"Translanguaging: Teaching at the Intersection of Language and Social Justice." WIDA Focus Bulletin, WCER, University of WisconsinâMadison, Sept. 2020.
About the Original Article's Tone
This is a WIDA Focus Bulletin (Wisconsin Center for Education Research) - which means it's written for practitioners, not pure academia. The tone is professional and research-based, but more accessible than a journal article.
Research terminology (linguistic repertoire, languaging, dynamic bilingualism)
First-person educator testimonials (which makes it warmer than typical research)
Reflection questions after each section (meant to engage you in applying concepts)
Some Spanish terms intentionally left untranslated (cafecito, superpoder, corriente) to model translanguaging
A social justice frame throughout
The vibe: Like a well-educated colleague sharing research findings over coffee - professional but personable. Not dry theory, but not casual either. Think "TED talk in print form" rather than "peer-reviewed journal article."
It's definitely on the more engaging end of academic writing, but still expects you to engage with concepts like "deployment of linguistic repertoire" and "monolingual ideologies."
Visual Metaphor
Imagine this:
Two rivers meet in a valley and merge into a single current. The water swirls together. A child floats between the currents - sometimes one side, sometimes the other, sometimes right in the middle where the flow is strongest. Downstream, the river branches apart again, but the child moves fluidly between all of it. The boundaries aren't walls. The water flows.
What This Is Really About
You know how when you're talking to your bilingual friend and you both just... flow between languages mid-sentence? You say "Wait, how do I explain this..." and then switch to Spanish because that's where the perfect word lives? That's translanguaging.
Academic researchers act like they discovered this in the 2000s and gave it fancy names. They didn't discover anything. Multilingual humans have done this forever. What they DID do is measure it, validate it, and try to convince schools to stop punishing kids for doing what comes naturally.
The Core Idea
Kids who speak multiple languages don't have separate filing cabinets in their brains labeled "English" and "Spanish." They have one big linguistic toolbox, and they grab whatever tool makes sense in the moment. When we force them to only use English in class, we're literally tying one hand behind their back and then wondering why they struggle.
Why Schools Resist This
Because schools were built for monolingual kids. When you measure bilingual students against English-only benchmarks, you're setting them up to look deficient. It's like judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree.
The deeper issue is this: telling a kid "only speak English here" isn't just about language. It's about identity. Gloria AnzaldĂșa wrote about this in 1987 - when you shame someone for how they speak, you shame them for who they are.
What Actually Happens When Teachers Allow Translanguaging
The PDF shares four teachers who said "screw the language police, let's try this":
Michelle (Kindergarten, Illinois):
Calls translanguaging a "superpoder" - a superpower
Literally wears a cape when teaching about it
Her kindergarteners flow between languages naturally, like water finding its path
She noticed older kids have learned to artificially separate languages because school trained them to
Sonya (Special Ed, New Jersey):
Works with high school students who have learning disabilities AND are multilingual
Says when she lets them discuss The Outsiders in Spanish, they have MORE to say than English-only discussions
The text is in English, but the learning experience becomes multilingual
Her key insight: "My students still have to meet the standards... translanguaging allows them to do just that"
Demetrica (ESOL District Lead, Alabama):
Grew up in Georgia, taught in Puerto Rico, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama
Learns phrases in Filipino, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese to greet her students
Says taking away translanguaging = taking away culture and language
Views multilingual kids as community resources, not problems to fix
Mishelle (AP Spanish Lit, New Mexico):
Calls herself a "transguerrera" (trans-warrior)
Students read 19th century Spanish texts, discuss in English, annotate in both
Had students create poems combining words from Gloria AnzaldĂșa and their own words about border identity
Still covers the entire AP curriculum, just adds voices that have been silenced
What This Challenges
The monolingual ideology that says "English only" helps kids learn English faster. Research shows that's backwards. Kids become competent English speakers when we let them use ALL their language resources to make meaning - not when we force them to perform like monolingual kids.
The Survey Part
WIDA surveyed 447 educators in 2019:
Most approve of students using translanguaging
Weirdly, they're less comfortable with TEACHERS doing it (probably because we've been trained to model "proper" English)
Almost everyone already uses it in practice, even if they don't call it that
The Big Picture
Translanguaging isn't a teaching technique. It's a lens shift. It's recognizing that bilingual kids aren't "learning a second language" - they're developing a complex linguistic system that includes features from multiple languages. When we evaluate them against monolingual benchmarks, we're using the wrong measuring stick.
