Translanguaging is a pedagogical tool that empowers students to critically, flexibly and creatively use their full repertoire of languages in a multilingual learning environment. Students communicate and make meaning of a new language by drawing on and intermingling specific linguistic features from their known languages. Especially in a classroom, where students are not yet able to express themselves in the target language, making use of their own home language supports them to understand the concepts and participate and make progress in their learning.
Translanguaging fosters students’ agency by seeing every student’s culture and home language as a resource for learning. Cen Williams and his colleagues coined the Welsh term “trasweithu” to allow Welsh and English to be simultaneously used in the classroom. They created several strategies so that students e.g. brainstorm in one language and write in another.
Outcomes: We will be having a close look at the meaning of translanguaging by applying several strategies and setting up a choice of reflection questions to support teaching and learning.