Teachers Inquiring Into Translanguaging

Pedagogies: An International Journal
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hped20
Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and

multimodal pedagogies: emerging creative and
critical entanglements during transnational
professional development
Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros, Maria José Botelho, Theresa Austin & Diana
Angélica Parra Pérez
To cite this article: Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros, Maria José Botelho, Theresa Austin
& Diana Angélica Parra Pérez (2022) Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and
multimodal pedagogies: emerging creative and critical entanglements during transnational
professional development, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 17:4, 323-347, DOI:
10.1080/1554480X.2022.2139259
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2022.2139259
Published online: 30 Nov 2022.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 94
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hped20
PEDAGOGIES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
2022, VOL. 17, NO. 4, 323–347
https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2022.2139259
Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and multimodal

pedagogies: emerging creative and critical entanglements
during transnational professional development
a b b
Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros , Maria José Botelho , Theresa Austin
c,d
and Diana Angélica Parra Pérez
a
Teacher Education and Curriculum studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States and
Lectoescrinautas Research Group, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogota, Colombia; bTeacher
Education and Curriculum Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States; cCentro
Internacional de Lenguas y Culturas Extranjeras, Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia; dSchool of Languages,
Universidad de Antioquia
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Our reflexive study responds to the need for learning about trans Received 24 January 2021
languaging and multimodality as entangled pedagogies in non- Accepted 24 May 2022
English-dominant contexts from teachers’ perspectives. This con KEYWORDS
ceptual-empirical article re-examines a yearlong ethnographic Entanglements;
study which traced how a community of seven in-service English multimodalities; teachers;
language teachers in Colombia and the United States collaborated translanguaging; vignettes
online and in person to make sense of and use translanguaging and
multimodal pedagogies innovatively. Drawing on the notion of
entanglements (assemblages of interconnections, events, people,
practices, and resources that reveal tensions and translanguaging
and multimodalities), we conceptualize them as enmeshed with
social contexts. We ask, “What entanglements emerge when tea
chers implement translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies to
enrich their practice in a context with inequitable access? Data
sources include bilingual interviews, fieldnotes, and teacher-
produced multimodal texts. We use dialogic reflexivity and vign
ettes to discuss teachers’ creation of new entanglements of trans
languaging and multimodal pedagogies within the constraints of
their setting. Emerging insights include 1) awareness of unequal
access; 2) critical use of multimodalities and translanguaging for
advocacy; 3) understandings of translanguaging and multimodal
ities for equitable access; and 4) translanguaging and multimodal
pedagogies as creative, assemblages of interconnections, events,
people, practices, and resources. These entangled pedagogies
enabled teachers’ creativity and criticallity.
Introduction
This article is our dialogic reflection on a yearlong professional development experience in
which teachers explored translanguaging and multimodality within a context of
CONTACT Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros ralejandramr@gmail.com Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States and Lectoescrinautas Research Group, Universidad Distrital Francisco
José de Caldas, Bogota, Colombia
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
324 R. A. MEDINA RIVEROS ET AL.
contradiction. Colombia is a linguistically and culturally diverse country that endures

social and educational inequalities while desiring to join the global economy. Although
Spanish is dominant, the Ministerio de Cultura Colombia (2021) recognizes 68 native
languages. As in many Global South countries, official policies promote English-based
bilingualism as a vehicle to join transnational markets. Despite these policies, Spanish-
English bilingualism remains linked to middle and upper socioeconomic status while
students from public or rural schooling backgrounds have limited quality access to
these linguistic resources.
The Colombian teachers who participated in this research project worked in a blended-
English programme at a private college in a semi-rural area where undergraduate stu
dents from low-income backgrounds received government scholarships to attend. The
college serves approximately 8,000 students, most of whom attended the EFL pro
gramme. The teachers of this programme had on average four years of experience
working to support students who were underperforming in mainstream English-as-a-for
eign-language (EFL) classes. Two of the teachers in the study worked with a student with
visual impairment, as well as with others from public and rural schools backgrounds.
Initially, teachers showed interest in digital technologies, multimodality, and student self-
regulation.
We identified the entanglements that emerged as these teachers integrated trans
languaging and multimodal pedagogies in their settings. We use entanglements (Barad,
2007) to refer to organic interconnections derived from their translanguaging and multi
modal pedagogies, practices, and the constraints of unequal access to linguistic and
multimodal resources. We explain in the following paragraphs how translanguaging
and multimodalities can bring new vitality where English is not used by the ethnolinguis
tic majority.
To generate deeper insights, we examine translanguaging and multimodalities as
entanglements. Our conceptual-empirical study asks: What entanglements emerge
when teachers implement translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies to enrich their
practice in a context with inequitable access? First, we describe our conceptual tools and
then our ways of knowing, doing, and analysing. Lastly, we analyse vignettes that provide
glimpses of entanglements as teachers apply translanguaging and multimodal
pedagogies.
Conceptual framing
We engage with multimodality, translanguaging, and entanglements to note the inter
connections and tensions among these constructs. Next we elaborate on each of these
elements of our critical conceptual assemblage.
Entanglements
We consider Barad’s (2007) theory of entanglements as we reflect on episodes of teachers’
encountering and implementing translanguaging and multimodality, which become
resources for new understandings and pedagogical practices. In these encounters, entan
glements occur as boundaries dissolve and the entangled cannot be untangled. Barad
(2007) argues that “individuals do not pre-exist their interactions; rather individuals
PEDAGOGIES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL 325
emerge through and as part of their entangled intra-relating” (p. xi). In classrooms,
instructors, students, pedagogies, and their materiality are implicated in entanglements.
Emerging entanglements push assemblages into innovation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987)
and materialize in “unexpected performances, contexts, histories, and inquiry practices that
make new relations possible” (Kuby, 2014, p. 1296). This “throwntogetherness” (Massey,
2005, p. 140) of both the human and nonhuman emphasizes the move from abstract to the
temporary, that is, “temporary stabilities” (Grossberg, 2006, p. 5). This focus on the moment
demands attention to “spontaneous, impromptu, and momentary actions and performances
of the individual” (Wei, 2011, p. 1224). Thus, entanglements emerge from how people,
places, and semiotic and other material resources are interrelated and change together.
The notion of entanglements offers thinking tools to make sense of how multiple
semiotic resources are interconnected with the material world (Pennycook, 2020, p. 222).
In other words, language and other semiotic resources cannot be understood in isolation
from the socio-political and economic power relations that together organize the world.
This shift demands a focus on interconnectedness between humans and nonhumans,
assemblages that require that we consider “how language relates to the world” (p. 225).
Translanguaging
The professional development and this study are informed by translanguaging as a theory
and pedagogy on language and meaning-making in multilingual communities (García,
Johnson et al., 2017). As a theory of language, we recognize translanguaging as “the
dynamic, fluid, and the unfolding nature of meaning making of speakers’ complex and
active use of a repertoire of linguistic features” (García, Flores et al., 2017, p. 5).
Nevertheless, we acknowledge that fluidity is in tension with fixed notions of language.
Harissi et al. (2012) illuminate this tension when they note that “participants adhered to
both fluid and fixed accounts of language, culture, and identity” (p. 524). Within trans
languaging, both linguistic fluidity and fixity constitute bilingual practices. As a pedagogy,
the teachers in our study engaged in creating instructional strategies that Cenoz and
Gorter (2019) define as “pedagogical translanguaging.” Pedagogical translanguaging
consists of “intentional translanguaging or classroom translanguaging,” which integrate
pedagogical practices that draw on two or more languages. In contrast, “spontaneous
translanguaging” refers to “the reality of bi/multilingual usage in naturally occurring
contexts where boundaries between languages are fluid and constantly shifting”
(p. 904). In our study, we inquire into the nature of translanguaging as a theoretical and
pedagogical approach that can contribute to teaching/learning.
Multimodalities: integrating multimodality and transmodalities