Every bilingual person in the world already does this. Schools are just catching up.
Key Quotes from the Source
"Translanguaging refers to the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named languages."
â Ofelia GarcĂa (2015)
"If you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identityâI am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself."
"My students still have to meet the standards... translanguaging allows them to do just that."
â Sonya, Special Education Teacher (WIDA Focus Bulletin)
"Translanguaging corrienteâthe flow of students' dynamic bilingualismâmoves fluidly and continuously between languages during communication and learning."
â GarcĂa, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer (2017)
"When we take that away from them, we are taking away their culture and their language... I look at these children as resources in our community."
â Demetrica, ESOL District Lead (WIDA Focus Bulletin)
Key Vocabulary
Languaging - The act of using language to make meaning of the world and to shape one's knowledge and experience (Swain, 2006). Simply: Using language to figure out the world - asking questions, making observations, thinking out loud. It's language as a verb, not a noun.
Translanguaging - The deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named languages (GarcĂa, 2015).
Simply: When bilingual people use all their languages at once, switching mid-sentence, grabbing words from wherever they live in your brain. It's the natural flow between languages without policing the borders.
Linguistic Repertoire - The complete range of language resources (languages, dialects, registers, styles) available to a multilingual speaker for communication and meaning-making. Simply: Your entire language toolbox - every language, dialect, slang, gesture, and way of speaking you've ever picked up. All of it counts.
Translanguaging Corriente - The flow of students' dynamic bilingualism; the fluid and continuous movement between languages during communication and learning (GarcĂa, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). Simply: The natural flow of language - like a stream current that never stops moving. Kids' language shifts and adapts constantly, like water finding its path.
Monolingual Ideology - Educational policies, practices, and beliefs that privilege monolingual norms and view language separation as ideal, often positioning multilingual practices as deficient or problematic. Simply: The assumption that "real" language use means speaking one pure language at a time. The belief that mixing languages is sloppy or incorrect. Basically, the language police mindset.
Unbounded Literacy - A literacy practice that moves fluidly across linguistic, modal, and experiential resources without being constrained by traditional boundaries between languages or modes of communication (GarcĂa & Kleifgen, 2019). Simply: Reading and writing that uses every resource you've got - your languages, your life experiences, gestures, images, whatever helps you make meaning. No artificial borders.
Agentive - Referring to the active, self-directed role a learner takes in their own learning process; exercising agency and autonomy. Simply: The student is in charge. They're actively making choices about how to use language, not just passively following rules.
Superpoder - [Spanish term used to reframe bilingualism as a linguistic asset and cognitive advantage rather than a deficit or challenge to be overcome.] Simply: Superpower. What Michelle the kindergarten teacher calls being bilingual - because it literally is a superpower.
Deficit Perspective - An orientation that focuses on students' perceived limitations or lacks rather than their strengths, resources, and capabilities; often applied to multilingual learners when compared to monolingual norms. Simply: Looking at kids and only seeing what they CAN'T do (don't speak perfect English yet) instead of what they CAN do (speak two languages, navigate multiple cultures).
Assets-Based Approach - A pedagogical orientation that recognizes and leverages students' cultural resources, funds of knowledge, and linguistic abilities as valuable assets for learning. Simply: The opposite of deficit thinking. Looking at what kids BRING to class - languages, cultures, experiences, knowledge - and building on those strengths.
Deslenguadas - [Spanish term from Gloria AnzaldĂșa describing people who are linguistically marginalized or judged as speaking "deficient" or "incorrect" language; often applied to border communities who fluidly use multiple linguistic codes.] Simply: "Tongue-cutters" or people with "deficient Spanish" - AnzaldĂșa's term for how border people get judged for not speaking "pure" enough Spanish OR English. Linguistic orphans.
Quiz: Test Your Understanding
Click on your answer to see feedback.
1. What is translanguaging fundamentally about?
Teaching students to keep their languages completely separate
Using all available language resources fluidly without artificial boundaries
Focusing only on English development in school settings
A new teaching technique invented by researchers in the 2000s
Correct! Translanguaging recognizes that multilingual people naturally deploy their full linguistic repertoire without rigid boundaries between languages. It's not a new invention - it's what bilingual people have always done naturally.
