Ofelia García

Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity

Abstract: This paper focuses on the relationship between creativity and the interactions of
plurilingual learners, that is, their translanguaging. We provide a description of the concep-
tual difference between the concept of plurilingualism and that of translanguaging. Focus-
ing on ways of educating that leverage bilingual students’ translanguaging, we then provide
evidence of actions taken by two U.S. teachers in translanguaging classrooms that promote
the students’ creativity.
Résumé: Cet article met l’accent sur la relation entre la créativité et les interactions des
apprenants plurilingues, c’est-à-dire leur translanguaging. Nous décrivons la différence
conceptuelle entre le concept de plurilinguisme et celui de translangaging. Puis, en met-
tant l’accent sur des approches éducatives qui tirent parti du translanguaging des élèves
bilingues, nous présenterons des dispositifs mobilisés par deux enseignant-e-s américain-
e-s qui favroisent la créativité des élèves.

1 Introduction
The contribution in this volume by Hugo Baetens Beardsmore summarizes the
existing research on the relationship between plurilingualism and creativity. Bae-
tens Beardsmore (2008 and this volume) shows evidence that plurilingualism has
an effect on cognition that results in increased creativity. Drawing on the work
of a team of European scholars for the European Commission during the 2009
European Year of Creativity (Marsh, Wolff, de Bot, Langé, Maljers, Frigols Martin,
and Baetens Beardsmore himself), and summarizing recent research (see, for
example, Ricciardelli 1992, Stolarick/Florida 2006), Hugo Baetens Beardsmore
describes in this volume cognitive characteristics of plurilinguals that result in
greater creativity:
1. A flexible mind
2. A problem solving mind
3. A metalinguistic mind
4. A learning mind
5. An interpersonal mind
Baetens Beardsmore quotes Stollarick and Florida (2006, 1812) when they
say:
40 Ofelia García

[B]eing multilingual means you understand the world from different perspectives and
are more likely to devise creative and innovative solutions: it’s ‘good for the brain to have
to learn how to work and think in [multiple languages]’.

We aim here to extend Baetens Beardsmore’s lens by focusing on the interactions

of plurilinguals, that is, their translanguaging, and the relationship to creativity.
We first provide a description of the conceptual difference between plurilingual-
ism and translanguaging. Focusing on ways of educating that leverage bilingual
students’ translanguaging, we then provide evidence of actions taken by two U.S.
teachers in translanguaging classrooms that promote the students’ creativity.

2  Plurilingualism and translanguaging

The Council of Europe has done much to dispel the idea that bilinguals (and mul-
tilinguals) are not two monolinguals in one, an idea that was first challenged by
the early work of François Grosjean (1982). The Council of Europe (2000) defines
plurilingualism as “the ability to use several languages to varying degrees and for
distinct purposes.” That is, the Council of Europe’s idea of plurilingualism is that
“partial competence” in other languages is good for European citizens. This in
itself is an important contribution, an ability that results, as Lüdi (2015) says, “in
a deepening and ‘fine-tuning’ of conceptual understanding” (p. 133). Christine
Hélot (2012) recognizes the contributions made by the concept of plurilingualism
and of those who have worked on making it a reality in education, for example, the
work of Beacco and Byram (2003). However, Christine Hélot (2012) also warns
that these efforts are about promoting a European identity, without questioning
the use of the national language as the main medium of education. Thus, plurilin-
gualism is still tied to national languages, usually European ones, without paying
attention to the many language practices of individuals
Promoting plurilingualism in individuals indeed results in greater creativ-
ity in the ways described by Baetens Beardsmore in this volume. It also goes
beyond monolingual and monoglossic constructions of what is accepted as
knowledge of language and bilingualism. Plurilingualism legitimates a heter-
oglossic bilingualism (Bakhtin 1981) that results from what The Council of
Europe calls “partial linguistic competences.” The contribution of scholarship
on plurilingualism has indeed promoted the view that bi/multilingualism is
more than additive, that is, that it is dynamic (García 2009). It has also led to
what Blommaert (2010) has called the perspective of sociolinguistic mobility,
a product of increased globalization and what Vertovec (2007) has called su-
perdiversity. These views on plurilingualism indeed liberate bilingual speakers
from the monolingual/monoglossic constructions of the past, although they still
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 41

