translanguaging as a pedagogical tool

1. Student: Castagneto, Luján - Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar Date: 27/09/2021
PRACTICEII, DIDACTICS OF ELT and PracticumPrimary School
level. AdjuntoRegular a/c Prof. EstelaN. Braun(2021).
PRACTICAL 6: TRANSLANGUAGING AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL.
Questionnaire
Explain Translanguaging with Multilingual Students, Garcia and Kleyn
(2016), Routledge, London. Chapter 1.
Deadline: Monday, September 27th.
It can be written in pairs.
a) How does Garcia define named languages and their relationship with the
linguistic system? How do they develop?
When Garcia talks about “named languages” she refers to socially, not
linguistic, constructed categories like, for example, “English”, “Spanish”,
among others. “Named languages” are coined terms that refer to socially
invented entities which have real and material effects, especially the
negative effects these terms have had on minority languages. She makes a
clear distinction between the “named language” a person speaks and the
individual’s own linguistic system, which is defined in terms of lexical and
structural features (words, sounds) that allow speakers to perform
communicative functions (speak, write, read, etc.) and it is shaped by each
individual’s social interaction throughout their lives. Mostly, it can be said
that people who speak the same named language have similar linguistic
systems but it can occur that two people who are said to speak the same
named language have very different linguistic systems resulting in
communicative misunderstandings.
b) What are the two views on bilingualism she develops?
Garcia goes against the common idea that bilinguals have two linguistic
systems which correspond, respectively, to different named languages; she
states that while bilinguals do have two named languages (the way society
sees it), they just have one single unified linguistic system. She invites the
audience to think of the educational movement that is “translanguaging” as
“going beyond” the 2,3, or more named languages of bilinguals, trilinguals

2. Student: Castagneto, Luján - Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar Date: 27/09/2021
and multilinguals, and to consider them as individuals with a single linguistic
system.
c) What were the origins of translanguaging?
Cen Williams, a Welsh educator, came up with the term “translanguaging”
while trying a different take on bilingualism in education. Williams wanted
students to make a greater use of Welsh and English, so they acquired
knowledge in one language and communicated the information in the other;
he provided opportunities for students to interchange the languages of the
input and the output, instead of always using just a specific language for a
certain situation.
d) Explain Cummins’ Interdependence Hypothesis and its impact on
bilingual education.
According to Cummins and his Interdependence Hypothesis, if a learner has
already learned a language, their mother tongue, they are also capable of
learning a second one, and this second one should come easier to them,
which enables them to transfer concepts from one language to the other. He
stated that there was an “Common Underlying Proficiency between the
languages of bilinguals that allowed for transfer to occur” (Garcia and Kleyn,
2016), without mattering the language in which academic content was
thought, there was an increase in the general knowledge of a student . His
theories supported bilingual education proving that what was learned in one
language didn’t have to be taught in another, and thanks to his influential
hypothesis, bilingual education greatly expanded during the 20th century. On
the downside, his earlier works were used to support double
monolingualism. Towards the second half of the 20th century, sequential and
simultaneous introduction of a second language were developed where the
two languages were always taught in separate circumstances (separate
times, place, different subjects and teachers). National languages were
learned at home, in isolation, and speakers had to transfer from one
language to the other.
At the end of the 20th century, Welsh educators encouraged students to use
English and Welsh interrelated, building in this way an integrated bilingual
Welsh identity.
e) Explain code-switching and its pedagogical validity following Gumperz
(1976) as explained by Garcia & Kleyn.
Following Gumperz (1976), code-switching is a way in which bilinguals use
two separate languages that belong to two different linguistic systems.
Gumperz (1982) defines code-switching as “the juxtaposition within the
same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different
grammatical systems or subsystems''. Garcia & Kleyn explain that only in
situations in which students do not understand the lesson, code-switching
would be pedagogically valid.

