The translanguaging school

When schools welcome bilingual students’ home languages, students are better able to learn new content and feel connected to their schools. 

Students who come to U.S. schools speaking a language other than English offer a wealth of experiences and knowledge. Their presence and participation in U.S. classrooms enrich discussions across subject areas. Teachers and researchers are increasingly recognizing the assets these children bring and the contributions they can make to their classrooms and schools (e.g., García & Kleyn, 2016; Sembiante & Tian, 2021).

In the past, educators have tried to help these newcomer students adapt to life in the U.S. by insisting on “English-only” policies, thinking that this would encourage students to learn the new language quickly. But research shows us that newcomers who are immersed in English for most of the day benefit from having opportunities to express themselves and share what they know in their own language. Not only can this boost morale, but it also enables students to continue to learn at their grade level without waiting to learn enough English to keep up with content. Using a familiar language to support their learning in English enables students to take advantage of the knowledge they bring. But how can schools tap into this resource when students are new to English?

An approach that is gaining traction in classrooms across the country — translanguaging — supports students to draw on the languages they bring to the classroom even as they learn English. By moving between languages and using all the meaning-making resources they have, students can share what they know, learn content, and develop disciplinary literacy, even as newcomers to U.S. classrooms (Hernandez Garcia, in press; Ramírez & Jaffee, 2022). How does this work?

Translanguaging in practice

Over the last five years, we have been working with middle school teachers to support students’ translanguaging in social studies classrooms (Hernandez Garcia & Schleppegrell, 2021; Schleppegrell et al., 2023) as they were learning how to investigate social, civic, and historical issues using an inquiry-based model we developed called Read.Inquire.Write. The free curriculum includes 15 units (“investigations”), each one guided by a compelling question in world geography, ancient world history, or U.S. history. As students engage in an inquiry, they connect their experiences and knowledge to the inquiry topic, get oriented to content related to the topic, read and evaluate complex sources about the topic, use sources to develop claims supported by evidence and reasoning, and write arguments grounded in evidence.

As teachers implement inquiries, we support them in developing a translanguaging stance (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017) that encourages students to draw on all their meaning-making resources, including the languages they know and the ones they are learning. To support all students’ engagement in reading, writing, and discussion, the curriculum includes disciplinary literacy tools, language-accommodated texts in English, and translations of instructional materials in Arabic and Spanish, all available free to anyone who registers on the Read.Inquire.Write. website.

Most recently, we conducted research in a Michigan school district where many students are of Middle Eastern origin. Because of ongoing immigration, most classrooms include learners at varied levels of English and Arabic proficiency. In that context, teachers’ translanguaging stance is an important way to acknowledge the value of students’ developing bilingualism and the cultural assets students bring to the challenging work of inquiry.

For example, Arabic-speaking social studies 6th-grade teacher Ms. Sobh collaborated with Mina in a yearlong study in her class of 23 Arabic-speaking emergent bilingual students. She demonstrated her translanguaging stance by inviting students to use the language of their choice and offering curriculum materials translated into Arabic. Both Ms. Sobh and Mina frequently encouraged students to draw on all their languages. Exchanges like this were typical:

SOBH (to the whole class): So, we have Arabic [materials]. Mina is to go through certain parts in English and then I, and also any one of you, will translate in Arabic. OK?

FARIDA: I can’t read Arabic.

SOBH: But you do understand it.

MINA: And, also when you are talking in pairs or small groups, you can use Arabic or English. So, feel free to use Arabic.

SOBH: Remember, you can use Arabic if you don’t know how to write it in English. You can speak Arabic when you don’t know how or what the word is in English or use both English and Arabic.

Ms. Sobh also asked students who could read Arabic to read the bilingual texts aloud. Reflecting on the benefits of this strategy for all students, including recently arrived students new to English and Arabic-speaking students who did not read Arabic, she reported:

I think it is important, to hear it, to listen to it in both languages. Being bilingual, understanding the content, not just in English, but also in Arabic, was supportive for them. And then listening to one another when they are responding and writing and then sharing out verbally, I think that was important for them to be able to comprehend.

Even bilingual students who are fluent in social English are still developing the language of social studies and benefit from translanguaging. Hassan, a student who has been in the U.S. for four years, told Mina in an interview, using Arabic, how bilingual curriculum materials helped him learn:

إذا كلمة،يعني زاي إذا ما عرفتها، بروح العربي بأرجع، بأشوف شو هي الكلمة

[If there is a word, like if there is a word that I didn’t know, I go to the Arabic, I go back, I see what the word is.]