have been constructed with an epistemology that responds to western domi-

nant constructions of named languages. The “partial competence” promoted
by the Council of Europe, a more cognitive concept, finds echo in Blommaert’s
conception of “truncated repertoires” (2010), a more social one, liberating and
legitimating the heteroglossic language practices of bilinguals. However, in the
plurilingual conception, the construction of named languages stands, leaving
intact the hierarchies of languages. The speaker’s “first” or “native” language is
dominant and full, whereas the other linguistic practices are viewed as being
the result of partial competence in a second or third named language or of a
truncated repertoire in that other named language.
In contrast, a translanguaging approach to multilingualism starts from the as-
sumption that bilingual speakers along all points of the bilingual continua have a
complete linguistic system, that is, full linguistic competence and a full linguistic
repertoire that is their own (García/Li Wei 2014). All speakers indeed perform
linguistically with their own full idiolect (Otheguy/García/Reid 2015). Named
languages, as Makoni and Pennycook (2007) have said, are social constructions
that although important, have no linguistic reality. These named languages have
been “invented” by nation-states and colonial powers to exert power over ra-
cialized language-minoritized speakers. To confuse named languages with what
people speak is to always position bi/multilingual racialized speakers as less than
monolingual, well-to-do, usually white, speakers. The linguistic performances of
these monolingual speakers rely on interactions where there may be more overlap
of features with other monolingual interlocutors who are like them. In contrast,
multilingual speakers have a much larger repertoire of linguistic features, and
their idiolect has much less overlap with that of monolingual interlocutors who
are different.
Plurilingual encounters usually take place among people who want to make
themselves understood – learners who want to learn another language, speakers
who want to sell products, workers who want to succeed. Plurilingualism is often
exalted as a competence for profit making and personal gain (see Duchêne/Hel-
ler 2013). In universities, plurilingualism has to do with the internationalization
of higher education and attracting students for greater profit. For many learners,
as well as for sellers and buyers, plurilingualism is related to competitiveness
in the job market and success as individuals. Flores (2013) and Kubota (2016)
remind us that there is a relationship between our tolerance of plurilingual-
ism and a neoliberal economy that needs flexible workers. Plurilingualism thus
leaves intact the epistemologies from which we have constructed named lan-
guages. In contrast, translanguaging questions the idea that named languages
42 Ofelia García

are independent entities existing in the world naturally. Translanguaging dis-

rupts the social imaginary that nation-states have constructed around named
languages and native-speakers, a narrativization produced with the very same
categories with which we continue to study speakers, and especially racialized
language minoritized speakers, thus rendering them as deficient.
In interactions where there are power imbalances and differences in social
class, gender, race, cultural and religious practices, etc., participants have to be
willing to make a greater effort to understand each other than in interactions be-
tween more similar interlocutors. The weight of the communicative interaction in
these unbalanced instances has to be carried especially by the listeners who must
open themselves up to the meaning negotiation (Flores/Rosa 2015).
Otheguy, García and Reid (2015) have defined translanguaging as “the deploy-
ment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence
to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national
and state) languages” (p. 283). In classrooms, this means that teachers leverage
that full linguistic repertoire that is always present (even if some of its features
remain hidden), at the same time that they help students select features of that
repertoire that are appropriate for the audience with whom they interact (for more
on translanguaging pedagogy, see García/Johnson/Seltzer 2017 or case studies in
García/Kleyn 2016). It is precisely the sociolinguistic exercise that all bilinguals
must perform, always having to select some features rather than others, that has
led some psychologists to suggest that bilinguals have a cognitive advantage. For
example, Bialystok (2004) suggests that this advantage is the result of the constant
use of the bilinguals’ brain Executive Control System, as they select different
features and adjust to different communicative situations.
How then might a translanguaging pedagogy that mobilizes the translanguag-
ing of plurilinguals result in greater creativity? The rest of this article attempts to
answer this question.