As translanguaging needs to be expanded to explore use of multimodal expression such
as gesture, posture, and digital modes (Klein & Garcia, 2019; Li; Wei, 2018; Vogel et al.,
2018), we examine teachers’ practices around multimodality. For this purpose, we align
our study with both multimodal theory from social semiotics and transmodalities. Social
semiotics which recognizes that linguistic forms are not enough to give account of human
communication and representation: “Language isn’t a big enough receptacle for all the
semiotic stuff we felt we could pour into it” (Kress, 2010, p. 19). Beyond linguistic forms,
“multimodality is the normal state of human communication” (Kress, 2010, p. 1) as

humans combine modes to make meaning.
Rather than only on linguistic forms, multimodality theory focuses on semiotic
resources. These are “the actions, materials and artifacts we use for communicative
purposes” (Van Leeuwen, 2005, p. 285). Gestures, voice, spatial orientation, and our use
of digital technological devices are examples. Expanding this definition, Kress (2010)
highlights that semiotic resources are “socially made and therefore carry the discernible
regularities of social occasions, events and hence a certain stability; they are never fixed,
let alone rigidly fixed” (p. 9).
Accordingly, Kress (2010) offers this definition: “mode is a socially shaped and culturally
given semiotic resource for meaning making; image, writing, layout, music, gesture,
speech, moving image soundtrack and 3D objects are examples of modes used in
representation” (p. 79). While similar technologies may be introduced into a society,
their use and the social distribution of these by social actors have different meaning
potentials. Jewitt (2016) proposes “multimodality” as an understanding of communication
and representation beyond language and recognizes the multiple forms that humans use
image, gesture, gaze, posture, and the like, and the relationships among these forms,
processes, and products. Multimodal representation is intensified through the use and
ubiquity of digital technologies (Jewitt, 2016).
To understand multimodal use, a critical understanding of multimodal theory is
needed apart from canonical social semiotics. For this study, we draw on Mills (2015)
and Hawkins (2018) critical engagement with multimodality. Mills (2015) rejects “mode”
and instead proposes semiotic resources. From this stance, she understands semiotic
resources as fluid and rhizomatic, arguing that there is no such a thing as a “pure mode”
and rejects the proposal that mode emphasizes stability.
Critical scholarship should respond to how multimodality functions in transnational set
tings and builds relations of power (p. 63). Hawkins calls for more research that gives account
of digital technologies and connectivity’s effect on transnationalism and power relationships.
Accordingly, Hawkins (2018) proposes “transmodalities” that examine “the complex entan
glements of people, things, messages, and meanings, but also an overt focus on why they
matter” (p. 75). Transmodalities explain actual complexities of meaning making across power
relationships and mediating artefacts while integrating transnationalism and criticality.
Responding to these positions, with our use of multimodalities we adopt the concept
of affordances from multimodal theory (Jewitt & Kress, 2003) while integrating critical
approaches such as transmodalities. We advocate for using multiple semiotic resources
and understanding of how these work beyond linguistic forms. Moreover, we understand
semiotic resources as fluid and intertwined (Mills, 2015). Drawing on Hawkins (2018), we
take a critical and ethnographic stance as we highlight the context, temporality, privilege
and power issues involved in this study. With multimodalities we recognize affordances of
multimodal theory as we add temporal, dialogical, and critical dimensions. Next, a brief
overview of translanguaging and multimodalities as entanglements informs this study.
Translanguaging and multimodalities as creative and critical entanglements

We claim that translanguaging and multimodalities as theories and pedagogies are
intertwined entanglements embedded in larger social contexts. They have been
separated in schools that privilege certain semiotic resources (i.e. reading and writing in
dominant languages) and teach them independently from each other. Multiple theories
have attempted to explain the interconnectedness between translanguaging and multi
modalities. While some scholars have understood translanguaging as a mode (Bengochea
et al., 2018; Jonsson & Blåsjö, 2020), Wei (2018) asserts that translanguaging includes
multimodalities. Pennycook (2017) proposes “semiotic assemblages” to understand the
ways that translanguaging and multimodalities work together. Pushing ahead, Lin (2019)
proposes “trans-semiotizing” to consider fluid meaning-making resources. Hence, trans-
semiotizing recognizes:
learning/teaching as co-evolving in a dynamic flow of collective/distributed/coordinated
meaning making involving a whole spatial repertoire of visuals, human bodies, gestures,
eye-gaze, etc. (in trans-semiotizing) and linguistic resources (in translanguaging) which
encompass all the spoken and written verbal resources distributed among the classroom
participants . . .. (Lin, 2019, pp. 11-12)
Our notion of translanguaging and multimodalities as entangled recognizes both inter

connections and tensions that are revealed in the entanglement. As we narrate in the
vignettes below, multimodal practices do not always presuppose translanguaging.
Similarly, translanguaging does not always centre multiple semiotic resources beyond
linguistic forms. As we describe later, sometimes multimodal and digital pedagogies can
be appropriated for monoglossic goals. Translanguaging, if centred on linguistic forms,
might not necessarily integrate multiple semiotic flows. With a translanguaging and multi
modal perspective from the Global South, we account for integrating semiotic and cultural
flows dialogically within power relations that are responsive to contextualized needs.
Studies on teacher education, translanguaging, and multimodality

During the past 10 years, abundant studies have examined how teachers understand and
implement translanguaging (Burton & Rajendram, 2019; Caldas, 2017; Palmer et al., 2014;
Ponzio & Deroo, 2021; Sembiante, 2016; Sembiante & Tian, 2020). Most readily available
research on teachers and translanguaging is produced in English-dominant or bilingual
contexts in the Global North. Nonetheless, there is a recent increase of international
research on translanguaging (Cenoz, 2017; Paulsrud et al., 2021) and in Latin America
(Ortega, 2019). However, most available studies on translanguaging do not consider
multimodality, whereas studies on multimodal communication typically do not consider
multilingualism (Kusters et al., 2017).
Studies about teachers and multimodality pay attention to multimodal texts, digital
literacies, curriculum design and some of them are embedded in the multiliteracies
tradition (Holloway, 2021). We found several studies that focused on how teachers
implement multimodal and digital practices to promote multilingualism but these did
not explicitly engage with translanguaging. In most studies it is given that all participants
have similar access to multimodal and multilingual resources, most times provided by
donations of devices by schools or research projects. Most widely distributed research
comes from the Global North (Trigos-Carrillo & Rogers, 2017).
For example, Dagenais et al. (2017) report the implementation of Scribjab, a digital tool
for multimodal and multilingual storytelling, in two schools in Canada. Using another
digital tool for multilingual storytelling, Stranger–Johannessen and Norton (2017) docu
ment the African Storybook, a digital tool that allows teachers and students to access
children’s stories in multiple African languages, and post-colonial ones such as English,
French, and Portuguese. Kendrick et al. (2019) report the use of multiliteracies and digital
production in an under-resourced context, a multilingual journalism club in rural Kenya.
Other studies advocate for multimodality from the multiliteracies framework in world
language contexts (Allen & Paesani, 2010; Kumagai et al., 2015).
Particular studies have shown the potential of multimodal and digital literacy for in-
service and pre-service teacher reflection and collaboration (Doerr-Stevens & Woywod,
2018). In a study that focused on three female graduate TESOL students, Vitanova (2016)
depicts how the teachers engage in multimodal narrativity to reflect upon their own race
and racial imaginaries, gender and language identity. Also, with pre-service teachers, Kern
(2010) presents a multimodal analysis of Skype videoconferences between French stu
dents in California and their peer mediation for foreign language teaching.
Studies are still emerging that examine translanguaging and multimodality inter
twined in teacher professional development. Ponzio and Deroo (2021) provide
a qualitative case study of predominantly monolingual teachers using multimodality
with teachers to make sense of entextualizations of translanguaging. Drawing on social
semiotics for multimodal analysis, three main insights emerged from the study: 1) tea
chers are challenged to enact translanguaging because there are conflicts with well-
sedimented monolingual language ideologies; 2) teachers shift from bounded systems
to fluid repertoires; and, 3) teachers understand translanguaging pedagogy as act of
agency (p. 7).
Canals (2021) studied the role of multimodality and translanguaging in oral interac
tions during synchronous language-related episodes between 36 college level learners of
Spanish and English in Catalonia and Canada. Qualitative analysis revealed how multi
modality amplified the meaning of multilingual messages and added new information.
For example, interlocutors use gestures and pictures to add emphasis or explain expres
sions in the listener’s target language. Chen et al. (2021) show how a teacher implements
translanguaging and multimodality in a French classroom in China.
To sum up, upto date studies are scarce that show how teachers use translangua
ging and multimodal pedagogies as entangled pedagogies in Latin America. Recent
exceptions are Schissel et al. (2021), and Mora et al. (2018), and Farías and Véliz (2019).
Ways of knowing, doing, and analysing

The set of practices that we present here originated from our methodology of dialogic
reflexivity (Medina & Austin, 2022). Attia and Edge (2017) state that “the workings of
reflexivity are accessed via observation and reflection, and through interaction with
colleagues. Thus, we observe in action; we step back to reflect; and we step up again to
action” (p. 36) as we considered the question: What entanglements emerge when we
revisit teachers’ discussions on translanguaging and multimodal resources to enrich their
practice in a context with inequitable access? Accordingly, we engaged in ongoing
dialogue and writing as analysis (Bolton & Delderfield, 2018; Richardson & St. Pierre,
2005) to reflect and act recursively on our interpretations of teachers’ practices.
Our article draws on a one-year ethnographic study of transnational professional

development for Rosa’s dissertation with guidance by Theresa, as chair, and Maria José,
as a committee member (Medina, 2020). Rosa facilitated online synchronous meetings
from the US with teachers based in Colombia. She collaborated with Diana based in
Colombia to offer voluntary professional development sessions for in-service teachers in
the Colombian EFL blended programme.
Rosa also travelled periodically to meet with participants informally. She collaborated
with Diana, a former colleague and co-researcher who negotiated access to the institu
tion, participated in the workshops and collaborated on interview piloting, transcriptions,
and member-check meetings.
Maria José and Theresa joined Rosa to undertake the current study to further engage
with translanguaging and multimodality. The second and third authors are university
professors who specialize in language, literacy, and culture. Theresa, as the dissertation
chair, guided the research design’s ontological and epistemological perspectives for the
interview protocols and curriculum, as well as preliminary and subsequent data analyses.
Maria José contributed to the theoretical, epistemological framing, and analyses.
Together each author contributed to overall writing/analysis. Through dialogic reflexivity,
we return to the original data to reconsider several entanglements that emerged.
Our main data sources include multilingual transcripts of semi-structured interviews
with teachers; notes from teacher workshops; and, planning artefacts (Medina, 2020).
These data serve as resources for deepening our understanding of translanguaging and
multimodalities as emerging entanglements.
Vignette writing and reading as analysis

