An enduring contribution of Richards Sparks' work has been his exploration of the relationship between a learner's first language (L1) and a language that he or she learns subsequently (L2). The present paper considers that relationship from the perspective of learners and teachers of a 'foreign' language in classroom settings. The paper first…

Despite the existence of many studies on the identity of language learners in the offline settings, few focus on how English language learners in the expanding circle construct their identity through their use of English and their choices over their first language capital as they enjoy variations of multilinguacultural exposes in the digital…

The main focus of the article is on teachers' classroom language practices in eight primary schools in Oshana and Khomas school regions. Language ideologies and translanguaging practices were used as a theoretical framework to evaluate the language ecologies that were created by the language practices in the schools included in the research study.…

Translanguaging has gained prominence as a pedagogical orientation that promises to promote the rights of minoritized migrant students by valuing pre-existing multilingualisms and identities. However, the effects of classroom translanguaging on teacher and student outlooks and relations of inequality are far from universal. In this paper we…

At a press conference in Japan, an L2-Japanese reporter questioned an L1-Japanese politician. Although the press conference was conducted in Japanese, the politician code-switched to English during their exchange. The reporter challenged the politician's code-switching; a confrontational exchange ensued. The reporter's reaction depicts the…

This study explored multilingual students' attitudes towards translanguaging after the practice was introduced in group activities aimed at improving their English language skills and classroom engagement. A cohort of students taking a pre-sessional English course at a college of technology in Rwanda were initiated into translanguaging. They were…

This investigation of translanguaging is grounded upon the ubiquitous theme of "structures" explicitly and implicitly found in the translanguaging literature. Through this theme, this paper begins by providing a novel theoretical framework followed by considering the need for translanguaging (e.g., education's growth of multilingualism;…

The recent theoretical debate over the role of translanguaging in dual language programs can be described as moving from prohibition to promotion. Indeed, many researchers, theorists, and educators are now encouraging translanguaging. At the center of the debate are teachers and their beliefs, which some argue influence their practice. Teachers'…

In this classroom-based qualitative study, we examine how a small group of content area teacher candidates developed emerging critical language awareness (CLA) during one graduate-level translanguaging-infused teacher education course on multilingual theories and practices. The findings point out the potential of translanguaging in prompting…

In China, code-switching (CS) is frequently used in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. However, the functions of CS in Chinese secondary schools remain unclear. Moreover, student perceptions have rarely been considered in previous studies. This paper therefore sets out to examine why English teachers code-switch in EFL classrooms. In…

The concepts of identity and translanguaging have been a focus of considerable theorizing and research in recent years, and have clarified important dimensions of how people interact in both monolingual and multilingual settings (Barkhuizen, 2016; Creese and Blackledge, 2015; Darvin and Norton, 2018; Otheguy et al., 2018). In this article we would…

Informed by the stories of transnational youth's participation in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) in Mexico, this study explores the language/identity development and successful (re)integration of these youth in Mexican schools and communities. Drawing on students' voices, we utilize a multimodal systemic functional…

Most U.S. educational reforms have narrowly focused on how to improve the ways in which students use language, and most specifically English. But in the last two decades, it is something called "academic language" that has permeated all education discourse. Here we discuss the development of the construct of academic language and the…

This paper examines how the nature of language is represented in science lessons taught through English, and is part of a project investigating the challenges of bilingual education in Hong Kong's junior secondary classes. Educational linguistics, particularly work drawing on systemic functional linguistics, sees language as text and as dialectic.…

This study investigated the convergence of content and language integrated learning, translanguaging, and global citizenship education in an EFL tertiary English class. Conceptualized within translanguaging as an assemblage for meaning-making, machine translation was incorporated into the course in a way that EFL bilinguals could fully avail…