3  Translanguaging pedagogy and creativity

Creativity, as proposed by Baetens Beardsmore in this volume, is linked to ex-
ercising a voice that is one’s own, and not a simple repetition of someone else’s.
That is why creativity is also linked to criticality (Li Wei 2011). By disrupting the
hierarchies of named languages that were installed by colonial expansion and
nation-building (Mignolo 2000), translanguaging liberates sign systems that have
been formerly constrained by socio-political domination. As a concept coined
and developed in bilingual borderlands – for example, Welsh-speakers in the
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 43

UK, Basque-speakers in the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain, Latinx1 in the

United States – translanguaging attempts to give voice to all, redress power dif-
ferentials, and release the creativity potential of plurilinguals.
To show how this is possible in classrooms, we introduce two teachers in the
United States who have been the subject of longer analyses in García, Ibarra
Johnson and Seltzer (2017). One is a bilingual teacher fourth-grade teacher in a
primary school, Carla. The other is an ESL teacher in a U.S. high school, Justin.2
Carla’s bilingual classroom is in New Mexico. She teaches a group of Latinx stu-
dents whose bilingualism falls along all points of the bilingual continuum. Justin’s
middle school ESL classroom (6th through 8th grade) is in New York City. He
teaches students who have been classified as English language learners and are, for
the most part, recently arrived immigrants. They speak a number of languages –
Spanish, French, Fulani, Mandarin, Mandinka, and Haitian Creole. I describe first
the elementary school bilingual teacher, Carla, and some classroom moments (Li
Wei 2011) that clearly show the potential of translanguaging to develop bilingual
students’ creative performances.

4 Translanguaging and language allocation in a bilingual

classroom: Carla
Since bilingual education of Latinx and other language minoritized groups in the
U.S. came under attack in the early years of the 21st century, bilingual programs have
increasingly become “two-way dual language programs”, where supposedly half of
the students are “native English-speakers” and the other half are speakers of the
language other than English. These programs follow strict language allocation poli-
cies, with only one language used during specific days, times of day, or even weeks.
That is, these programs follow a pedagogy of strict immersion, at least in theory.
As bilingual education programs for Latinx communities started to disappear
under intense criticism, some programs managed to survive by changing their
name to “dual language” programs, and evading the word “bilingual.” But as fate
would have it, these programs for language minoritized bilingual children falling
along all points of the bilingual continuum started to follow the only pedagogi-
cal models that were sanctioned – those of strict immersion in one language or
another, now called “double immersion.” These one-way dual language programs,
or double immersion one-way programs, employed bilingual teachers but asked

1 Latinx is the gender-neutral form of Latino/a, meaning anyone in the U.S. with Latin
American ancestry.
2 Both names are pseudonyms.
44 Ofelia García

them to function as monolingual teachers. These bilingual programs adopted a

monoglossic ideology (García 2009) of bilingualism.
For Carla, the teacher of the translanguaging classroom that we portray here,
the language allocation policy of the school in which both languages are strictly
separated makes no sense, for it does not help her teach very different Latinx
bilingual students. On the one hand, there are students in Carla’s class who have
arrived recently and who do not understand or speak English. On the other hand,
there are students who have been born in the United States of bilingual Latinx
parents, or of mixed couples. Many of these students never speak Spanish at home.
And there are also bilingual students with all types of linguistic performances
and in all combinations, some who read more than they speak, others who speak
more than they write, etc.
Carla modifies the language allocation policy of the bilingual program. She
teaches Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon, respecting the social
spaces of “named languages”. But she knows that what is important in teaching is
to access the linguistic repertoire of individual children so she can engage them. To
do so, she establishes a strategy and a space in which her students’ translanguaging
is centered. During instruction in English or in Spanish, Carla is always aware of
what García/Sánchez Solorza (forthcoming) have called translanguaging lifesaver
rings. This means that when teaching in one language or the other, and after hav-
ing carefully assessed what it is that students know and can do with language, she
leverages the student’s translanguaging to scaffold instruction for students who
are being immersed in one language space or another. That is, she disrupts the
one language space by ensuring that all students understand the content of the
lesson at all times and are able to appropriate new linguistic features into their
own language repertoire. These translanguaging lifesaver rings then make the
named language space flexible enough to ensure that the students make meaning
of lessons and understand how language is being used.
In this paper I want to focus not on the translanguaging lifesaver rings, but on a
translanguaging space that Carla has created which is transformative, what García/
Sánchez/Solorza (forthcoming) have called the translanguaging transformative space
and which enhances students’ creativity. This translanguaging transformative space
provides opportunities for students to use their “full linguistic repertoire without
regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of
named (and usually national and state) languages” (Otheguy/García/Reid 2015). At
the same time, this translanguaging transformative space promotes understanding
of how speakers can act on their language repertoire to select features that are appro-
priate for the messages they want to convey to different audiences, both monolingual
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 45

