In this conceptual presentation, we argue that translanguaging as a multifaceted lens holds great promises for challenging the underlying monolingual orthodoxy in the field of TESOL. We also provide some empirical evidence to illustrate how translanguaging can be integrated in instruction and assessment to leverage multilingual learners' full linguistic repertoires.
The first part of the 21st century has witnessed the formation and expansion of a complex linguistic landscape. Due to increased spatial and social mobilities, numerous conflict zones, and technological advances, we are entering what Li Wei (2016, 2018) has characterized as a post-multilingualism era, where ideological borders across and between languages have been blurred and where complex interweaving of language and language varieties has become more communally recognized and welcomed. However, the profession of TESOL continues to promote English teaching and learning with entrenched monolingual bias (Ortega, 2014, 2019) which manifests as "English" as a monolithic entity, "native-speaker" idealism, and "English-only" pedagogies. In this conceptual presentation, we envision TESOL through a translanguaging lens: we argue that translanguaging as a "multifaceted and multilayer polysemic" lens (Leung & Valdés, 2019, p. 12) with strong social justice implications holds great promises of questioning and deconstructing the underlying monolingual orthodoxy. Specifically, we first unpack the notion of translanguaging from three aspects-as descriptive, theoretical, and pedagogical lenses-to urge the field of TESOL to embrace multilingualism and multiculturalism as central rather than auxiliary and to be culturally and linguistically sustaining instead of dominating. Then we explicate how each lens could introduce an epistemological shift to reimagine the roles of teachers and learners, the process and goals of teaching and learning, as well as the future directions of the TESOL profession. We offer some empirical evidence from our own work with pre- and in-service teachers to present how translanguaging can be strategically and purposefully integrated in instruction and assessment to leverage multilingual learners' full linguistic and semiotic repertoires. We end with a call for collaboration among educational stakeholders in TESOL (especially teachers, researchers, teacher educators) to continuously explore the opportunities and challenges of applying a translanguaging lens for cultural and linguistic pluralism in TESOL.
