Translanguaging and the Writing of Bilingual Learners

This article makes the case for using translanguaging in developing the academic writing of bilinguals. It reviews the emerging literature on learning and teaching theories of translanguaging and presents theoretical understandings of biliteracy development and specifically on the teaching of writing to bilingual learners. The article analyzes five written texts produced by young bilingual writers in which translanguaging is used in the planning, drafting, and production stages of writing. It analyzes how and why translanguaging is used, as well as the effect it has in the development of writing and of voice. Translanguaging in writing is here proposed more as a self-regulating mechanism in which bilingual students can engage, rather than a pedagogy to be used in the teaching of writing itself. That is, the objective of this writing is not translanguaging itself, but the writing in one or the other constructed academic language that is the object of learning in school. Yet, the article makes it clear that even to develop the monolingual voice in writing that schools—and even bilingual schools—expect, a translanguaging approach has the most potential.