and bilingual. It is precisely this agentive potential of translanguaging, resting on

speaker’s agency, and not on that of named languages or nation-states, that propels
the creative role of translanguaging. Next I describe this translanguaging trans-
formative space which Carla calls “The Cuéntame Algo” space.

5  The Cuéntame Algo space in a bilingual classroom3

Once a day Carla has opened up a space in which she considers bilingual authors
who translanguage in telling their stories. This space was inspired by the work
of Christine Hélot (2014 with Sneddon/Daly 2016) related to Tomi Ungerer, the
Alsatian children’s author who wrote stories in German, French, Alsatian and
English, and whose work has been translated into many more languages. Hélot
shows in her work how the editions in different languages are conceived and how
Ungerer’s choice of signs in different languages relates to different cultural ways
of being. In the Cuéntame Algo space, the same story is examined when rendered
in different languages, but Carla also shows her students how they, as authors,
can construct meaning with their many different linguistic resources which go
beyond those of named languages.
Carla explains that bilingual authors sometimes use mostly what is said to be
English, with words that are said to be from Spanish, whereas other times, the op-
posite is the case. Carla engages students in thinking about how translanguaging
enhances creativity and critical metalinguistic awareness in the texts studied. She
also encourages students to use their full linguistic repertoire in their discussion of
the texts during this time, without adherence to the boundaries of one or another
named language. I draw below on Carla’s read-aloud and follow-up activities of
a story by Sandra Cisneros titled Three Wise Guys: Un Cuento de Navidad, as I
describe five different moments (Li Wei 2011) from the lesson in which translan-
guaging is leveraged to expand the students’ creative potential.
Moment #1: Expanding linguistic and cultural choices
Carla gathers her fourth graders in the rug space in front of her classroom. She
reads out loud the first paragraph of the story:
The big box came marked DO NOT OPEN TILL XMAS, but the mama said not until the
Day of the Three Kings. Not until Día de los Reyes, the sixth of January, do you hear? That
is what the mama said exactly, only she said it all in Spanish.

3 I am grateful to Susana Ibarra Johnson for her original description of this teacher.
46 Ofelia García

She then engages her Latinx students in dialogue about how their families cel-
ebrate Xmas. The practices that the children describe are as varied as the linguistic
features they use – el día de Christmas, Christmas, Navidad, Reyes, the Reyes, Los
Three Kings, Santi Claus, Santa Claus – all pronounced phonetically differently.
Carla encourages students to use all their linguistic resources, as they describe
their different cultural practices. In this way, Carla builds a classroom context in
which the students’ knowledge and linguistic repertoire is expanded, rather than
restricted, thus developing their creativity.
Moment #2: Disrupting correctness and the link between language and nation
Carla then sends students to work in groups that have been organized to ensure
that there are students whose linguistic performances in English and Spanish fall
along different points of the bilingual continuum. She asks students in each group
to translate the first sentence into Spanish, and tells them that the first group
finished should put up the translation on the blackboard. One group rushes to
the whiteboard and writes:
La caja grande vino marcada NO LA ABRAS HASTA XMAS, pero la mamá
dijo no hasta el Dia de los Tres Reyes.
Right away individual students in other groups react. Miguel who recently ar-
rived from Puerto Rico says: “No es Día de los Tres Reyes. Es Día de Reyes.” María
argues, “XMAS is not Spanish!” Julián says: “Marcada? Qué quiere decir?” Carla
then instructs the groups to consult Google Translate in their group’s I-Pad. She
instructs one student to write the Google-produced translation next to the one
that the first group had produced:
La caja grande vino marcada NO ABRIR HASTA XMAS, pero la mamá dijo
no hasta el Día de los Tres Reyes.
Carla then encourages the class to discuss the two translations and the objec-
tions raised by Miguel, María and Julián. They first discuss the difference between
“No la abras hasta Xmas” (the first group’s translation) and “No abrir hasta Xmas”
(the Google translation). The students think about the meaning of “abras” and
“abrir.” One student raises his hand and wonders why there’s an extra word in
the first sentence, “la.” After much discussion, the class concludes that these are
two ways of saying the same thing, with one of them addressing a specific person
more directly. Carla makes it clear – the choice is theirs depending on who it
is they want to address. These greater choices are precisely what promotes the
students’ creativity.
Carla then considers Maria’s objection to “XMAS” as not being Spanish. She
asks them how many say Xmas at home when speaking what they think of as Span-
ish. Almost the entire class raises their hand. So they conclude that XMAS is just
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 47