2. Why do schools traditionally resist translanguaging?
Research shows it confuses students and slows language development
Teachers don't have the skills to support multilingual practices
Schools were designed for monolingual students and use monolingual benchmarks
Parents prefer English-only instruction for their children
Correct! Schools were built with monolingual norms in mind. When bilingual students are measured against English-only benchmarks, they appear deficient - but the problem is the measuring stick, not the students.
3. What did the four featured teachers demonstrate about translanguaging?
It only works in bilingual program settings
It's too complex for students with learning disabilities
It requires teachers to be fluent in all student languages
It enhances learning across grade levels, contexts, and student needs
Correct! From kindergarten (Michelle) to high school (Sonya, Mishelle), in special education settings (Sonya), and across different program models, translanguaging helped students access content more deeply and show what they know.
4. How does translanguaging challenge traditional assessment practices?
It makes assessment impossible because students use multiple languages
It reveals that comparing bilingual students to monolingual norms is fundamentally flawed
It requires completely new assessment tools that don't yet exist
It proves that bilingual students can't meet the same standards as others
Correct! Translanguaging challenges the practice of evaluating bilingual students against monolingual benchmarks. The article argues we should assess how students use their full linguistic resources competently, not compare them to monolingual speakers.
5. What does the "translanguaging corriente" represent?
The natural, continuous flow of language use that never stops moving
A specific teaching strategy for bilingual classrooms
The process of learning academic Spanish vocabulary
A standardized assessment for measuring bilingual proficiency
Correct! The corriente (Spanish for "current") represents the natural flow of students' dynamic bilingualism - constantly moving and adapting like water in a stream. Schools often try to "dam" this flow by enforcing language separation.
6. What does "unbounded literacy" mean in the context of translanguaging?
Reading without comprehension limits or grade-level restrictions
Writing that has no grammatical rules or structure
Using all linguistic, experiential, and modal resources to make meaning from texts
Allowing students to choose whether or not to complete reading assignments
Correct! Unbounded literacy means students engage with texts using their full range of resources - all their languages, life experiences, gestures, cultural knowledge - without being constrained by artificial boundaries. A text written in English becomes a multilingual experience when approached this way.
Card Sort: Match the Concepts
Drag the cards from the left to match them with the correct definitions on the right.
Terms & Concepts
Languaging
Translanguaging Corriente
Linguistic Repertoire
Monolingual Ideology
Unbounded Literacy
Deficit Perspective
Assets-Based Approach
Agentive
Definitions
Using language to make meaning of the world
The natural flow of dynamic bilingualism
All language resources available to a speaker
Belief that pure language separation is ideal
Literacy using all linguistic and experiential resources
Focusing on what students lack rather than strengths
Building on students' cultural and linguistic resources
Learner actively directing their own process
Thinking Bigger
Take a moment to sit with these questions. There are no right answers - just bigger thinking.
First, think back to the visual:
Those two rivers flowing together, then separating again, with a child navigating between them - what do you think that image represents about translanguaging? Why does the water flow back apart instead of staying merged forever?
Gloria AnzaldĂșa wrote about linguistic marginalization in 1987. Ofelia GarcĂa proposed translanguaging as a framework in 2009. It's 2025 now. Researchers have documented this for decades, but most schools still enforce English-only policies.
How do we spread transformative ideas faster?
Schools were designed for monolingual students. We keep trying to make multilingual kids adapt to monolingual systems.
Who benefits from maintaining "English-only" policies? Who loses?
đż From the Natural World
In ecology, there's a term for the boundary between two ecosystems - the edge between forest and meadow, between river and land. It's called an ecotone.
These edges are where the most biodiversity happens. Not in the pure forest. Not in the pure meadow. At the boundary, where two worlds meet and flow together, you get the most life, the most resilience, the most creativity.
Plants and animals that thrive in ecotones don't choose one ecosystem or the other - they draw resources from both. They're adapted to navigate the boundary, to flow between worlds, to be comfortable in the in-between space.
Translanguaging is the ecotone of language. The richness lives at the boundary. When we force kids to stay in one "pure" language ecosystem, we deny them access to the most fertile ground - the place where two worlds meet and create something more vibrant than either alone.
