Translanguaging practices on iTEO in Preschools

Whilst contributing to a person’s language, cognitive and personal development
and whilst a common practice in the daily lives of bilinguals, translanguaging is
rarely observed in educational institutions. The present paper examines the situations
and the ways in which preschool children in trilingual Luxembourg translanguage
during collaborative storytelling on iTEO, an iPad app which allows for
the recording and editing of oral language. Currently 62.4% of children do not
speak Luxembourgish on school entry. Language policies focus on the learning
of Luxembourgish. This, the small class sizes and the absence of peers with
similar language backgrounds may limit the opportunities for translanguaging.
The present qualitative, longitudinal study takes a mixed-method approach. The
findings show that the 5 focus children in preschool translanguaged frequently,
in different ways and for a range of purposes, while drawing on features of several
languages. The process of translanguaging depended on the individual child
and on contextual factors. We argue that storytelling on iTEO opens up safe
translanguaging spaces that contribute to inclusive multilingual pedagogies.