another word for Christmas or Navidad used by many Latinx. They then consider
Miguel’s objection to “Día de Los Tres Reyes.” They think about the difference be-
tween saying “tres reyes,” and just “reyes.” They conclude that it depends on what
they want to highlight, whether they are interested in making sure that listeners
know they are kings or that there are three of them. Finally, Carla asks Julián what
he would have said instead of “marcada.” Julián says: “Yo, como, ‘la caja tenía un
letrero.’ ” María objects, “But that would mean, ‘The box had a sign! And it is not
what it says!’ ” They get into a discussion of the meaning of “marked.” They conclude
that indeed “marked” must mean that the box had a sign.
What Carla is doing in this interaction is showing her Latinx students how
using language is simply about selecting signs, and how each selection is an act of
agency and creativity by the speaker. Speaking is not about restricting linguistic
choices, but about expanding those choices. Speakers “do” language and construct
their messages by selecting signs and features that are part of their repertoire.
There are no right or wrong choices; however, each interaction is a creative agen-
tive act that shapes the ways in which the message is constructed by listeners. By
doing so, Carla is disrupting the construction of named languages and nation.
Language is what people creatively “do,” not what nations have.
Moment #3: Authoring a bilingual voice and developing critical multilingual
awareness
Carla then proceeds to make a list of some of the words that the author, Sandra
Cisneros, inserts in what is considered “Spanish.” She asks the students to discuss
the reasons for these choices in groups. Following is some of the dialogue among
three students in one of the groups:
S1: “Comadre, because I don’t even know qué quiere decir comadre in English.”
S2: “Means godmother”
S1: “But what about urraca and chicharras?”
S3: “Because of the beautiful rolling double r.”
Carla then asks the students to go back to the story and to make a list of words
that they would have rendered in Spanish if they had been the author. The pur-
pose of this is twofold – Carla wants the students to feel the power that they have
as authors in selecting signs to represent what they would like to express. That
is, she is developing the students’ capacity to possess their own translanguaging,
to author their bilingual voice. At the same time, she is engaging the students in
their own metalinguistic reflection, developing their capacity to see language as
a semiotic system of signs that can be manipulated and selected appropriately as
a creative act.
48 Ofelia García

Moment #4: Normalizing translanguaging

Carla then asks students to reflect on the language practices of the characters
in the story – the Spanish-speaking mother, the bilingual children, and the father
who spoke English but could not read it. After this discussion, she asks them to
go back to their groups and discuss the language use in their own families.
One of the students, Esteban, describes his language use:
In my family we speak mostly Spanish, pero not really. My brother usually speaks English;
mi mamá usually Spanish. Las telenovelas en español para mi mamá, but my brother and
I, we watch shows in English, although everyone watches …And then it always depends
en quién está. When my friends come, we speak English, pero depende. Con mis tíos
español a veces, y a veces inglés, y a veces los dos. It all depends.

María adds:
Everyone thinks we speak Spanish at home. But not always, because I always speak Eng-
lish, even to my mother. But when my tías come, then I speak Spanish to them.

And Miguel, who recently arrived from Puerto Rico, says:

“Bueno, siempre hablamos español.” [Well, we always speak Spanish]

María questions Miguel immediately:

“Pero qué ves en TV?” {What do you see on TV?] To which Miguel replies, “Sponge
Bob!” María doesn’t let him finish: “Ves, ves, ¡no siempre es español!” [You see, you see,
it’s not always Spanish!].