đ Keep Going? (summaries of references cited in the source for further reading)âŒ
GarcĂa, O. (2015). Translanguaging framework
FoundationalWorth Reading
What it is: Ofelia GarcĂa is THE name in translanguaging. This is the seminal work that defined translanguaging as "the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for socially defined language boundaries." Tone: Academic but accessible - written for educators and researchers. Why it matters: This is where the whole conversation starts. Every paper on translanguaging cites GarcĂa. If you're going to read one thing, read this. Buzz: Still heavily cited 10 years later. Foundational. This shaped how we think about bilingual education.
AnzaldĂșa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
FoundationalMust Read
What it is: Gloria AnzaldĂșa's revolutionary text about identity, language, and living on the US-Mexico border. She writes in a mixture of English, Spanish, and Chicano Spanish - embodying the very concept of translanguaging before it had that name. Tone: Poetic, fierce, deeply personal. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, part manifesto. Not a dry academic text - this is literature. Why it matters: AnzaldĂșa argued that shaming people for how they speak is shaming them for who they are. This book influenced an entire generation of scholars thinking about language, identity, and power. Buzz: A classic. Still assigned in ethnic studies, Chicano lit, cultural studies, and education courses. If you want to understand the political dimension of translanguaging, start here.
GarcĂa, O., Ibarra Johnson, S., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The Translanguaging Classroom
Practical Guide
What it is: A practical guide for teachers on how to actually implement translanguaging in classrooms. Introduces the concept of "translanguaging corriente" - the natural flow of bilingualism. Tone: Practitioner-focused. Less theory, more "here's what this looks like in a 3rd grade classroom." Why it matters: Bridges the gap between research and practice. If you're actually teaching, this gives you concrete strategies. Buzz: Popular in teacher education programs. This is the "how-to" book everyone references when they want to move from theory to action. Verdict: Read if you're designing lessons. Skip if you're just trying to understand the concept.
Swain, M. (2006). Languaging, agency and collaboration
Coined the Term
What it is: Merrill Swain introduced the term "languaging" - using language as a verb, the act of making meaning through language. Tone: Academic, research-heavy. Second language acquisition scholarship. Why it matters: This is where "languaging" as a concept comes from. Translanguaging builds on this idea. Buzz: Foundational in SLA (second language acquisition) research. Cited frequently in studies about language learning processes. Verdict: You don't need to read the original unless you're doing deep research. The concept is explained well enough in secondary sources.
GarcĂa, O. & Kleifgen, J. A. (2019). Translanguaging and Literacies
Specialist Reading
What it is: Explores how translanguaging applies specifically to reading and writing - introduces "unbounded literacy" (using all linguistic resources to engage with texts). Tone: Academic. Published in Reading Research Quarterly - this is for literacy researchers and educators. Why it matters: Challenges the idea that reading comprehension = English-only comprehension. Shows how multilingual students create multilingual literacy experiences even with monolingual texts. Buzz: Recent (2019), getting traction in literacy education circles. Verdict: Read if you're focused on reading/writing instruction with ELs. Otherwise, the core idea (students use all languages when reading) makes sense without the full article.
Wiley, T. & GarcĂa, O. (2016). Language Policy and Planning
Context Only
What it is: A review of language policy in education - traces how monolingual ideologies became embedded in school systems and what the consequences have been. Tone: Academic policy analysis. Modern Language Journal. Dry but thorough. Why it matters: Explains WHY schools resist translanguaging - because policies were designed with monolingual assumptions. Good for understanding the systemic barriers. Buzz: Cited in policy discussions, less so in classroom practice literature. Verdict: Skip unless you're researching education policy or need to understand the historical/political context. The WIDA bulletin summarizes the key points well enough.
GarcĂa, O. (2020). Translanguaging and Latinx Bilingual Readers
Recent Research
What it is: Recent article specifically about how Latinx students use translanguaging when reading. Published in The Reading Teacher - aimed at K-12 teachers. Tone: Accessible, teacher-friendly. Short article format. Why it matters: Applies translanguaging to a specific population and specific skill (reading). Shows what it looks like when a text "written in English" becomes a multilingual reading experience. Buzz: Very recent (2020), part of the ongoing conversation about how to support bilingual readers. Verdict: Quick read if you're teaching reading to Spanish-English bilingual students. Otherwise, the concept is covered in the broader articles.