Three theoretical ideas guide our approach to supporting bi/multilingual students in CS education.
Warm up
Have you ever sent a text message made only of gifs or emoji?
- yes
- no
Have you ever tried to make yourself understood through gesture when you had trouble communicating with spoken language?
- yes
- no
Have you ever used machine translation to help you communicate or understand?
- yes
- no
Have you ever tried to guess words you don't understand from context?
- yes
- no
Have you ever chosen to use words from another language to express yourself more fully?
- yes
- no
Have you ever picked up and started to use a word your students use all the time?
- yes
- no
If you said yes to any of these questions, you've translanguaged!
Check out the video below to learn more about translanguaging.
Translanguaging Definition
Translanguaging is what bi/multilinguals do when they flexibly use their full linguistic and semiotic repertoires -- including home language, English, gestures, drawing, and more -- to make meaning and communicate. Translanguaging practices are often viewed by society as defying “standard named languages,” but really, translanguaging questions the nature and politics of those “standard” categories (García & Li Wei, 2014)