Through this discussion, students are problematizing the notion that there is a
home language, Spanish, and a school language, English. Instead, they are begin-
ning to see that practices that are considered English and Spanish exist at home,
as well as in school. Carla is leading her students to understand translanguaging as
an authentic linguistic practice that they carry with them at home and in school.
Carla is also showing students the potential of translanguaging in supporting bi-
lingual family practices. The students start to see that their linguistic practices are
complex and go beyond named languages. In addition, they start to understand
translanguaging as their positive strength and potential, as their creative force,
that enables them to include everyone in the family. In so doing, the students’
translanguaging is normalized, at the same time that it is appreciated as their own
creative and agentive force.
Moment #5: Normalizing translanguaging in writing
Carla knows that the students’ literacy development is a product of schooling.
That is why she uses bilingual texts written by bilingual authors to anchor the
translanguaging transformative space. But she also knows that students need to
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 49

engage with translanguaging interactions not only receptively (through reading)

but also productively. That is why she always encourages students to use their full
repertoire when speaking during this time. But Carla also understands that it is
in writing, a way of using language that is mostly developed in schools, where
students have the most trouble exhibiting their translanguaging capacity. Carla
has been successful in making her students conscious that even when they write
in one named language, they are translanguaging. But she perceives that students’
writing products are most often in one named language or another, a practice that
they have learned in schools, so she knows she has to push further.
Carla sets out to release writing from the formality of one named language
or another. To do so, she asks students to recall the language practices of the
characters in the story – a Spanish-speaking mother, two bilingual children, and
a father who speaks English, but can’t read it. She then asks the students to work
in groups to rewrite the story in the bilingual voice of the family. In so doing, the
students are transforming the text by disrupting the linguistic hierarchies that are
always obvious in written language.
Following is an example of one groups’ work, after Carla edited it:
La mama said: “No abran la caja hasta Xmas.” But when la mamá se fue a trabajar (because
she had to go to work) Rubén and Rosalinda eyed/miraron con atención the caja. Rubén
said: “Let’s open it!” Y Rosalinda dijo: “Nos van a matar, we’re going to get killed, but
let’s go!” They opened it. Adentro había another caja wrapped in beautiful sparkly paper
con un letrero: “Rubén y Rosalinda, no abran la caja hasta Xmas.” La abuela knew them
well. Sabía that they were going to open the caja before XMAS!” “Mi abuela es un genio,”
exclaimed Rosalinda. Y they started to laugh – Ja/ha, ja/ha ja/ha!

It turned out that writing this paragraph took a very long time, longer than if
they had written it in only one named language or another. The students had
to think of what each of the signs selected contributed to the message. Some of
the linguistic signs had already been used in the original version, so they would
have been understood. Others needed further explanation, and so they used
parentheses, repetitions, and even some drawings in the original version. They
thought carefully of which signs were cognates and needed no such support, for
example, “genio.” They also decided to use some onomatopoeic devices, such
as for laugh. They had a heated discussion about how laugh was rendered, and
they decided to use Ja and Ha. Through this activity, students’ linguistic and
semiotic creativity is expanded, rather than restricted. By using translanguag-
ing in writing, students are discovering their potential to give voice to others,
to be creative writers, as they transform the linguistic and social context that
has defined writing.
50 Ofelia García

Next we describe some moments when our second teacher, Justin, leverages
translanguaging to develop students’ creative potential.

6  Translanguaging and language use in ESL teaching4

Justin is an English as a Second language teacher in a middle school, where he
co-teaches with the Math teacher. His students speak many languages and have
been categorized as “English language learners”. There is Fatoumata who recently
came from Guinea and speaks Fulani, Yi-Sheng who speaks Mandarin, Pablo,
who speaks Spanish, Sara who speaks Polish, and Carole who speaks Haitian Cre-
ole. Traditionally, English as a Second Language teachers immerse their students
in English, using English only in order for them to develop English, as well as
learn content. After having been exposed to professional development where the
concept of translanguaging was explained, Justin decides to disrupt the English
monolingual ecology in his classroom. He understands that he must engage his
students in learning geometry, as well as developing English proficiency, but he
also wants to develop their creative potential as language users.
Justin slowly starts encouraging his students to use their own language rep-
ertoire to engage with geometry and English. Of course, Justin doesn’t speak
Fulani, nor French, nor Mandarin, nor Spanish, but he knows that his students
speak those languages and can make meaning through them in ways that they
can’t do if taught in English only. Some of his students are hesitant to use their
translanguaging in the classroom, so Justin designs a project he calls Geometry
multilingue (said with French accent, since so many of his students come from
Francophone Africa).

