Lexical transfer as a resource in pedagogical translanguaging

Abstract

‘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 main current proposals of translanguaging together: García and colleagues’ ‘spontaneous translanguaging’ and Cenoz and Gorter’s ‘pedagogical translanguaging’. ‘Spontaneous translanguaging’ argues that languages in the mind are represented as one single system and that the notion of transfer, consequently, must be rejected. This article argues that this view may not be practical because it makes it difficult for teachers to conceptualise what they are doing when raising awareness of similarities between learners’ languages. ‘Pedagogical translanguaging’, by contrast, centres around transfer. Whereas transfer is traditionally seen as unintentional ‘interference’, pedagogical translanguaging considers it a phenomenon that learners can use intentionally and creatively, and which teachers could promote by raising learners’ awareness of similarities between their languages. However, very little is known about how learners use transfer unintentionally versus intentionally. This article discusses key findings and implications from Fuster’s (2022) initial study on intentionality in lexical transfer within pedagogical translanguaging.