Using Pennycook (2020), we identify entanglements to analyse emerging teacher experi
ences when they discuss and re/design translanguaging and multimodal teaching prac
tices. Instead of locating common themes or repeated patterns in the data, we look for
unexpected ways that might diverge from what has been commonly understood or
theorized. In classrooms, instructors and students are co-implicated in entanglements.
For us, these entanglements emerge as disruptions as they open up possibilities and
questions for exploration and for creativity in revealing relationships or interconnected
ness between translanguaging and multimodalities. We represent these instances with
vignettes, brief snapshots of workshop interactions and interviews to invite questions and
other conceptualizations (Masny, 2013).
Masny (2013) claims that vignettes capture a sense of disruption and are useful in
examining these unexpected emergences. She maintains that vignettes are “short pas
sages that intensify unpredictable but relatable disruptions that create new assemblages
with concepts and tools. Intense passages disrupt as connections are produced in the
mind of the researcher, creating concepts and provoking questions” (Masny, 2013, p. 343).
Through vignettes, the concepts of entanglements offer productive tools.
The construct of entanglements offers an analytical tool to intensify the temporary
stabilities through vignettes. These temporary stabilities can provoke new inquiries and
practices as well as tensions. Typically, tensions are produced between centripetal (move-
towards-centre) forces that aim at maintaining the status quo and centrifugal (move-away
-from-centre) forces that push the assemblages to innovation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987).
Through encounters in a transnational professional development course, tools, ideas, and

resources coalesce for new learning. In these encounters, entanglements occur as bound
aries dissolve and the entangled cannot be untangled. Our dialogic reflexivity is “an
investment in [talking, writing, and] reading, reading, [writing, and talking] the world
and self” (Masny, 2013, p. 343). Talking, writing and reading and rereading the vignettes
helped reveal the entanglements and deepen our understanding of the teachers’ engage
ment with translanguaging and multimodalities through pedagogical practices.
Translanguaging and translation

In these vignettes, we use italics to represent Spanish, an APA-style convention. English
translations use the same font. Typically, translanguaging occurred during individual
interviews, workshops, fieldnotes, and other research artefacts. The instances of trans
languaging offered spaces for analytical work.
Research sites and teacher participants

Through telecollaboration Rosa primarily interacted with the Colombian teachers via
videoconferencing and dialogue in person about emerging insights with Theresa.
Teachers participated from their private university located in a municipality relatively
close to the capital. The teachers, who served low-income students, were sponsored
through Colombian government scholarships. All teachers worked for the Blended
Support Program of the Departamento de Lenguas y Culturas Extranjeras.
At the time of the ethnography, this programme’s academic goal was to prepare all
undergraduates to meet the English-as-a-foreign-language requirement for graduation.
With a passing score on the IELTS, TOEFL, or FCE at the upper intermediate, or B2 level,
students became eligible for graduation. With these language certifications, they would
be qualified to apply for employment in multinational companies, or for studying abroad.
The professional development with the Colombian teachers consisted of 12 whole
group online meetings, one small group session, and two individual interviews during
11 months. The whole group sessions lasted between one to two hours. Teachers used
translanguaging and multimodality throughout the sessions. For example, teachers
explored written or multimodal materials on translanguaging and multimodality written
in English, and discussed and wrote their reflections using translanguaging. The sessions
followed a workshop methodology. First, teachers reflected on their current instructional
practices and on previous experiences as language learners, then they tried multimodal
apps and created translanguaging activities in small groups. At the end of each session,
teachers wrote short reflections on what they learned. During the last four sessions,
teachers worked in small groups to design instructional projects that included multi
modality and translanguaging to better serve their particular students. Teachers also met
outside these sessions to work on these projects. On one occasion, teachers commu
nicated with a US-based technology expert who discussed with them instructional design
issues and digital tools for multilingual instruction. In the last session, teachers reflected
on their overall experiences and composed abstracts to share with other teachers at
a national TESOL conference.
Figure 1 maps the activities in the PD:
Figure 1. PD Timeline.
Figure 2. Gabriela and Leo exploring Google translate conversation feature mobile app.
The anglophone-centric forces in Colombia are evident in the official language policy,
mainstream media, and due to these larger influences in the local culture of the blended
programme. In Colombia, the government has proposed multiple language policies that
promote English-based bilingualism to help the integration of the country into global
markets. Other forms of bilingualism or multilingualism do not receive as much attention.
People consume international media, film, TV, music, and internet content that comes
from anglophone cultures.
At the local level, the EFL Programme also follows Anglocentrism. A key example to
note is that curriculum materials, lesson plans, and testing are solely in English, adhering
to a communicative approach principle that advocates for maximizing opportunities in
the target language. An exception to this Anglocentric and monolingual norm, occurs
within the initial levels where instructions from the inhouse curricular materials included
Spanish translations. Anglocentrism is also the driving force in testing. The only recog
nized exit tests are monolingual ones produced by anglophone countries. Heller and
Figure 3. Leo’s photovoice translanguaging and multimodality: under construction.
McElhinny (2017) refer to monolingual testing ideologies and regimes as materializations

of “neoliberal hegemonic bilingualisms”. Although there was no explicit policy against
translanguaging, teachers felt that translanguaging was against the status quo and their
own experiences as teachers and learners who followed a (monolingual) communicative
approach. It is worth asking how teachers in Anglocentric-test driven programmes can
use translanguaging to support their students and resist these regimes.
While listening to teachers’ narratives and witnessing the multiple forces they are
drawn to or pushed away from, we began to think of these forces constitutive of an
assemblage. We argue that English-centric and monoglossic forces are not only com
posed of ideologies or testing regimes. The English-centric forces work as assemblages
that are composed of policies, discourses, agencies, and materialities.
Below we present a brief description of teachers and their students for whom the
projects were designed. The table below clusters together the teachers who collaborated
on multimodal projects.
Rosa invited by email all teachers in the Departamento de Lenguas y Culturas
Extranjeras who worked in the blended programme. While seven teachers volunteered
to participate in workshops, we focus on five teachers (Table 1. Participating Teachers):
Maria, Beto, Caro, Gabriela, and Leo (all pseudonyms) because they experienced local
challenges that made them adopt translanguaging and multimodalities in new ways.
Table 1. Participating teachers.

Years of Type of class/
Teacher Experience Focal Students Multimodal Project
Maria 6 Low Intermediate EFL Fostering self-regulation and oral performance through Google
Student with visual Apps: The case of a student with low vision.
difficulties
Beto 7 Low Intermediate EFL Fostering self-regulation and oral performance through Google
Student with visual Apps: The case of a student with low vision
difficulties
Gabriela 7 Novice emerging All we need is a boost! Using a translanguaging strategy in EFL.
bilinguals.
Lower levels.
Caro 8 Novice emerging All we need is a boost! Using a translanguaging strategy in EFL.
bilinguals.
EFL Lower levels.
Leo 10+ Novice emerging All we need is a boost! Using a translanguaging strategy in EFL.
bilinguals.
EFL Lower levels.
Gabriel IELTS and TOEFL Test Integration of ICT tools for listening in TOEFL preparation courses.
preparation
Most teachers worked in the EFL Programme with novice and intermediate emergent
bilinguals as described on the table under the student/class type column. Not all the
teachers worked with IELTS preparation directly. Only one teacher in the study worked on
TOEFL or IELTS preparation.
Maria majored in Spanish, English and French at a public university. With six years of
experience as an English and French teacher at different colleges, Maria had taught at the
university for one year, working with novice emerging bilinguals. She participated in
sessions to learn about multimodal and multilingual strategies to support her students.
For her project, Maria focused on a student with low vision. She noticed her student was
a strong speaker and listener, while she struggled with reading. Maria and Beto designed
a multimodal and translanguaging strategy to support her.
Beto, with nine years of experience as a teacher at language schools and universities,
had been working for almost three years at the site. He wanted to participate in
exploring digital tools for teaching English and fostering autonomy. Beto collaborated
with Maria.
Caro was in her third-year teaching in the programme. She joined because of her
interest in multimodalities since she designed curricular materials and wanted to expand
her instructional design knowledge. Caro was a key participant as she organized the
teachers’ meetings. Caro worked with Leo and Gabriela to create a multimodal tool for
beginning levels.
Since 2016 Gabriela has taught on site as a tutor and programme coordinator focusing
on learning strategies in levels 2 and 3. Gabriela joined to share learning strategies and
online tools and was committed to teachers creating activities that would support all
students.
Leo taught students whose proficiency ranged from beginning to lower intermediate
language levels. Before our workshops, he had been intuitively using translanguaging to
check for students’ comprehension.
Next, we feature vignettes that intensify entanglements as teachers and the teacher-
researcher engage with translanguaging and multimodalities. We include vignettes in
which teachers and Rosa generated emerging entanglements (new understandings) of
multimodalities and translanguaging at the intersection of theories and practices within
their context.
Emerging critical and creative entanglements of translanguaging and

multimodalities
The vignettes below depict emerging entanglements at the nexus of teachers’ practices,
translanguaging, multimodalities, and context. Teachers experienced tensions embedded
in these emergent entanglements.
Entangling translanguaging and multimodalities with unequal access

