TRANSLANGUAGING EVERYWHERE

  
 What is translanguaging?

Translanguaging is considered an approach which consists of reading, listening, watching in one language and writing and speaking in another one. Both languages are equally integrated, so the aim of the translanguaging approach is to develop skills into a language (L2) by making a coherent use of both L1 and L2. In other words, translanguaging should not be used to avoid L2 use, but to foster speakers to develop their communication skills in L2 through their L1.

Personal experience

Personally, I can state I experienced the well-known translanguaging approach when I studied at my English academy. Specifically, my teacher used it for doing her classes. First of all, she explained all the English grammar in Spanish; then, we did and corrected the exercises in English, but our doubts were clarified in Spanish. Thereby, I could set links between English and Spanish grammar more easily than if all the theory would have been explained just in English. Actually, such approach was useful for me because I could link the similarities between English and Spanish language. Moreover, I go on using translanguaging to teach and learn  English grammar and vocabulary, since I have proved that it works. 

My research

Doing research on the translanguaging approach I could learn many things about it: 

•  “Translanguaging is about communication, not about language itself” (EAL Journal, 2016).

Many teachers concern about what to asses when applying a translanguaging approach, given that students are not making a complete use of a language; they are mixing both to communicate ideas. However, there is a clear solution for such worried teachers: they should learn to differentiate between language and communication skills when it comes to assess pupils. 

On the one hand, language skills make reference to all those aspect what take part of a language: grammar, vocabulary, idioms, etc. On the other hand, communication skills mean all related to oral and written skills, language strategies, etc. which allow us to express our ideas and understand the others. 

Teachers, therefore, should also consider translanguaging as a way of promoting students autonomy when communicating ideas in class.  If pupils are constantly interrupted by their teachers when they want to express something, they will lose their self-confidence when using their L2. Indeed, it is not as important the students’ language accuracy or fluency as their skills to use both languages are when it comes to building their own learning.  

• “Translanguaging pedagogy is about you and your students” (EAL Journal, 2016).

Nowadays, societies are more globalised than some years ago. As a consequence, multilingualism is rising up faster than we expect at schools. That’s why teachers should adjust their approaches to the real context of their classes. An alternative to that would be translanguaging. 

There are many students who are still learning the official language from the country they are currently living. For this reason, they have some difficulties in expressing themselves, which makes pupils’ confidence go down. In order to foster it, teachers must allow them to use their L1 when necessary. What’s more, teachers can take advantage of that to share cultural aspects about the countries students come from. For instance, I watched a video where a teacher uses translanguaging in a multilingual class. He sometimes speaks in Spanish to correct Maths exercises and even he says some French expressions. Furthermore, such teacher sticks on the whiteboard some steps that children must follow to do their Maths exercises in Spanish. To some extent, this is a way of scaffolding their learning through the language. Below you can watch the video I am talking about:

Translanguaging is also present in many places around the world. It is curious to observe many billboards or banners where Spanish is mixed to English. In fact, I realized that the famous “Spanglish” is not more than a way of translanguaging among English and Spanish societies. The following video shows different examples of that:

REFERENCES: 

EAL Journal (2016). What is translanguaging?. EAL Journal. Avalaible [online] on:
https://ealjournal.org/2016/07/26/what-is-translanguaging/