Centring on students’ needs by engaging in translanguaging shifts

Abstract

The study reports how an ESOL teacher engaged in translanguaging shifts in a content and language integrated learning classroom in the United States. The study findings, from ethnographic methods and conversation analysis, indicated that the teacher engaged in translanguaging shifts centring on the students’ learning needs. She created a co-learning environment in which she and the students co-developed a poem in an English and a bilingual version. In the process of co-creation, not only did the students learn new content, but their identities were valued and affirmed. With her strong translanguaging stance, the teacher let go of control and learnt from the students instead. Based on the findings, I provide recommendations and practical suggestions for teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders. I argue that translanguaging shifts play a crucial role in translanguaging pedagogy. However, teachers cannot work alone in their implementation; it requires different stakeholders to work together–juntos to ensure student success.