Although teachers did not refer directly to socioeconomic and educational disparities,
they did talk about access, specifically in terms of facing socioeconomic, educational, and
linguistic inequality, and providing their students access to target language practices and
digital tools.
In Colombia, as in other global contexts, English-based bilingualism indexes middle or

upper middle socioeconomic status. This bilingualism has also been referred to as “elite
bilingualism” (De Mejía, 2002). Students’ low-English proficiency scores are associated
with having been educated in public schools connected to low-income areas and rurality.
Students from these backgrounds gain access to private colleges with the support of
government scholarship programmes. The two excerpts below exemplify this entangle
ment of lack of access to English bilingual education for students from these
backgrounds.
Rosa: ¿Y tienes alguna idea de cuál era el background de estos estudiantes, ellos venían de
colegios públicos, habían estudiado inglés antes?
Maria: El programa normalmente tiene como dos variables a la hora de escoger estu
diantes. En primer lugar, hemos notado que hay ciertas carreras que en las cuales
se les dificulta el inglés en general.(. . .) El 60% de los casos de estudiantes de Plan
Hat vienen de colegios públicos y ese programa del gobierno.
Rosa: [And do you have some idea about the background of these students? Did they
come from public schools, had they studied English before?
Maria: Our program normally has two variables when choosing students. First of all, we
have noticed that there are certain majors in which English is generally difficult
for them (. . .). Sixty percent of student cases from the Hat program come from
public schools with the government scholarship.] (Maria’s Interview, April 2019)
In the narratives, teachers also told stories of educational and linguistic inequality as
emergent bilinguals. This is evident in Gabriela’s learning history:
Gabriela: I studied at a public school and I did not know much about English. Probably my
English teachers did the best they could, but it was not enough for me, so when I entered
the university and started my major, I realized that my classmates had a high level. So,
I did not understand what the teacher said, I was lost. So, I had to study hard and had to
find different strategies and ways to study and prepare with my classmates. (Gabriela’s
Interview, April 2019)
Teachers like Maria and Gabriela experience socio-economic forces that push them to
provide access to dominant linguistic resources, so their students acquire socio-economic
power. With regards to dominant varieties and power dynamics, McElhinny (2016) claims
that:
In bilingual or multilingual societies, postcolonial contexts, and in diglossic linguistic situa

tions, it is often the use of or access to certain languages that differentiates the speech of men
and women, more elite and less elite men and women. In colonial or postcolonial situations,
access to economic and political power may depend on being able to speak the language of
imperial, or former imperial powers. (p. 293)
Furthermore, as in Colombian English is not the ethnolinguistic majority language but

indexes socioeconomic status, teachers often experience tensions between providing
access to target language performance in class and including translanguaging. Janks
(2000) posits this tension as a question: “How does one provide access to dominant
forms, while at the same time valuing and promoting the diverse languages and literacies
of our students?” (p. 176).
This tension is reflected in Caro’s post-workshop interview:
Rosa: Y cuáles son los retos cuando usas translanguaging en los cursos que das ahora?
Caro: Pues el reto es que de alguna manera están aprendiendo inglés en la clase entonces
la idea es encontrar la mayor cantidad de oportunidades en que ellos puedan
expresar sus ideas en la segunda lengua porque de alguna manera ese es el
propósito del curso. Que estén expresando sus ideas, hagan uso de lo que están
aprendiendo. Es un poco estar de mediador y ser flexible pero estar mediando
dependiendo el propósito comunicativo, pues puedes hacerlo en inglés o en
español y que este objetivo del aprendizaje de la segunda lengua no quede de
lado, sino llevarlos a ellos a que logren expresar sus ideas usando la segunda lengua,
SIN (énfasis original) necesidad de prohibir la otra, no?
Rosa: [And what are the challenges when you use translanguaging in the courses you
teach now?
Caro: Well, the challenge is that somehow, they are learning English in the class so the
idea is to find the greatest number of opportunities in which they can express
their ideas in the second language as such is the purpose of the course. So that
they are expressing their ideas and using what they are learning. It is a bit of
being a mediator and to being flexible but to mediate depending on the com
municative purpose because you can do it in English or Spanish so that this
objective of learning the second language is not left aside rather leads them to
express their ideas using the second language, WITHOUT (emphatically) needing
to prohibit the other, right?] (Caro’s Final Interview, April 2019)
In the workshops, teachers indicated students lacked resources for accessing bilingualism.
They believed that outside the classroom these students cannot find as many opportu
nities to perform bilingual oracy since Spanish is the language of wider communication.
Teachers explored multimodalities and translanguaging to compensate for their students’
lack of opportunities.
Entangling translanguaging and multimodalities with equitable access para

abarcar a todos los estudiantes
This vignette shows an entanglement of translanguaging and multimodalities in which
teachers disrupt English-only practices and begin to articulate their own that allows
students’ semiotic resources to be seen as assets. Here, multimodal representation and
translanguaging were intensified through the use of digital technologies. Although
teachers’ pedagogical interpretation of translanguaging is not completely fluid, it opens
a possibility to include students’ resources to increase equitable access.
As teachers and Rosa were exploring principles of instructional design during their
shared experience, Gabriela and other teachers linked their understanding of translangua
ging and multimodalities with recognizing a need for equitable access. Equitable access
entails removing barriers and making learning materials accessible for everyone.
Providing multiple means of engagement implies using multiple semiotic resources –

audio-visual and written modes – so that learners can access information and produce
knowledge through different modes of communication, depending on their experiences
and interest (Pliner & Johnson, 2004).
Upon finishing the workshop, Caro, Gabriela, and Leo designed a video tutorial that
included translanguaging and multimodalities. The video’s audio track was in Spanish,
but the associated tasks, and written content were in English and Spanish. In Caro’s
words:
The video addressed a foreign language learner who struggled with sentence structure and
pronunciation when speaking English. The multimodal tool which included a Powtoon
tutorial video, color cards, a voice recorder application, a Google document and Voice
recognition application to check pronunciation were used to present and implement this
strategy so learners could undertake a specific course of action to cope with their speaking
difficulties. Moreover, it gives a look at the use of the mother tongue as an advantage rather
than as an obstacle to learning a foreign language. (Caro’s Final Workshop, December 2018)
In this fragment we see how Caro shows her understanding of multimodality and
translanguaging as resources for learning. Caro mentions audiovisual, visual, auditory
and linguistic resources to support target language learning. Their Powtoon video
included cartoon-like animation that aligns with youth’s current digital practices. Rather
than focusing on separate modes, Caro’s team assembled semiotic resources together to
form a user-friendly video. Caro’s understanding of translanguaging relates to Creese and
Blackledge’s (2019) ideological translanguaging, as it includes flexible and separate
language practices. In her interview, Caro describes named languages: English, and
mother tongue, whereas integrating them is an advantage rather than as an obstacle to
learning a world language. There is evidence of fixed and fluid understandings of
language (Harissi et al., 2012).
When Rosa asked Gabriela why they chose Spanish for video’s audio while the text was
in English and Spanish, Gabriela maintained: “las instrucciones están en español – inglés y el
audio está en español precisamente intentando abarcar todos los estudiantes, entonces lo
que se vea también sea lo que se escuche” [the instructions are in Spanish and the audio is
also in Spanish precisely trying to reach all the students, so what is seen is also what is
heard] (Gabriela’s Final Interview, April 2019).
In this case, written translanguaging, Spanish audio, written and visual resources are
used together to make sure that novice emerging bilinguals have equitable access to
instructions. This use of translanglanguaging and multimodalities can be explained
through parallelism, when twin texts are offered in different languages and here mod
alities to convey the same meaning (Jonsson & Blåsjö, 2020). With intentional integration
of translanguaging and multimodalities in the design of instructional materials, teachers
strive to make sure novice emerging bilinguals were included, as well as open possibilities
for accessing information through multiple means of representation. Canals (2021) argues
that multimodality reinforces translanguaging; in this vignette, translanguaging rein
forces multimodality.
Leo, Caro, and Gabriela’s intentional inclusion of translanguaging and multimodalities
created flexibility to reach all students, “abarcar todos los estudiantes”. Although inclusion
of students’ linguistic and preferred semiotic resources does not necessarily imply fully
fluid linguistic practices, we witness an initial disruption to monolingual practices.
Entangling translanguaging and multimodality for advocacy

