Translanguaging &
Bilingual Learners
Translanguaging according to García (2009) "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" (p.45). A translanguaging classroom is any classroom in which students are invited to deploy their full linguistic repertoire, not just the particular language(s) that are officially used for instructional purposes in that space. The attention in these classrooms is focused on the students and the ways in which they make meaning of instruction and their lives, not simply on a language to be learned.
Seltzer et al., 2025, p3.
What Is Translanguaging?
Translanguaging is a term that can be used to describe the complex and dynamic languaging practices of bilingual people. As a theory of language, translanguaging holds that bilingual people have ONE unitary bank of language resources--their linguistic repertoire. They use this linguistic repertoire fluidly to make choices about how they communicate.
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In a classroom, this might look like students reading in one language and flexibly using other languages to discuss the text. It might look like a student intentionally using the word "abuela" in their writing instead of "grandma" because "abuela" evokes a specific feeling. It is also the many unobservable sense-making processes that happen in a child's mind in which they use all of their linguistic resources.
The important thing to remember is that translanguaging privileges the internal perspective of the bilingual person! It is focused on their internal languaging processes as opposed to constantly framing those processes within the languages that are officially taught in school.
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A stance is the belief system that teachers draw from to inform their practice.
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Teachers with a translanguaging stance believe that all of students' linguistic resources work together as a resource. They have a student-centered view of language that sees bilingual students as weaving their own art through their languaging practices (García & Wei, 2018) and recognizes their many linguistic strengths.
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A translanguaging stance stands in contrast to a view of bilingual people as two monolinguals in one. It recognizes that people's languages develop differently based on their contexts and that students should not be expected to develop into a perfectly balanced bilingual.
What is a Translanguaging Stance?
1. Students' language practices and cultural understandings (from home, communities, and school) work together
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2. Students' families and communities are valuable sources of knowledge and must be involved in the education process juntos
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3. The classroom is a democratic space were teachers and students juntos co-create knowledge, challenge traditional hierarchies, and work toward a more just society
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Seltzer et al, 2025, p. 56
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Translanguaging Corriente
Bilingual students always have their full linguistic repertoires and meaning-making resources at their disposal to navigate the demands of school. A classroom with bilingual students, then, always contains a dynamic flow of students’ bilingualism. Also referred to as the translanguaging corriente (García et al., 2017), the flow of students’ bilingualism is always in motion and adapting to the learning environment.
When intentionally cultivated, students can take part in the translanguaging corriente to deepen their learning, free to leverage all of their linguistic resources to make meaning. When students’ languaging is restricted to one named language, the corriente still flows–albeit covertly–as students make sense in the classroom using their linguistic repertoires in more discreet ways (García et al., 2017). ​
A translanguaging classroom is a space built collaboratively by the teacher and bilingual students as they use their different language practices to teach and learn in deeply creative and critical ways. (García et al, 2017, p2)
In a translanguaging classroom, students can still guided to produce written compositions exclusively in one named language. After all, this might align to their audience. However, the learning process can nurture the translanguaging corriente and encourage students to use all of their linguistic resources along the way in service of their learning. All parts of the Teaching and Learning Cycle can encourage translanguaging.
Translanguaging in the Teaching and Learning Cycle Can Look Like
Joint Construction
In their discussion, students might use features from multiple languages to work together to make decisions about what words to use and how to spell them.
Building the Field
Students can read texts in multiple languages to learn about a topic before writing a report. They can take notes in both languages and use all of their linguistic resources as they learn content before composing a report.
Independent Construction
In writing a fictional narrative, students might choose to include bilingual dialogue to reflect the languaging practices of bilingual characters.