Teachers who do not share students’ languages can still present a stance that bilingualism is valued by offering translation technologies. For example, one teacher reported that when she worked with a newcomer from Vietnam, a language she does not speak, she supported his use of an online translation tool. He could type text from instructional materials in English into the tool so he would understand the lesson’s focus. To demonstrate his learning, he typed in his responses in Vietnamese, and the tool translated them back to English for the teacher. Translation tools like this can help newcomers understand what is going on in the classroom, build knowledge in different subjects, and communicate with other students when they are not yet able to do so in English. The key is to encourage students to draw on all their languages to learn the new subject-area material. This practice enables all students to work at their grade level while still developing their English abilities.

Students taking agency

Establishing a translanguaging classroom is not a matter of simply inviting students to use all their language resources and providing translated materials. Students who have been in the U.S. for a while may not have developed the language of subject areas in other languages they speak. And in classrooms where multiple languages other than English are spoken, the teacher cannot monitor and encourage every interaction. For translanguaging to become a norm, newcomers to English and bi/multilingual students need to feel empowered to set their own course.

For translanguaging to become a norm, newcomers to English and bi/multilingual students need to feel empowered to set their own course.

Having students who speak the same language work together is a beginning, but good grouping takes careful planning. Newcomers to U.S. classrooms and to English are quite diverse. Some were already working at grade level in their previous schools, while others may have had interrupted schooling. The language and concepts of the discipline they are learning may be entirely new to them. (Consider, for example, such concepts from social studies as the reliability of a source for answering a compelling question or seeking evidence to support a claim.) Hearing subject-specific language in both English and the other language(s) they speak is important for supporting translanguaging.

Thinking about intentional pairing of students with different experiences of using Arabic for such purposes, Ms. Sobh said:

the fact that some are stronger in the Arabic language and . . . bringing that with them is beneficial for themselves and for other students that may have not had the opportunity to have some form of formal education. So, I think that’s an incentive to have in the classroom . . . using it together is important to be able to build your language, to be able to build your vocabulary, get stronger in both languages over time.

In an investigation of hazardous child labor in Nepal, Ms. Sobh paired Arabic-speaking students who were new to English with peers who had already been in the U.S. for several years to analyze an interview, conducted by a nongovernmental organization working in Nepal, with 12-year-old Kumar, who works in a brickyard there.

During this activity, newly arrived Basam talked with Samir, a student who had been in the U.S. since he was two years old. Both speak Arabic, and the teacher paired them so that Samir’s willingness to use Arabic and Basam’s ability to read Arabic would encourage both students to participate through translanguaging. Together, they thought about the question, “What does Kumar help you understand about why hazardous child labor continues to exist in Nepal?”

Samir got the conversation started:

كان الأطفال يشتغلوا الأشغال الخطيرة

[Children were working in those dangerous jobs.]

BASAM:

ليه؟ قل لي. لماذا تعتقد أن الأطفال ممكن أن يعملون في وظائف التي ممكن أن تكون خطيرة؟ ليه؟ قل لي

[Why? Tell me. Why do you think these children might work in jobs that can be dangerous? Why? Tell me.]

SAMIR:

يحصلو على المال

[To make money.]

BASAM:

ولا يساعدوا أهلهن صح؟

[Or to help their parents, right?]

Using Arabic enabled both boys to engage with the question and share their ideas as they identified evidence to develop claims and arguments. Both identified points that were relevant to the investigation. Reflecting on pairing Basam and Samir to work together, Ms. Sobh shared:

The [newcomer] students, they do need the Arabic, and [the newcomers and bilingual students] support one another in English and in Arabic. So those students that I put next to [the newcomers] understand Arabic much better than other students . . . and they’re able to help each other. [Basam and Samir] were successful in sitting with one another during this investigation because Samir helped with the Arabic and then Basam was listening to the English language as well and then read in Arabic.

