What is translanguaging?
Translanguaging is the idea that bilingual people use all their languages together as one flexible set of skills, drawing on whichever words and structures help them think, learn and communicate best.
Translanguaging comes from education research and offers a positive way to look at how multilingual people use language. Rather than seeing two separate languages that must be kept apart, it views a bilingual child's languages as one connected resource. Mixing and moving between languages is seen as a strength, not a mistake.
For example, a child might read a story in Spanish, discuss it with a parent in English, and then draw a picture with labels in both languages. Or a sibling might explain a tricky maths idea in Hindi before writing the answer in English for school. In each case, the child uses every language they have to understand and express ideas.
Translanguaging is related to code-switching but is a broader idea. Code-switching describes moving between languages in speech, while translanguaging describes the whole approach of using all one's languages to learn and communicate.
Practical tips: let your child use any language to share their thoughts, especially when they are learning something new. Talk about a story or activity in one language and revisit it in another. Encourage comparisons, like "How do we say that in Grandma's language?" Value both languages equally so your child feels proud of their whole linguistic identity. Listening to the same story in two languages is a natural fit, because it invites children to connect ideas across them.
Translanguaging works alongside strategies like OPOL or MLAH; it is a mindset rather than a strict rule.