3. Student: Castagneto, Luján - Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar Date: 27/09/2021
f) How is Garcia’s (2009, 2016) theory of translanguaging different from
code-switching? Quote it and explain it via the examples provided.
Garcia’s (2009, 2016) theory of translanguaging differs from code-switching
in that instead of taking into account just two named languages that
constitute two linguistic systems, translanguaging centres around a bilingual
individual who doesn’t have two linguistic systems but a complex and
dynamic one that he/she then separates into two named languages (defined
by social factors). Garcia (2009) says that translanguaging “is an approach
to bilingualism that is centered, not on languages as has often been the
case, but on the practices of bilinguals that are readily observable”. For
them, Garcia & Kleyn (2016), “translanguaging refers to the deployment of a
speaker’s full linguistic repertoire, which does not in any way correspond to
the socially and politically defined boundaries of named languages”. The
features belong to the bilingual individual who has just one linguistic system.
In a bilingual home, for someone who uses words such as friend, planta,
earth, comida, etc, those are simply their words, they do not belong to
Spanish nor English, they just belong to the bilingual’s linguistic system, they
are their words. Outside their home, bilinguals differentiate which word
belongs to their respective language, and they know that not everyone
shares the same linguistic repertoire, so they know which element to choose
in a certain situation.
g) Why is translanguaging important to build a more equitable society? How
do linguistic repertoires and socially named languages relate?
Translanguaging helps in taking down language hierarchies which are
socially constructed and that are responsible for the eradication of
languages spoken by minorities. Translanguaging encourages multilingual
practices and for educators to help bilingual students deepen their language
repertoire and achieve full understanding of content and develop their
language performances. Sometimes the language used in teaching only
considers correct certain lexical and structural features, leaving those used
by minorities, poor and non-white people, aside and making them powerless
and championing powerful speakers, which leads to social and educational
inequality. But translanguaging takes into account bilinguals’ full linguistic
repertoire while showing them when, with who, where, and why to use
certain features and not others allowing them to perform according to social
norms of named languages; building in this way a better and more just
world. Regarding named languages, in the translanguaging model, “they
have material and social reality, but not linguistic reality” (Otheguy, García &
Reid, 2015), which means that there are no features in words like “casa” that
make them Spanish and not English.
h) What is the importance of translanguaging as a pedagogical tool?
The importance of translanguaging as a pedagogical tool is that both
languages, no only just one, are accepted in all social and communicative

4. Student: Castagneto, Luján - Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar Date: 27/09/2021
situations. It is not that we can acquire an identity if we use one or another
language. There is a single identity made up of linguistic features that socially,
from an external perspective, are seen as Welsh or English. We cannot teach
unless both languages are used. William’s pedagogical strategy consists of
giving students practice in selecting features from their language repertoire to
perform a task in one or another language to deepen bilingual performances
and knowledge. It feeds and expands the child’s full language repertoire.
i) What elements should be part of a translanguaging design?
it requires 3 elements
● Constructing collaborative and cooperative structures
● Collecting varied multilingual and multimodal instructional
resources
● Using translanguaging pedagogical practices.
The design must have social interaction among classmates because the
children’s repertoire is not static but emerges through social interaction.
It must capitalize on collaboration among students that allows students to
appropriate new language features when they have opportunities to
interact with others who share a common language. Collaboration and
the use of the students’ full repertoire promotes the Biligual Zone of
Proximal Development. To design translanguaging instruction also is
necessary to bring the community into the school and invite them to
share their readings, stories, teachings, experiences, and funds of
knowledge.
j) How important is it in terms of assessment?
It is extremely important. Language in assesment, and especially in
summative assessment, usually responds to the definition of language as
handed down by state authorities. Translanguaging theory offers a way
os separating 2 ways of understanding language in assessment. On one
hand, there are lexical and structural features that schools helped
standarize and that make up what is then accepted ass English, Russian,
Spanish, etc. On the other hand, there are the bilingual speakers’ own
language features that go beyond the bounded designation of what is
considered one or the other language but that speakers can use to carry
out linguistic tasks. Translanguaging theory helps teachers to separate
“language-specific performances” in the named language - Spanish,
English - from “general linguistic performances” that is the students’
abilities to argue a point, express inferences, communicate thoughts, tell
a story, identify main ideas, etc.
We would be able to assess if a bilingual student uses lexicon and
linguistic structures of a specific-named language in socially and
academically appropriate ways. And we would be able to assess i f they
are able to perform linguistically to engage in academic and social tasks
regardless of the language features used, meaning, the general linguistic
performance.

5. Student: Castagneto, Luján - Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar Date: 27/09/2021
k) Why is it important to support translanguaging in multilingual
classrooms?
Translanguaging offers opportunities to transform these English-medium
programs into multilingual programs by including linguistic practices that
are associated with Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) Teachers
use translanguaging as scaffold towards English and bilingual teachers
have always been under attack for their use of a language other than
English in instructions. Translanguaging theory reflects the ways in which
they use language as victims of the symbolic violence that schools have
exerted on them. It is important to support the sense of language that
sees national languages as important and in need of development. Thus,
bilingual education programs usually have very strict boundaries
between the two languages, responding to the traditional understandings
of bilingualism. By putting the two named languages alongside each
other, students develop the capacity to analyze their own language
practices, to foster their metalinguistic awareness and it also help them
to become critical discourse analysts reflecting on which feature to use to
maximize communication among different communities of practice.
Translanguagin theory will always expand bilingual education to become
Multilingual education and beyond. In bilingual education classrooms that
choose translanguaging, the English and the LOTE spaces must include
all the language features of the students, regardless of how they are
named. Translanguaging has the potential to transform not only the
education landscape, but also our social landscape that is increasingly
becoming more inequitable.
l) Explain Flores (2014) quote.
“Let us not forget that translanguaging is a political act”
It means that as every political discourse, it has to encourage people to
support it. It has to share an ideology that coincides with what teachers
beliefs. Through its discourse, translanguaging can move masses that in
a near future will support it and spread its ideology.