Translanguaging helps students new to U.S. schools to participate in their classes, while encouraging other students to learn from them, get to know them better, and see them as the knowledgeable learners that they are. For example, when students were exploring the investigation question, “How should we define the Middle East as a region?” they recognized that Basam, who had just arrived from Yemen, had expertise that they did not. Students shared with Mina that Basam helped them learn more about current life in Yemen. Similarly, Yasir, who had been in the U.S. for five years and did not read Arabic, said that because of working with Yardan, a newcomer to U.S. schools, “I’m learning more Arabic. [Yardan] helped me in Arabic, like some words he read for Arabic, and I help him in English.”

Through translanguaging, newcomer students are no longer silenced but instead have opportunities to continue enhancing their bilingual resources. Students in a productive translanguaging classroom can work together to help each other learn English as they learn content, engage in new disciplinary practices, and develop as bilingual individuals.

Celebrating communities schoolwide

Because the default expectation in many schools is that newcomers need to learn English and therefore should be pushed to use only English, school leaders should send the clear message that the use of languages other than English is welcome (Seltzer & de los Ríos, 2021). They can accomplish this by creating an environment that celebrates the diversity of cultures and languages within the school, for example, by displaying pictures, flags, students’ artwork, and bulletin boards with multicultural themes. Displaying students’ work in different languages helps students feel a sense of pride in their languages and cultures. The media center can offer books, magazines, and other materials in multiple languages to support subject-area reading and viewing. The school can strive to hire bilingual teachers and paraprofessionals and provide bilingual instructional materials. Teachers and school staff need to be prepared to welcome all student languages, both in social situations and for subject-matter learning.

Welcoming translanguaging helps schools make stronger connections to students’ home language communities. Forging partnerships with community members who speak students’ languages can create support for translanguaging in the classroom and strengthen the bond between school and community. The school can promote a strong relationship among students, teachers, and community members by encouraging parents and guardians to talk with students about schoolwork in their shared language and by inviting guest speakers and volunteers from the community to interact with students about what they are learning.

Translanguaging helps students new to U.S. schools to participate in their classes, while encouraging other students to learn from them, get to know them better, and see them as the knowledgeable learners that they are.

In our experiences across school districts over the past five years, we have seen school administrators, teachers, students, and parents and guardians welcome translanguaging. Yasir, for example, reported to Mina that he told his father he had learned to talk about sources being reliable موثوق [reliable] and ير موثوقة [unreliable]. He said his father was “surprised and proud” of him and commended him for his learning.

Creating a translanguaging school that recognizes what students bring from their past and present while supporting their futures as bilingual citizens takes effort and planning, but it offers rewards in students’ full participation in classroom learning and stronger partnerships with students’ home language communities. These practices enable students, families, and communities to take pride in themselves and in their students’ accomplishments.

Note: Dialogues in this article are transcribed from classroom observations. False starts and hesitations have been removed and some statements have been edited slightly for clarity and conciseness. Translations appear in italics immediately following the Arabic text. All students’ names are pseudonyms.

References

García, O., Johnson, S.I., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon.

García, O. & Kleyn, T. (Eds.). (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. Taylor & Francis.

Hernandez Garcia, M. (in press). A newcomer emergent bilingual learner engaging in disciplinary inquiry practices through translanguaging. In A.T. Jaffee & C. Salinas (Eds.), Teaching culturally and linguistically relevant social studies with and for emergent bilingual and multilingual youth: Examining the past, present, and future. Teachers College Press.

Hernandez Garcia, M. & Schleppegrell, M.J. (2021). Culturally sustaining disciplinary literacy for bi/multilingual learners: Creating a translanguaging social studies classroom. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 64 (4), 449-454.

Ramírez, P.C. & Jaffee, A.T. (2022). Creating language spaces with bilingual youth to expand conversations about students’ communities and civic experiences. International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, 25 (7), 2347-2362.

Schleppegrell, M.J., Hernandez Garcia, M., AL-Banna, S., & Monte-Sano, C. (2023). Register and agency in translanguaging: Middle school bilingual learners engaging in social studies inquiry. University of Michigan.

Seltzer, K. & de los Ríos, C.V. (2021). Understanding translanguaging in US literacy classrooms: Reframing bi-/multilingualism as the norm. National Council of Teachers of English.

Sembiante, S.F. & Tian, Z. (2021). Culturally sustaining approaches to academic languaging through systemic functional linguistics. Language and Education, 35 (2), 101-105.

This article appears in the October 2023 issue of Kappan, Vol. 105, No. 2, p. 8-12.