7  Geometry multilingue
The geometry multilingue project engages students in creating children’s books
that explain a geometric concept. But the books are not to be simple dual language
bilingual books with two separate languages. Instead, Justin asks that they exhibit
their translanguaging creativity in writing the texts, using all the features of their
linguistic repertoire, that is, for example, their words in what are considered two
named languages, but also drawings. Justin explains that the purpose of the project
is that there are not enough bilingual children’s books that explain concepts in
geometry. He tells his students that they will then share the books with an ESL
class of third graders in an elementary school located across the street. Following

4 I am grateful to Kate Seltzer for sharing with me her description of Justin’s classroom.
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 51

are five moments from the Unit of Instruction that show how leveraging the stu-
dents’ translanguaging develops their creative potential.
Moment #1: Translanguaging to make meaning
To get the project going, Justin first gives students a worksheet with two key
questions that he has translated, using Google Translate, into French, Spanish,
Chinese and Haitian Creole. Unfortunately Fulani is not available in Google
Translate, but Fatoumata can read French due to schooling in French in Guinea.
The same is true for other students from Gambia and Senegal, who in addition
to Mandinka and Wolof, speak French. The questions that Justin poses are the
following:
Where do we see geometry at work in our lives?
Où voyons-nous la géométrie au travail dans nos vies?
¿Dónde vemos la geometría en el trabajo en nuestras vidas?
我们在生活中看到工作中的几何在哪里？
Ki kote nou wè jeyometri nan travay nan lavi nou?
Gdzie widzimy geometrię pracy w naszym życiu?
Why it is important to understand the geometry of our world?
Pourquoi est-il important de comprendre la géométrie de notre monde?
¿Por qué es importante entender la geometría de nuestro mundo?
为什么要了解我们世界的几何是很重要的？
Poukisa li se enpòtan ke ou konprann jeyometri a nan lemonn nou an?
Dlaczego ważne jest zrozumienie geometrii naszego świata?

Justin divides the students into groups of 2 to 5 who come from countries where
education is in the same named language. The largest group is that composed
by Francophones – 5 Africans with many linguistic profiles, and 4 Haitians who
are speakers of Haitian Creole. The Spanish and Chinese groups have four stu-
dents each, whereas the Polish group has only two students. The students read
the questions, discuss them and write answers in their journals. Justin encour-
ages the students to think of how to maximize communication with the young
bilingual students who will be the recipients of the books, as well as how to help
them understand the value of translanguaging in developing English, the goal
of instruction in this classroom. In so doing, the students’ creativity is engaged.
Moment #2: Translanguaging to include all
Justin then asks each group to report orally on the many ways in which they
see geometry at work in their lives. Justin encourages newly-arrived students to
report orally in the other language, but to try to incorporate as many terms and
expressions they know in English.
52 Ofelia García

