3 Reasons Why Schools Should Adopt a Translanguaging Approach

Translanguaging. A word that makes you cock your head to one side and say, “huh”. It’s a bewildering term.

For quite a while now I have been processing the concept Translanguaging and trying to find space within my existing paradigm to make room for this idea. On the surface, Translanguaging seems like it’s just a way to promote learning a target language, particularly English; but the more and more I learn about it, my understanding is deepened to grasp that this is more than about language. As my knowledge increases, the more I feel a battle cry roar up within me, and I want more schools to develop this approach. I have 3 main “why’s” for schools who serve multilingual students should adopt this approach.

Why #1-Accelerating learning

Many international schools are considered fancy language schools in the parents’ minds so if you know this perspective, it feels like a justifiable approach to learning English or other target languages. I think this is the main reason for schools’ rationale in using this approach is to facilitate the learning of a target language. As I prepare for a parent coffee on this topic, I know that this is my entry point for our discussions: it’s a more efficient way to learn. Moreover, it develops students’ critical thinking skills because students must use their metacognition skills in order to think deeply about language and within a language.

Why #2: Honoring identity and appreciating culture

Through the lens of Translanguaging, students are Thinkers and Communicators, not ELLs or EALs. When we apply those kinds of labels, it is to see them through the lens of a deficit model of what they are “acquiring”, not what they already have. That seems so 1-dimensional to think of students in this way.

When we remember that students come to us with a foundation of their home language and we are building upon it, we can harness their strengths and develop their confidence. Asking them to communicate in “English Only”, is asking them to deny who they are and the wealth of delight and richness that comes from their home language. As an IB educator, demanding students to speak and write in English doesn’t seem very “internationally-minded”, if you ask me. If we say we value other cultures, but deny one’s ability to communicate in their home language, then this seems like an act of cruelty, and an abuse of power. This leads me to my next Why….

Why #3: Promoting principles of diversity, inclusion, equity and justice

Although educators don’t swear the Hippocratic oath, I think all of us could agree that we wish to do no harm to our students. When we examine the ability to express ourselves relegated to the more desirable language in which an English-only policy pervades, it can be thought of as an act of oppression. I know some of you might have gasped at that thought but when you study the history of the English language, I don’t think it’s that far-fetched. When we preclude our students from using their full language repertoire, we are asking them to assimilate into a narrative that’s been promoted for hundreds of years.

“But English is the language of social mobility–it’s what parents want!”, you say. There is truth in that statement. Acquiring English is a status symbol and provides an advantage to many learners. I’m not denying that.

However, can you recognize that when we insist on “English-Only”, we are inadvertedly promoting the “whitening” of our students, making them feel ashamed for who they are and where they come from, diminishing their humanity?

Consider instead that there are opportunities within the layers of this hidden oppression to utilize translanguaging to bring out our students best selves. We CAN simultaneously promote academic language development AND honor the history and home languages of our students. It first begins with our own self-reflection as a pathway to change, and then challenging the institutional policies that propagate practices that deny the child to express their intelligence in a variety of ways.

Although I am grappling with this term and working hard to create value for it within our school community, I think translanguaging is the next step in our evolution, an inroad to de-colonizing our schools and cultivating a truly international-minded community.

Can you think of others reasons why schools should adopt this approach? Please share below so we can grow in our capacity to articulate this stance in our schools.