Monolingual teachers can also engage in translanguaging by leveraging students' linguistic resources and involving the community, parents, and technology.

Translanguaging in classrooms requires teachers to shift from being the sole authority to co-learners, facilitating the use of students' language resources.

Monolingual teachers can use strategies like relying on students, using texts and technology, and creating a classroom environment that values bilingualism.

In dual language or bilingual classrooms, there must be spaces for students to practice their languages, while also encouraging flexibility in how they use them.

Bilingual children should not experience their languages in isolation but as interconnected systems.

Bilingual programs should include opportunities to compare and contrast languages, which helps students understand relationships between them.

Teachers should design spaces in which students can perform in both languages, adapting language use to meet students at their proficiency levels.

Using bilingual texts or creating bilingual plays are examples of integrating both languages in the classroom, promoting authenticity in language use.

Translanguaging is not just a scaffold for learning content; it can be transformative, changing how students perceive bilingualism and their own identities.

Translanguaging challenges linguistic hierarchies, fostering an equitable approach to language learning and encouraging bilingual children to embrace their linguistic diversity.

Transcripts

hi my name is athelia Garcia I'm an a

professor of urban education here at the

Graduate Center and today I've been

asked to discuss translanguaging and

I've been this asked to discuss what it

is and who can do it

so let's start with the first question

that what is translanguaging so

translanguaging is the use of the

children's full linguistic repertoire to

make meaning without thinking of the

fact that they have one language that is

different from the other

so bilingual children have one language

system with linguistic features that of

course are associated with one language

or the other but they also learn to

suppress certain features depending on

the communicative situation in which

they're at friends languaging is also a

way of teaching a pedagogy a pedagogy

that builds on that on those fluent

language practices that bilingual

children have a pedagogy that allows

children for example to read in one

language and then discuss in another or

to read in one language and write in

another so a way of using all the

linguistic resources in order to make

meaning one question that we are often

asked here at Kuni nyship is whether

translanguaging means the same thing as

code-switching and of course code

switching and translanguaging are

epistemologically different the idea

being that when you code switch you are

really going from one named language one

national language to another and it is

an external viewpoint is the viewpoint

of nation-states of schools it's looking

in whereas translanguaging has a very

different meaning because

translanguaging is an internal viewpoint

what is it psychologically that

bilinguals have what is their mental

grammar like and the mental grammar of

course is constructed through social

interaction but indeed

what bilinguals have is one language

system with features that of course

correspond to one language or the other

so epistemologically they're very

different concepts because the co

code-switching

is external it's an external viewpoint

of languages translanguaging is internal

translanguaging has to do with what the

child has their resources the

communicative resources that children

have to make meaning to learn and that

teachers can then leverage in order to

teach so that is the first thing i

wanted to make explicitly talk about the

fact that we're not talking about

code-switching and we're not talking

about random translanguaging we're

talking about a strategic way to use the

children's full language repertoire all

their resources in order to get the

children's children to learn so it is it

is very different

another question that we're often asked

is whether translanguaging is something

that everyone can do or that teachers in

different types of programs can do and

of course the answer is yes if you have

a stance a belief that indeed bilingual

children have one language repertoire

that you cannot just add a whole

language whole but that indeed the

features are in a continuum that there

is an interaction among the features

then all programs can do that and all

teachers can do that and all children

can do that so the idea that a

monolingual teacher can do

translanguaging in classrooms of course

but it takes a different type of teacher

it takes a teacher who does not see

herself or himself as the authority in

the class it takes a teacher who can be

a co learner it takes a teacher who can

take the children's existing resources

and leverage them in order to make

meaning and make sure that they then

leap forward in in their performances

in one language or in two languages but

the idea being that anyone can do that

but that the way in which a bilingual

teacher does translanguaging and a way

in which a monolingual teacher does

translanguaging differs it differs

because the monolingual teacher has to

of course rely a lot more on the

children themselves on the community and

the parents on text that they can bring

in on technology to support the the

learning so that they have to do things

differently but today with all our

technology with Google Translate and

we're again I'm saying this with a

positioning of being a co learner so