The confluence of translanguaging, multimodality and students with whom teachers
interacted generated an entanglement in which translanguaging and multimodality
coalesced as powerful tools for advocacy. Ponzio and Deroo (2021) and Caldas (2017)
highlight how teachers adopt translanguaging practices to advocate for their stu
dents. By advocacy, we mean socio-critical understandings that transcend design or
communication and move teachers to take action and mobilize resources for stu
dents. In the following vignette, Beto and Maria’s advocacy-building understandings
of translanguaging, multimodality and digital literacies transcend pedagogical design.
Beto and Maria’s multimodal project was entitled: “How to increase fluency and speak
ing performance by using visual and audio aids.” Initially, Beto and Maria attempted to
understand their focal student:
Maria: Back then I was with a student who had some visual difficulties. She always
needs a magnifying glass, or she needs to use iPads to zoom to detect images
because she cannot see properly and, in that sense, she has many difficulties
when it comes to doing reading exercises. In general, doing grammar and
reading exercises, she was kind of better when she was doing speaking and
listening exercises. So, the comprehension activities were difficult for her
because of her visual issues. But production was better. (Workshop Notes,
May, 2018)
Maria and Beto began by understanding their students’ conditions. To adopt an advocacy
perspective of translanguaging and multimodality, teachers begin by learning about
students’ strongest semiotic resources (audio and oral) and which semiotic resources
can be supported (visual).
In Maria and Beto’s planning below, we see how teachers entangle translanguaging, visual
aids, strongest listening and speaking skills for scaffolding spoken and written production.
Blog entry – How to increase fluency and speaking performance by using visual and audio
aids provided by Google Apps.
Users and benefits of this blog entry

A student with low vision can prepare her speaking sessions without forcing her sight at
the moment of taking notes or looking up for vocabulary in the dictionary. Moreover, she
could learn new vocabulary through voice and image entries.
Additionally, all students could find a benefit from the different virtual Apps that will be
suggested, when it comes to improving their vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency in
the preparation of the assigned tasks.
How is translanguaging used?

Instructions will be written in Spanish. Students can talk about their strengths, weak
nesses and action plan to improve their oral performance in L1 or L2.
Students can receive feedback in Spanish taking into account their profile.
(Beto and Maria’s planning, October, 2018)
In terms of multimodalities, the student’s strong auditory and speaking resources can
scaffold written production using voice dictation in Google Docs. Voice search can offer
visual support for students to make connections between new words and images.
Adding translanguaging provides procedural scaffolding and reinforces learning strate
gies and reflection about learning. There is also a possibility for translanguaging for
cross-linguistic awareness when teachers open space to offer feedback in Spanish as
well. Although entanglement of multimodal practice and translanguaging here is used
with a purpose to help with a monoglossic notion of fluency, the strategies to get there
are more flexible.
The project challenged Beto and Maria to transcend technical views on translangua
ging, multimodality and digital technologies and engage in advocacy. In Beto’s interview,
he narrates how as a teacher he needs to advocate for his student:
Rosa: (Ajamm). Entonces, así era que lo usaban antes con ella y ¿Tenía algunos recursos
multimodales favoritos antes de que estuvieran los workshops al comienzo de los
workshops, si te recuerdas?
Beto: Pues digamos, en mi caso particular como yo planeaba las clases, yo siempre tenía
un material que usábamos durante la sesión, pero a ella siempre, yo trataba de pedir
aquí prestado un tablet para que ella tuviera esa oportunidad de expandir su visión
y poder manejarlo mejor.
Rosa: [So, then that was what you used with her, did she have any favorite multimodal
resources from the beginning of professional development,if you remember?
Beto: [Let’s say, that in my particular case as I was the one who planned lessons,
I always had materials that we used in the session but for her, I always tried to
borrow a tablet so that she had that opportunity to expand her vision and to be
able to manage it better] (Beto, Workshop Notes, May, 2018)
Beto shows how much access to digital technologies, multimodality, and language choice
affect his student. Since the student did not own a device that would help her amplify her
sight; Beto takes action, using translanguaging and the speech to text feature in Google
Docs, he also asks the university to mobilize resources by borrowing a tablet on behalf of
his student. Students’ lack of access to multimodal tools demonstrates the digital divide in
Global South contexts. Clearly, we see how teachers can intervene on this divide with their
leadership and advocacy (Trust, 2018). When teachers implement multimodal and trans
languaging pedagogies in the Global South, they often need to advocate for access to
multimodal, digital, and multilingual resources for their students and themselves. Access
to these resources is often taken for granted in Global North settings.
Entangling multimodal digital tools built from/for monolingualism, and

translanguaging
Beyond monoglossic ideologies, while reflecting on how teachers co-constructed under
standings of translanguaging and multimodality, Rosa encountered monoglossic bias
built into digital technologies they were exploring and promoting for multimodality. One
such tool was Automated Speech Recognition (ASR).
Initially, Gabriela and other teachers got excited while exploring apps for multimodal
teaching and learning. They adopted Google Translate conversation feature for mobiles
and voice recognition in Google Docs with ASR. Below, Gabriela describes using this tool
to support her students’ oracy. Figure 2 shows the teachers trying out speech to text
translate using their mobiles.
Rosa: ¿Lo usan con la feature de conversación o cómo lo usan con los estudiantes?
[Do you use it with the conversation feature (on the phone, Google Translate app), or
how do you use it with students?]
Gabriela: No, I tell my students to use this tool for pronunciation. So, we use different
strategies, now we use Word Reference to practice pronunciation while they
listen, I love the IPA symbols so we use to learn how to pronounce it and also to
verify pronunciation because sometimes you don’t have the time to do it, I mean,
most of the time you do not have the time to do it, because we only met two
hours a week, they are working independently. So, I believe this tool can help
them practice pronunciation. If they use the conversation feature and Google
Translate understands them, they can verify they are pronouncing correctly. So
I think it is a good way to verify pronunciation. (Gabriela’s Interview, April 2019)
Later reflecting on their use of mobile apps, Rosa noted how teachers did not have time to
reflect critically. Rosa recounted:
Now, when I look back, I realized we were missing a critical issue in speech recognition used
in mobile apps. The corpora for these apps represent primary speakers’ dominant varieties of
English. Google te entiende? [Does Google understand you?] ASR on applications like ALEXA
and SIRI use data generated by and adapted to primary language speakers. Thus, emerging
bilinguals or people with other varieties do not benefit as much. Built into mobiles and other
applications, ASR may not work for bilinguals and speakers of non dominant varieties. ASR
can be a source for racio-linguistic bias. (Post-workshop Notes, September, 2018)
Rosa realized how she and the teachers had not considered the monoglossic bias built
into many digital technologies while pursuing multimodal resources. From this vignette,
we note how multimodal and digital technologies are not neutral. They are designed and
function as components of social assemblages that can lead teachers and users towards
homogenization and reproduction of dominant meaning-making forms as the goal is to
be understood by an automated “white listening subject” (Flores & Rosa, 2015).
Encouraging multimodality does not necessarily entail linguistic fluidity; as seen here,
multimodal strategies can exist without translanguaging goals. As teachers, we need to
discern our positions and engage with language, multimodal and digital tools critically.
Entangling teachers’ practice with multimodal and translanguaging

understandings
Constructing understandings of multimodality and translanguaging was referred to as
both challenging and inspirational in the final interviews. During this final interview,
Gabriela recounts her struggles to understand multimodality and translanguaging:
Rosa: Si nos puedes contar este año que aprendiste de todo este proceso, ¿así en
general?
[If you can tell us, this year that you learned from all this process, perhaps in general?]
Gabriela: Estos workshops nos dieron teoría, práctica. En la teoría fue un poco duro,
ahora me siento más confiada al hablar de multimodalidad, de translanguaging
y pues también el uso de herramientas en clase. Porque ha cambiado los teaching
practices. He aprendido a buscar diferentes herramientas para que puedan usarlas
y puedan mejorar en el idioma, no sólo las que adoptamos en el producto que
realizamos, puedes con otros para mejorar las habilidades. Tratar de mostrarles
diferentes formas para que ellos también terminen identificando con cuáles se
sienten mejor y cuáles les gustaría usar.
[These workshops gave us theory, practice. The theory, it was a bit hard. now I feel more
confident when talking about multimodality, translanguaging and also the use of tools in class.
Because this has changed our teaching practices. I have learned to look for different tools so
that they can use them and can improve in the language, not only with the strategies that we
adopted and in the product we created, you can implement other strategies with other
students to improve the skills that they complement. (I learned to) Try to show them different
ways so that they also end up identifying which one they feel best with and which one they
would like to use.] (Gabriela’s interview, April, 2019)
Gabriela’s struggle with new theories, especially multimodality was a “bit hard” in the
beginning. She asserted that her understanding of multimodality became clearer when
she engaged in planning and implementing the multimodal project with her students. She
appropriated the concept of multimodality while she had to examine affordances of multi
modal practices for her specific students. She summarizes her understanding of multimodal
and translanguaging pedagogies: “Try to show them different ways so that they also end up
identifying which ones they feel best with and which ones they would like to use”.
Gabriela’s understanding of translanguaging and multimodalities is practical (Wei, 2018). By
examining how teachers and students make sense through engaging with translanguaging
and multimodalities within human and nonhuman assemblages (i.e. human bodies, class
rooms, materials, curriculum, school district policies) we can see how their own understand
ings unfold into praxis-oriented theories. Multimodalities and translanguaging begin to make
sense once teachers reflect on them as entangled with their teaching practices, a full socio
cultural understanding of their students, and the constraints and affordances of their context.
Discussion: affordances of translanguaging and multimodalities as

