Abstract
Abstract
The concept of translanguaging has developed from an agentive learner strategy, against monolingual language‐of‐instruction policies, to an analytical perspective that focuses on the dynamics of bi‐ and multilinguals in transcending the boundaries of named languages and the boundaries between language and other semiotic resources in meaning‐making. It has attracted a great deal of attention from linguists and language professionals, generating thousands of research publications on topics ranging from inclusion and social justice, to multimodal communication and visual arts, to cognitive processes of language selection. This entry first outlines the origin of the concept of translanguaging and its theoretical implications and then explores how it contributes to the research and practice of language learning. It aims to show how the translanguaging perspective reconceptualizes the language learner as legitimate, multicompetent language users in their own right and not in relation to the so‐called monolingual native speaker and language learning as a process of cultural translation.