New Chapter Published: Bilingual Education and Translanguaging in the Handbook of Translanguaging

[Zhongfeng Tian]

Dear Colleagues, 

I am delighted to share that our chapter, “Bilingual Education and Translanguaging,” has been published in the new Handbook of Translanguaging. It was an honor to co-author this piece with Sunny Lau and to contribute to this landmark volume edited by Li Wei, Prem Phyak, Jerry Won Lee, and Ofelia García.

Abstract: Translanguaging articulates a paradigmatic shift in how we think about language(s) and how we work with bilingual students. Advocating particularly for minoritized students’ equitable access to education, translanguaging proposes a more fluid approach to teaching in/of language to support children’s emergent bi/multilingualism and to challenge monolingual approaches in bilingual education. This chapter reviews the growing scholarly literature in global bilingual education contexts that takes up the notion of translanguaging and discusses the ways in which it is applied and contested. While translanguaging approaches have been embraced mostly by researchers and teachers due to its educational potential, others are cautious about its overly transformative promise in bilingual education contexts, particularly those involving languages of differential socio-political statuses, values, and vulnerability. To address this tension, we suggest sustainable translanguaging pedagogy to support students’ development of multilingual repertoire while being intentional in protecting minoritized languages. We propose specific ways to plan, design and implement language coordination at macro, meso and micro levels to reframe language policy and practice from a holistic, dynamic bilingualism perspective. Future research should focus more on longitudinal research on its pedagogical impact as well as teacher education and assessment to continue to advance translanguaging theory and pedagogy in bilingual education.

The chapter is available here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397821078_Bilingual_Education_and_Translanguaging

Please feel free to share widely with anyone interested in bilingual education, translanguaging pedagogy, and language policy.

Warm regards,
Zhongfeng Tian

Zhongfeng Tian (田中锋), Ph.D. 

Associate Professor of Bilingual Education  

Department of Urban Education  

Rutgers University–Newark 

Past Chair, AERA Bilingual Education Research SIG

Associate Editor, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

(Faculty Webpage; ResearchGate; Google Scholar; LinkedIn; Scopus)