Forms of immobility both limit unqualified human agency and enable diverse channels of mobility. In this sense, mobility and immobility work together. Certain philosophical movements such as Southern theories and disability studies treat constraints, sedentariness, and boundaries as needing to be respected and accommodated in any inquiry. This…

This paper addresses the necessary complementarity between a translanguaging and named language-perspective by critically examining risks of 'overshooting' when a translanguaging view is theoretically posited as the ultimately superior (sociolinguistic) theory of language use and learning in today's multilingual world.

How do you read the word "Puke?" It depends on what language you assign to the word--Te Reo Maori or English. This article discusses this politics of "assigning language" and what epistemological and historical contexts shape that process, based on the author's ethnographic fieldwork at a secondary school in Aotearoa/New…

This article seeks to address the ever-expanding and shifting communicative demands of 'liquid modernity' by focussing on two key issues: the need to reconceptualize language and communication as a consequence of the diversification of media and resources people draw upon to meet these demands; and the need for a new analytical framework to…

In this article, we analyze how linguistic terms have been borrowed and reinterpreted across disciplines. Specifically, we describe how terminology associated with Applied Linguistics (AL) changed meaning as it entered the new disciplinary context of Writing Studies (WS), often resulting in confusion and turbulence between the two fields. As in…

'Translanguaging' has become the most popular term in discussions about how to use learners' languages as resources for target language teaching/learning, but it has also become ambiguous because it is being developed in proposals adopting different perspectives on multilingualism. The first aim of this article is to offer an overview of the two…

This article explores how "puntos y rayas" (full stops and lines) function as symbolic and structural barriers in education for language-minoritized students. Through autobiographical reflection and classroom cases, the authors show how rigid boundaries around standardized language and raciolinguistic ideologies marginalize students and…

Traversing metaphorical, literal, and epistemological borders everyday creates and produces new ways of being and knowing. These migrations have afforded many with ways to live in the in-betweenness of multiple languages, identities, and knowledges. In this conceptual essay, we focus on Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of geographies of selves to support…

This critical assessment examines the tension that has recently evolved between translanguaging advocates and advocates of two-way immersion programs. Translanguaging advocates have called for a reframing of language allocation practices and the incorporation of translanguaging pedagogy into these programs. At issue is that two-way immersion…

This article theorizes translanguaging as a space of simultaneity to analyze how teachers use translanguaging to create a multilingual classroom space and engage students with their multilingual identities and epistemologies in the classroom. The data in this article are drawn from an ethnographic study of language policies and practices in a…

The idea of translanguaging has disrupted much of the thinking in bilingual education. A common misunderstanding, however, is that translanguaging was intended to be a language teaching strategy. This article seeks to explore what a translanguaging approach to language teaching entails, with specific reference to the education of minoritized and…

Multilingual education is an urgent and pressing concern in the Indian educational scenario. While the National Education Policy (2020) acknowledges multilingualism as a resource in educational contexts and reiterates earlier policies calling for mother tongue-based education in elementary classrooms, it does not provide guidance in terms of how…

In this article, I explore the paradigmatic boundaries between New Literacy Studies, translanguaging, and posthuman thought around language and literacy. This enquiry began with a recent encounter with emergent bilingual children in a community-based writing programme which caused me to 'rethink' some of my humanistic groundings and assumptions…

In this conceptual paper, we explore the opportunities and challenges that translanguaging may provide for students from Australian Aboriginal backgrounds and their teachers. We use examples taken from Australian Aboriginal students who may speak Standard Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English, creoles (Kriol being the common one across…

The percentage of multilingual learners in U.S. public schools is steadily increasing, and by 2025, an estimated 1 in 4 children nationally will be multilingual learners (National Education Association, 2020). Simultaneously, there has been a significant shift toward linguistic diversity in two and four-year colleges. Yet, there is little research…