García (2009a: 298) describes how bilingual or multilingual discourse can
be achieved in classrooms. She identifies the following flexible multiple bilin-
gual arrangements that can develop the multiplicity of multilingual practices
that are important today:
- responsible code-switching both ways (however, in situations of
unequal power between languages, for responsible code-switching to
lead to bilingual abilities there must also be dedicated space for classroom
instruction in the minority language); - preview/view/review: when the language chosen to preview the lesson,
to view the lesson, and to review the lesson varies – a popular arrangement
at the secondary level in bilingual education throughout the world; - translanguaging: where the input (the receptive language skills
e.g. reading material/ teacher’s speech) and the output (the productive
language skills e.g. written work/group discussion) are deliberately and
systematically varied in different languages.
García (2009a: 304) comments on the way in which translanguaging is
becoming the most prevalent bilingual practice in bilingual education class-
rooms in the 21st century, despite traditional curricular arrangements that
separate languages: ‘Because of the increased recognition of the bilingual
continuum that is present in schools and communities that are revitalizing
their languages, or schools where more than one language group is present,
linguistically integrated group work is prevalent in many bilingual
classrooms’.
What are the origins of translanguaging as bilingual pedagogy?
Baker (2011: 288) explains that translanguaging ‘originated as a Welsh
word “trawsieithu”... In English, it was initially called “translinguifying”,
but then changed to “translanguaging”’. Williams (1994, 1996) was among
the first educationalists to suggest that there are strategies that develop both
languages successfully and also result in effective content learning. In par-
ticular he found translanguaging to work well in secondary schools in Wales
as ‘a natural way of developing and strengthening both languages together
at the same time as deepening the subject understanding’, as it requires skills
in reading, comprehension and summarising (Williams, 2002: 40). Ever since
he coined the term (1994, 1996), it has remained a developing and important
concept in Welsh bilingual education. It has now been adopted as a key
modern concept in bilingual classrooms and communities (García, 2009a,
2009b) although with ambiguity (e.g. Joneitz, 2003). Jonietz (2003: 54), in
the context of international schools, states that ‘trans-language learner is a
term which describes an individual who moves from a maternal/native lan-
guage and culture to competence in an additional environmental/instruc-
tional language and culture’.
144 Part 4: Bilingual Education