Original title: Not a First Language but One Repertoire: Translanguaging as a Decolonizing Project
The article says multilingual students do not simply switch between separate languages. They draw on one shared repertoire of words, meanings, and other ways of communicating. When teachers judge each part separately, students can seem to have two incomplete language systems. The authors use examples of two students to show how viewing their whole repertoire can give a fuller picture and challenge unfair beliefs about language.
Imagine packing for a day out when you have to carry everything you need. It is hard to judge what you can do if someone checks each pocket separately and ignores how the items work together. In this paper, the pockets are the separate named languages, while the full bag is a student’s combined range of ways to communicate and make meaning.
Teachers may judge multilingual students by how well they use each named, standardized language on its own. Seeing the full range of ways students communicate can change how teachers understand their abilities and knowledge—and challenge assumptions that treat some students as deficient.
The abstract describes two bilingual students, one in London and one in New York City, and presents the article’s argument about translanguaging and education. It does not report evidence about how widely these examples apply or whether particular teaching practices improve student outcomes.
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Not a First Language but One Repertoire: Translanguaging as a Decolonizing Project — Li Wei, Ofelia Garcı́a — RELC Journal — doi:10.1177/00336882221092841
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.