that you have a stance that you can also

learn from the children because the

children are bringing in features and

understandings that you don't have then

if it's a two-way street

of course one contrast language and I

would say it's the only way to make

meaning and it is the one thing that

everybody needs to do in order to be to

successfully develop their language

develop their ways of knowing develop

content develop their social emotional

identities and of course I think for

society developing a more just society a

more equitable society that does not

establish these linguistic hierarchies

in which we often perform so that's as

far as teachers who are monolingual or

English medium education the idea of

course is that even if you are a teacher

in an English medium school if you have

children who bring other language

resources then you have to start there

in order to extend them you can't just

ignore them and think that the children

are going to appropriate this new

language without reference to what they

already have and how about a dual

English bilingual classroom notice that

I'm saying dual language bilingual and

the reason being that we want to

emphasize that the dual language type of

program is indeed a bilingual program

and again there is a need for spaces for

one language or the other especially if

you're dealing with teaching a language

that is minoritized so there has to be

opportunities affordances for the

children to be able to practice those

features and you as a teacher have to

encourage that but I think what cannot

happen is the complete isolation of the

two languages because my lingual

children live as bilingual individuals

they do not live as two monolingual in

one and therefore the idea has to be

that they have to really appropriate

this bilingual identity and they have to

be able to understand what the

differences are and if we don't put

those two languages alongside each other

if we don't build those relationships

then the children will never be able to

do it for themselves so there has to be

also a space in in a bilingual in a dual

language bilingual classroom or or even

in a transitional bilingual education

classroom to do two things one is of

course to design your spaces whether in

English or Spanish or Chinese or

Japanese or whatever other language

you're teaching but design those spaces

as spaces in which the children can

perform of course in those languages so

that they get practice performing in

those languages but at the same time

with some flexibility because not all

children will be at the same level and

you you have to adapt of course your

language use your languaging to whatever

the children are bringing so there has

to be some flexibility to shift at times

even though that the design has to be

clear again I'm repeating

translanguaging is not

random translanguaging is strategic its

meaning making you have to plan for it

just the same way that you plan your

language objectives and you plan your

content objectives you also have to plan

your translanguaging objectives and to

think of what are the strategies which

you are going to go through in this

guide what are the strategies then that

one needs to use in order to in order to

make sure that the children learn so so

one has to do it that way so besides a

shift and besides the design I think

that there's also space for some time

during bilingual instruction to doing

during dual language bilingual

instruction to put the two languages

together and that can be a number of

events it could be that once a day you

compare and contrast the languages of

the children if you don't put it

together for them who's going to do it

it could mean that you do that once a

day once a week but you have to help

them do that for themselves you have to

bring it together it could be that

during this space you read bilingual

authors who actually use the two

languages in inter relationship or that

you read a bilingual text with some in

English and some in whatever Japanese

because we have a Japanese visitor today

with us so that you have to be able to

give the children the experience that in

their bilingual lives length their

languages are not always experienced

separately that there are times in which

we experience our two languages together

so that you have to give them practice

doing that or they're writing a

bilingual a play in which the characters

speak different languages and they have

to learn that that it's all about

authenticity in the writing right so

that if you're writing for different

audiences sometimes you might have to do

it all in English sometimes you

might have to do it all in Chinese and

sometimes you will be speaking to a

bilingual audience some of whom speak

English and some of whom do not some of

whom speak Chinese and some of you of

whom do not and therefore you have to

learn to do this so I think it's very at

the translanguaging space is very

important also in a dual language

bilingual classroom because

translanguaging is not simply a scaffold

that i'm going to say this carefully

right translanguaging can be seen as a

scaffold especially in English medium

classrooms we see that a lot we use

translanguaging as a scaffold as a way

of making sure that the students

understand the lesson that is being

presented but translanguaging can also

be transformative it can transform the

ways in which we think about

bilingualism it can transform the ways

in which children think about themselves

not thinking that one language is more

important than the other but seeing them

in incomplete interrelationship and as

part of their authentic beings rather

than being two very separate languages