Translanguaging as a pedagogy, a practice or a strategy? Examples from a preschool and a primary school class in Luxembourg

The concept of translanguaging has been continuously redefined in education, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, which has led to some loss of meaning. Regarding teacher translanguaging, studies show that it has been used as a strategy to further comprehension and learning, and as a pedagogy. The latter recognizes the existence of multiple languages in class and leverages the students’ semiotic system to make meaning and learn (García et al. 2017). Translanguaging has thereby been understood either as a resource-oriented pedagogy that challenges traditional conceptualizations of bilingualism and language learning, or as a pedagogy that fights social inequalities. Most research studies adopt the first view (Poza, 2017).
The present paper combines two longitudinal doctoral studies and investigates the ways in which a preschool and a primary school teacher use translanguaging in their classes in Luxembourg. Drawing on interviews and observations, the findings show that the preschool teacher implemented a translanguaging pedagogy. She planned for the use of several languages, opened translanguaging spaces, and systematically translanguaged where she believed it would support learning (Kirsch et al. submitted). By contrast, the primary school teacher used translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy. She used the curricular languages and only translanguaged to support particular students. These differences are explained by the curriculum and the preschool teacher’s attendance of a professional development course. The findings contribute to our understanding of possible ways of implementing translanguaging as a pedagogy.