Justin then pairs students in each group so that the two students speak the
same language other than English, with one student stronger in English than the
other. He then asks the pair to select a geometric concept that is relevant to their
lives to be the subject of their bilingual children’s book. In planning their book for
elementary school bilingual who are said to speak their named languages, Justin
asks students to keep a few things in mind:
–– It needs to be relevant to the lives of the third graders who will be the recipients
of the book, that is, it has to be culturally relevant,
–– It needs to use all their language practices directly and simply and be under-
stood by bilingual students along all the points of the bilingual continua,
–– It needs to be rich in multimodalities, including not only pictures, but also
links to videos and other resources that students might need.
The students’ creativity is enhanced because Justin gives them freedom to se-
lect signs from their entire communicative repertoire and to use multimodalities
freely, the focus of the next instructional moment.
Moment #3: Translanguaging beyond oral and printed texts
Students work assiduously on this project for four weeks. They work on mak-
ing the text interesting and engaging, developing an initial “hook” that will draw
young readers in. They write the text and illustrate it. In some cases, they ask
parents or other students to be their illustrators. They find pictures on the Internet.
They also locate videos and resources that they could reference. Two teams make
bilingual videos of themselves explaining the reading. They also develop ques-
tions about the concept explained, as well as activities that readers can do to better
understand the geometric concept, all displaying their translanguaging prowess.
After four weeks, the books are ready. The students have been engaged not
only in a project that taps their understanding of Geometry, but also their creative
potential, going beyond regular school texts to develop their own.
Moment #4: Translanguaging to share
Justin then takes the class to the elementary school across the street. Each pair
is matched with one bilingual third grader whose language practices at home
match theirs more or less. The pair reads their book to their assigned child. They
encourage the children to translanguage in order to fully express themselves. In
some cases, the students perform short skits to enact the concept being explained
in the book. They show the videos they have created. Translanguaging acts go
beyond simple linguistic acts; the children learn to use all the semiotic resources
that they have available to express themselves. As a result of this creative action,
they are more effective in sharing with others.
 Translanguaging, Pedagogy and Creativity 53

Moment #5: Translanguaging to assess

Throughout this Geometry multilingue project, Justin assesses students on
their understanding of math content, as well as their creativity and strategic use
of language and other semiotic resources. Leveraging the students’ translanguag-
ing in this ESL math classroom has enabled Justin to see students as they are – as
human beings who are creative users of all their semiotic resources to lead a
meaningful life, and not simple robots that complete mechanical and meaning-
less language exercises.
Justin doesn’t evaluate students’ linguistic performances based on forms and
structures, but on what counts – the ability to select semiotic features that best
shows the students’ agency and creativity. Again, translanguaging to assess sup-
ports the students’ creative potential

8 Conclusion
This paper extends the findings on plurilingualism and creativity described in the
paper by Hugo Baetens Beardsmore in this volume. We described the conceptual
difference between the concepts of plurilingualism and that of translanguaging,
as we use it in this article. Taking up a translanguaging lens, we then explore how
two different teachers with diverse student bodies, leverage translanguaging, and
in so doing not only do they develop children’s learning potential, but also their
creative potential.
Focusing on how individual speakers are able to leverage their linguistic and
semiotic creativity beyond the restrictions placed on them by named national
languages, we describe here moments in two classrooms where teachers were suc-
cessful in doing so. Notice that in neither classroom is there a sense that students
speak a full language and have partial competence in another, as plurilingual
conceptions would support. Instead, in these two translanguaging classrooms
students are treated as creative meaning-makers, able to use their entire linguistic
and semiotic repertoire to make meaning.
Through the moments of instruction of the two teachers in this paper, we see
how translanguaging:
–– Expands the choices of speakers
–– Disrupts language correctness
–– Authors a bilingual voice and develops critical metalinguistic awareness
–– Normalizes translanguaging
–– Normalizes translanguaging in writing
–– Helps students make meaning
54 Ofelia García

–– Includes all speakers

–– Takes languaging beyond oral and printed texts
–– Gives teachers a more holistic assessment
Clearly these translanguaging classrooms engage plurilingual students in practices
that promote what Hugo Baetens Beardsmore in this volume identifies as the
gains of plurilingualism for creativity – flexibility, problem-solving, metalinguistic
awareness, learning and interpersonal relations. Rather than identify creativity
as cognitive gains, however, translanguaging places the gains of creativity in the
interactions and the lives of bilingual speakers.
Translanguaging classrooms do not just use the students’ language practices
as a scaffold to learn a dominant language (or languages). Translanguaging class-
rooms are transformative. They are transformative because they show students
how to be agents of their semiotic repertoires, free to create and be. Leveraging
students’ translanguaging thus has the potential to bring the creative and agen-
tive potential of young people to new heights, as they deconstruct the ways in
which language has been used to restrict the imagination and the creativity of
students, especially those who have been minoritized racially and linguistically.
Translanguaging is not only a political act, as Flores (2014) has said; it is also an
act of agency and creativity.

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