entanglements
We have showcased entanglements that emerged when teachers designed and imple
mented multimodal and translanguaging pedagogies in critical ways. Our proposal to
consider translanguaging and multimodalities as entangled recognizes both interconnec
tions and tensions that are embedded in both local and larger social contexts. This study
uses critical posthuman concepts (entanglements and tensions) to explain translangua
ging and multimodality, that is, entrelazados con linguistic and socio-economic conditions
of teachers and learners in the Global South. Consequently, we suggest thinking about
multimodality and translanguaging in tandem. In our vignettes and review of available
literatures, multimodal practices do not always presuppose translanguaging; translangua

ging does not always centre multiple semiotic resources beyond linguistic forms. As we
consider later, sometimes multimodal and digital pedagogies can be appropriated for
monoglossic goals.
All the focal teachers engaged with the theories of translanguaging and multimodal
ities through practice. Maria and Gabriela experienced the socio-economic forces that
pushed them to provide their students with access to dominant linguistic resources as
sources of power. Gabriela and colleagues questioned the inequitable access that their
students have to these practices and tools. Caro and colleagues created and narrated
a video in Spanish to showcase translanguaging and multimodalities as semiotic
resources. Maria and Beto demonstrated that pedagogies are not just about practices
but also advocacy. Gabriela and Leo analysed the limits and biases of digital tools.
Our dialogic reflexive project supports Harissi et al. (2012) assertion that flexible and
inflexible views of language and multilingualism can coexist. With a conjoined trans
languaging and multimodal perspective from the Global South, we account for integrat
ing semiotic and cultural flows dialogically within power relations that are responsive to
local needs. The translanguaging and multimodal pedagogical practices came from the
confluence of teachers’ experiences, interests, and constraints produced in serving their
students in particular circumstances. Teachers engaged in dynamic entanglements of
tensions between homogenizing forces that pulled them to reproduce monoglossic and
Anglocentric strategies while contrasting forces afforded possibilities for divergent prac
tices of translanguaging and multimodality. Emerging entanglements arose as seen
through access to digital technologies and socioeconomic repercussions of teaching
English in a Global South context where Spanish is the official language. The teachers’
translanguaging and multimodal experiences from the learning community became
valuable resources for professional knowledge production and repertoires of pedagogical
practice.
Pedagogical implications for preparing teachers as researchers

Pedagogical and theoretical entanglements emerged in spaces that honour teachers’
intellectual development where they find creative ways to make sense of translanguaging
and multimodality. This study shows that professional spaces for translanguaging, multi
modalities, and teachers’ criticality can produce new vibrant entanglements of theories
and teaching practices. Teachers’ contextualized understandings of translanguaging and
multimodal pedagogies expanded (in unexpected ways) what research has proposed.
Teachers need spaces to interact with theory and creatively own their practices
collaboratively. The teachers in this study and the space facilitators were benefited by
the institution that permitted and supported this professional learning experience within
teachers’ working hours. We encourage other institutions to open professional spaces
where teachers can play, design, and question their understanding and practices through
putting new theories to work. These spaces help teachers to de/re/construct and share
understandings.
We show that translanguaging and multimodality entanglements are significant, not
only for researching teachers’ pedagogical thinking in the classroom, but also in the
teachers’ formation as researchers of their own practice. Their criticality about conceptual
tools from North America through technologically mediated professional exchanges

afforded a space to examine, dialogue, and selectively address unmet student needs in
their contexts. The entanglements revealed what would otherwise be dismissed or even
labelled as non-conforming or lacking fidelity to the content of professional learning and
sanctioned pedagogies. These entanglements were precisely what generated situated
knowledge and additional inquiries while resisting the colonizing effects of teaching
innovation from the North to South.
Drawing on translanguaging and multimodalities, translanguaging space (Wei, 2011)
and critical translanguaging space (Hamman, 2018), we advocate for translanguaging,
transmodal and translocal spaces for teacher professional learning.
Translanguaging, transmodal, and translocal spaces connect teachers across semiotic
flows, cultures, and places creating openings for ongoing critical and creative inquiry.
Translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies continue emerging as teachers entangle
theories, understandings, and practices for social transformation.
We acknowledge the ever-constant limitations as monolingual school practices can
shut down translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies. It is incumbent upon leaders to
be courageous to provide support and resources.
Possibilities for practitioners in their classrooms

