What is Translanguaging?

How do you get the best out of students with different first languages?

When you teach a class of students with mixed first languages, the temptation is to tell them all ‘only speak English!’ and ban them from using their first language (L1). After all, it won’t do them any good, right?

Wrong. If used properly, a student’s L1 can be a useful scaffold for learning a second language. This concept goes against language learning advice from most of the 20th century, but a growing amount of research sh...