Translanguaging in Brazilian bilingual education: analyzing oral practices in fifth graders' interactions

Abstract

Drawing on Translanguaging theory, which views language as a holistic repertoire, this study examines how students’ translanguaging practices (TP) are manifested and for what purposes. The participants were seven fifth-grade peers in a bilingual school in Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese - English). Their TP were recorded during an oral task based on a wordless, short video stimulus. The data were qualitatively analyzed and coded. Results indicate that TP occurred spontaneously and for specific purposes. The most frequent TP use included gestures, task management, meaning negotiation, lexical creativity, syntactic translanguaging, peer correction, and form negotiation. Findings suggest that translanguaging pedagogy is valuable in bilingual contexts where minority languages are developed because it enables students to communicate freely and critically in a fluid and dynamic environment.