When teacher educators and teachers understand translanguaging and multimodality as
creative and critical entanglements embedded in their social contexts, they can poten
tially transform their instructional practices for the benefit of students. We claim that
teachers can integrate semiotic and cultural flows dialogically within power relations that
respond to the context before, during, and after classroom learning. Firstly, teachers can
start their courses by consciously getting to know their students’ social backgrounds,
multilingual resources, multimodal literacies, preferred digital tools, and access condi
tions. In this way, they can understand the multimodal and multilingual resources
students bring to school as well as how socio-economic constraints can affect access to
multiple meaning-making resources. This is ongoing work as students engage in class
room projects that create spaces for them to inquire into their lived experiences. These
projects offer windows for teachers and other classroom members to learn about/from
each other. Teacher and students can be invited to represent their work through trans
languaging and multimodality as they use familiar and unfamiliar practices.
Secondly, teacher educators and teachers can explicitly include translanguaging and
multimodality in tandem for curricular planning and material design. In their lessons and
materials, teachers can explicitly plan for translanguaging and multimodalities to foster
communication, reflection, collaboration, transnational connections, and affirm diverse
cultural and linguistic identities and practices.
Thirdly, teachers can expand their pedagogical repertoires by critically examining their
current instructional practices and use of multimodal tools. Teachers can pilot new
multimodal and translanguaging strategies and tools across the curriculum with their
students. After trying these tools and strategies, teacher educators in collaboration with
teachers and students can evaluate the affordances of these tools for learning and take
note of their limitations and biases.
Lastly, entangling translanguaging and multimodality into raises students’ and tea
chers’ critical awareness of the complex ways resources in their own contexts can be
harnessed to leverage more equitable learning practices. Teachers and students can use
multimodal and multilingual resources to work for social participation, knowledge pro
duction, and representation in classroom settings and beyond.
Teachers can continue building on their pedagogical strategies and enact their
agency through creativity and criticality. Even within scripted curricular structures,
teachers can enrich their practice by reflecting on unexpected learning moments and
sharing their knowledge with others. In reflecting on emerging entanglements,
teachers can reposition themselves as critical translingual and transmodal designers
and advocates for equitable access in translocal spaces. Teachers’ critical and inno
vative use of translanguaging and multimodalities can help students thrive despite
inequality. Documenting translanguaging and multimodal pedagogical entangle
ments from diverse linguistic and socio-economic contexts in the Global South is
still an ongoing task.
As Leo comments in this PhotoVoice audio reflection (September, 2018), “There are
parts that I have built about translanguaging and multimodality. I have some foundations,
but there is still a lot to be built.” Figure 3 illustrates how Leo understands translangua
ging and multimodality.
Acknowledgments
We want to thank the amazing teachers who participated in the transnational professional
development: Caro, Gabriela, Maria, Miss J, Gabriel, Beto, and Leo. Their stories, and creative
and critical insights inspired us on this year-long learning journey. Special thanks to Caro for
leading the teachers at the Colombian site. Our thanks to Jermaine McDougald for supporting
this professional development in his role of teacher academic coordinator. We thank the issue
co-editors Drs. Raul Mora, Ruth Harman, and Zhongfeng Tian for advocating to include novice
voices from international researchers in the field. We thank the reviewers for their valuable
insights. We would like to thank Dr. Rebecca Lorimer for her contributions on literacies and
language ideologies and Dr. Torrey Trust and Fred Zinn for critical uses of digital tools for
teachers’ professional development. We also thank Marielos Arlen Marin for her support. These
contributions nourished the original study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This work was partially supported by The Administrative Department of Science, Technology and
Innovation of Colombia Colciencias [Doctoral Scholarship 647] and Colfuturo Fundación para el
future de Colombia [Convocatoria 2014]; Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología
e Innovación (COLCIENCIAS) [Doctoral Scholarship 646];Fundación para el futuro de Colombia
[Convocatoria Exterior 2014];
Notes on contributors
Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros Lecturer in the College of Education at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst. She has a PhD in Education: Language, Literacy and Culture from the
same institution. She uses ethnographic, decolonial/decolonizing, critical and posthumanist epis
temologies to study translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies as critical, creative, and colla
borative social practices. She is an affiliated researcher at Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de
Caldas, Lectoescrinautas Colciencias research group in Colombia. She also teaches in the TESOL
program at CUNY, College of Staten Island.
Maria José Botelho Professor of Language, Literacy & Culture at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. She is interested in how K-12 school literacy practices can be reimagined to affirm
children’s cultural and linguistic knowledges as well as to offer tools for cultural production and
social participation. Dr. Botelho puts to work feminist poststructuralism/posthumanism/ethnogra
phy/critical discourse analysis. Her current research explores ethnographic epistemologies and
critical literacies for experienced and preservice teachers, teacher educators, and researchers of
multimodal literacies education.
Theresa Austin Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, uses several critical socio
cultural theories to examine language and literacy in formulating education policies and planning
for multilingual learners and teacher education. Her research examines the relationship between
classrooms and broader social contexts. Dr. Austin engages in narrative inquiry, discursive analysis
and ethnographic research in collaboration with teachers, students, and researchers who cross
national boundaries for learning world languages and literacies (e.g., AAVE, ESL/EFL, Spanish and
Japanese).
Diana Angélica Parra Pérez Language teacher in the School of Languages at Universidad de
Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. Her research interests are technology mediated language learning
and language teachers’ professional development. She develops open educational resources for
learning English and Spanish as a Foreign Language. She is an affiliated researcher at the Language
Learning and Teaching - Universidad de La Sabana (LALETUS) research group.
ORCID
Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9601-5319
Maria José Botelho http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5410-5153
Theresa Austin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7189-9370
Diana Angélica Parra Pérez http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3068-0970
References
Attia, M., & Edge, J. (2017). Be(com)ing a reflexive researcher: A developmental approach to research
methodology. Open Review of Educational Research, 4(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/
23265507.2017.1300068
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and
meaning. Duke University Press.
Bengochea, A., Sembiante, S. F., & Gort, M. (2018). An emergent bilingual child’s multimodal choices
in sociodramatic play. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(1), 38–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1468798417739081
Bolton, G., & Delderfield, R. (2018). Reflective practice. Writing and professional development (Fifth)
ed.). Sage.
Burton, J., & Rajendram, S. (2019). Translanguaging-as-resource: University ESL instructors’ language
orientations and attitudes toward translanguaging. TESL Canada Journal, 36(1), 21–47. https://doi.
org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1301
Caldas, B. (2017). Shifting discourses in teacher education: Performing the advocate bilingual
teacher. Arts Education Policy Review, 118(4), 190–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2017.
1287801
Canals, L. (2021). Multimodality and translanguaging in negotiation of meaning. Foreign Language
Annals, 54(3), 647–670. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12547
Cenoz, J. (2017). Translanguaging in school contexts: International perspectives. Journal of
Language, Identity & Education, 16(4), 193–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2017.
1327816
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2019). Multilingualism, Translanguaging, and Minority Languages in SLA. The
Modern Language Journal, 103, 130–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12529
Chen, X., Li, J., & Zhu, S. (2021). Translanguaging multimodal pedagogy in French pronunciation
instruction: Vis-à-vis students’ spontaneous translanguaging. System, 101, 1–13. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.system.2021.102603
Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2019). Translanguaging and Public Service Encounters: Language
Learning in the Library. The Modern Language Journal, 103(4), 800–814. https://doi.org/10.1111/
modl.12601
Dagenais, D., Toohey, K., Bennett Fox, A., & Singh, A. (2017). Multilingual and multimodal composi
tion at school: ScribJab in action. Language and Education, 31(3), 263–282. https://doi.org/10.
1080/09500782.2016.1261893
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Continuum.
De Mejía, A. M. (2002). Power, prestige, and bilingualism: International perspectives on elite bilingual
education. Multilingual Matters.
Doerr-Stevens, C., & Woywod, C. (2018). Stepping onto fertile ground: Urban teachers’ preparation
for interdisciplinary inquiry. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 13(2), 164–180. https://doi.org/
10.1080/1554480X.2018.1463851
Farías, M., & Véliz, L. (2019). Multimodal texts in Chilean English teaching education: Experiences
from educators and pre-service teachers. Profile Issues in TeachersProfessional Development, 21(2),
13–27. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v21n2.75172
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language
diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/
0017-8055.85.2.149
García, O., Flores, N., & Spotti, M. (2017). Introduction—language and society. In O. García, N. Flores,
& M. Spotti (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language and society (pp. 1–16). Oxford University
Press.
García, O., Johnson, S. I., Seltzer, K., & Valdés, G. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging
student bilingualism for learning. Caslon.
Grossberg, L. (2006). Does cultural studies have futures? Should it?(Or what’s the matter with
New York?) Cultural studies, contexts and conjunctures. Cultural Studies, 20(1), 1–32. https://doi.
org/10.1080/09502380500492541
Hamman, L. (2018). Translanguaging and positioning in two-way dual language classrooms: A case
for criticality. Language and Education, 32(1), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2017.
1384006
Harissi, M., Otsuji, E., & Pennycook, A. (2012). The performative fixing and unfixing of subjectivities.
Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 524–543. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams053
Hawkins, M. (2018). Transmodalities and transnational encounters: Fostering critical cosmopolitan
relations. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx048
Heller, M., & McElhinny, B. (2017). Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical history.
University of Toronto Press.
Holloway, S. M. (2021). The multiliteracies project: Preservice and inservice teachers learning by
design in diverse content areas. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 16(3), 307–325. https://doi.
org/10.1080/1554480X.2020.1787172
Janks, H. (2000). Domination, access, diversity and design: A synthesis for critical literacy education.
Educational Review, 52(2), 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/713664035
Jewitt. (2016). Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (2nd ed., pp. 9781138245198). London:
Routledge.
Jewitt, C., & Kress, G. R. (Eds.). (2003). Multimodal literacy. Peter Lang.
Jonsson, C., & Blåsjö, M. (2020). Translanguaging and multimodality in workplace texts and writing.
International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(3), 361–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2020.
1766051
Kendrick, M., Early, M., & Chemjor, W. (2019). Designing multimodal texts in a girls’ afterschool
journalism club in rural Kenya. Language and Education, 33(2), 123–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/
09500782.2018.1516777
Klein, T., & Garcia, O. (2019). Translanguaging as an act of transformation. In L. C. de Oliveira (Ed.), The
handbook of TESOL in K-12 (pp. 69–82). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London
and New York: Taylor & Francis.
Kuby, C. R. (2014). Understanding emotions as situated, embodied, and fissured: Thinking with
theory to create an analytical tool. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27(10),
1285–1311. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.834390
Kumagai, Y., López-Sánchez, A., & Wu, S. (Eds.), (2015) Multiliteracies in World Language Education
(1st ed., pp. 9781315736143). New York: Routledge.
Kusters, A., Spotti, M., Swanwick, R., & Tapio, E. (2017). Beyond languages, beyond modalities:
Transforming the study of semiotic repertoires. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(3),
219–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1321651
Lin, A. M. (2019). Theories of trans/languaging and trans-semiotizing: Implications for content-based
education classrooms. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(1), 5–16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1515175
Masny, D. (2013). Rhizoanalytic pathways in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(5), 339–348.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413479559
Massey, D. (2005). For space. Sage.
McElhinny, B. (2016). Language and political economy. In N. Bonvillain (Ed.), The Routledge handbook
of linguistic anthropology (pp. 279–300). Routledge.
Mills, K. A. (2015). Literacy theories for the digital age. Multilingual Matters.
Medina, R. A. (2020). Teachers co-constructing multilingual and multimodal digital literacy practices:
Examining critical translanguaging professional development. [Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation].
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Medina, R. A., & Austin, T. (2022). Decolonizing research using translanguaging: Negotiating multi
lingual and decolonizing research moves with multilingual teachers in Colombia. In P. Holmes,
J. Reynolds, & S. Ganassin (Eds.), The politics of researching multilingually. Multilingual Matters (pp.
287–306). https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410152-018
Ministerio de Cultura Colombia. (2021, November 14). Lenguas Nativas y Criollas de Colombia.
https://mincultura.gov.co/areas/poblaciones/APP-de-lenguas-nativas/Paginas/default.aspx
Mora, R. A., Pulgarín, C., Ramírez, N., & Mejía-Vélez, M. C. (2018). English literacies in Medellin: The city
as literacy. in learning cities. In S. Nichols & S. Dobson, (Eds.), Learning Cities. Cultural Studies and
Transdisciplinarity in Education (Vol. 8, pp. 37–60). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-
8100-2_4
Ortega, Y. (2019). “Teacher,¿ Puedo hablar en Español?” A reflection on plurilingualism and trans
languaging practices in EFL. Profile Issues in Teachers Professional Development, 21(2), 155–170.
https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v21n2.74091
Palmer, D. K., Martínez, R. A., Mateus, S. G., & Henderson, K. (2014). Reframing the debate on
language separation: Toward a vision for translanguaging pedagogies in the dual language
classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 757–772. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12121
Paulsrud, B., Tian, Z., & Toth, J. (Eds.). (2021). English-medium instruction and translanguaging.
Multilingual Matters.
Pennycook, A. (2017). Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages. International Journal of
Multilingualism, 14(3), 269–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1315810
Pennycook, A. (2020). Translingual entanglements of English. World Englishes, 39(2), 222–235.

https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12456
Pliner, S. M., & Johnson, J. R. (2004). Historical, theoretical, and foundational principles of universal
instructional design in higher education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37(2), 105–113. https://
doi.org/10.1080/10665680490453913
Ponzio, C. M., & Deroo, M. R. (2021). Harnessing multimodality in language teacher education:
Expanding English-dominant teachers’ translanguaging capacities through a multimodalities
entextualization cycle. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1–17.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2021.1933893
Richardson, L., & St. Pierre, E. A. (2005). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln
(Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd) ed., pp. 959–978). Sage Publications.
Stranger–Johannessen, E., & Norton, B. (2017). The African storybook and language teacher identity
in digital times. The Modern Language Journal, 101(S1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.
12374
Schissel, J. L., De Korne, H., & López-Gopar, M. (2021). Grappling with translanguaging for teaching
and assessment in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts: Teacher perspectives from
Oaxaca, Mexico. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(3), 340–356.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1463965
Sembiante, S. (2016). Translanguaging and the multilingual turn: Epistemological reconceptualiza
tion in the fields of language and implications for reframing language in curriculum studies.
Curriculum Inquiry, 46(1), 45–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2015.1133221
Sembiante, S. F., & Tian, Z. (2020). The need for translanguaging in TESOL. In Z. Tian, L. Aghai, P.
Sayer, & J. L. Schissel (Eds.), Envisioning TESOL through a translanguaging lens (pp. 43–66).
Springer.
Trigos-Carrillo, L., & Rogers, R. (2017). Latin American influences on multiliteracies: From epistemo
logical diversity to cognitive justice. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 66(1), 373–
388. https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336917718500
Trust, T. (2018). 2017 ISTE standards for educators: From teaching with technology to using
technology to empower learners. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(1), 1–3.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1398980
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics. Psychology Press.
Vitanova, G. (2016). Exploring second-language teachers’ identities through multimodal narratives:
Gender and race discourses. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 261–288. https://doi.org/
10.1080/15427587.2016.1165074
Vogel, S., Ascenzi-Moreno, L., & García, O. (2018). An expanded view of translanguaging: Leveraging
the dynamic interactions between a young multilingual writer and machine translation software.
In J. Choi & S. Ollerhead (Eds.), Plurilingualism in teaching and learning: Complexities across
contexts (pp. 89–106). Routledge.
Wei, L. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by
multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222–1235. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035
Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30.
https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039
Willis Allen, H., & Paesani, K. (2010). Exploring the Feasibility of a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies in
Introductory Foreign Language Courses, 2 (1), 10.5070/L2219064.
6/26/23, 5:06 PM Pedagogies: An International Journal: Vol 17, No 4
Pedagogies: An International Journal,

Volume 17, Issue 4 (2022)
See all volumes and issues
 Volume 17, 2022 Vol 16, 2021 Vol 15, 
 Issue Issue Issue Issu 

4 3 2 1
 Browse by section (All)   Display order (Default) 
 Download citations  Download PDFs  Download issue
Translanguaging and Multimodality
Editorial
Editorial
Translanguaging and multimodality as flow, agency, and a new sense of
advocacy in and from the Global South 
Raúl Alberto Mora, Zhongfeng Tian & Ruth Harman
Pages: 271-281
Published online: 30 Nov 2022
890 1 1
Views CrossRef citations Altmetric
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hped20/17/4 2/7
Research Artcile
Article
Translanguaging flows in Chinese word instruction: Potential critical
sociolinguistic engagement with children’s artistic representations of
Chinese characters 
Zhongfeng Tian & Sunny Man Chu Lau
Pages: 282-302
190 2 0
Article
Systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis: multimodal
composing and civic agency of multilingual youth 
Ruth Harman, Khanh Bui, Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso, Max Vazquez Dominguez, Cory A. Buxton
& Shuang Fu
Pages: 303-322
240 1 2
Article
Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies:
emerging creative and critical entanglements during transnational
professional development 
Rosa Alejandra Medina Riveros, Maria José Botelho, Theresa Austin & Diana Angélica Parra
Pérez
Pages: 323-347
180 0 0
Article
Reconceptualizing semiotic resources in the eco-social system of an
online language tutoring course 
Qinghua Chen & Angel M.Y. Lin
Pages: 348-367
107 0 0
Article
Orchestrating multimodal resources in English language teaching: a
critical study of an online English teaching video 
Wing Yee Jenifer Ho & Dezheng (William) Feng
Pages: 368-388
305 0 0
Article
Translanguaging within multimodal composition products and
processes: A systematic review 
Mark B Pacheco, Blaine E Smith, Eva Combs & Natalie A Amgott
Pages: 389-407
315 0 0
Commentary
Translanguaging, multimodality, southern theory, and pedagogical

possibilities 
Li Wei
Pages: 408-412
789 0 1
Explore articles
Latest Open access Most read Most cited Trending
Explore the most recently published articles
Scaffolding principles of content-based science instruction in an

international elementary school 
Zahra Kamrani et al.
Article | Published online: 15 Jun 2023
Blended online courses: students’ learning experiences and engaging

instructional strategies 
Géraldine Heilporn et al.
Article | Published online: 7 Jun 2023

Teachers Inquiring Into Translanguaging

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Teachers Inquiring Into Translanguaging

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Teachers Inquiring Into Translanguaging

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pedagogies: An International Journal

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hped20

Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2022.2139259

Published online: 30 Nov 2022.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

Teachers inquiring into translanguaging and multimodal

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

contradiction. Colombia is a linguistically and culturally diverse country that endures

Multimodalities: integrating multimodality and transmodalities

“multimodality is the normal state of human communication” (Kress, 2010, p. 1) as

Translanguaging and multimodalities as creative and critical entanglements

Our notion of translanguaging and multimodalities as entangled recognizes both inter­

Studies on teacher education, translanguaging, and multimodality

Ways of knowing, doing, and analysing

Our article draws on a one-year ethnographic study of transnational professional

Vignette writing and reading as analysis

Through encounters in a transnational professional development course, tools, ideas, and

Translanguaging and translation

Research sites and teacher participants

Figure 3. Leo’s photovoice translanguaging and multimodality: under construction.

McElhinny (2017) refer to monolingual testing ideologies and regimes as materializations

Table 1. Participating teachers.

Emerging critical and creative entanglements of translanguaging and

Entangling translanguaging and multimodalities with unequal access

In Colombia, as in other global contexts, English-based bilingualism indexes middle or

In bilingual or multilingual societies, postcolonial contexts, and in diglossic linguistic situa­

Furthermore, as in Colombian English is not the ethnolinguistic majority language but

Entangling translanguaging and multimodalities with equitable access para

Providing multiple means of engagement implies using multiple semiotic resources –

Entangling translanguaging and multimodality for advocacy

Users and benefits of this blog entry

How is translanguaging used?

Entangling multimodal digital tools built from/for monolingualism, and

Entangling teachers’ practice with multimodal and translanguaging

Discussion: affordances of translanguaging and multimodalities as

literatures, multimodal practices do not always presuppose translanguaging; translangua­

Pedagogical implications for preparing teachers as researchers

tools from North America through technologically mediated professional exchanges

Possibilities for practitioners in their classrooms

Pennycook, A. (2020). Translingual entanglements of English. World Englishes, 39(2), 222–235.

Pedagogies: An International Journal,

 Volume 17, 2022 Vol 16, 2021 Vol 15, 

 Issue Issue Issue Issu 

 Browse by section (All)   Display order (Default) 

 Download citations  Download PDFs  Download issue

Translanguaging and Multimodality

Translanguaging, multimodality, southern theory, and pedagogical

Latest Open access Most read Most cited Trending

Explore the most recently published articles

Scaffolding principles of content-based science instruction in an

Article | Published online: 15 Jun 2023

Blended online courses: students’ learning experiences and engaging

Article | Published online: 7 Jun 2023

Our notion of translanguaging and multimodalities as entangled recognizes both inter

In bilingual or multilingual societies, postcolonial contexts, and in diglossic linguistic situa

literatures, multimodal practices do not always presuppose translanguaging; translangua