Abstract

This book examines translanguaging in higher education and provides clear examples of what translanguaging looks like in practice in particular contexts around the world. While higher education has historically been seen as a monolingual space, the case studies from the international contexts included in this collection show us that institutions of higher education are often translingual spaces that reflect the multilingual environments in which they exist. Chapters demonstrate how the use of translanguaging practices within the context of global higher education, where English plays an increasingly important role, allows students and professors to build on their linguistic repertoires to more efficiently and effectively learn content. The documentation of such practices within the context of higher education will further legitimatize translanguaging practices and may lead to their increased use not only in higher education but also in both primary and secondary schools.

This rich collection of articles establishes translanguaging as a legitimate pedagogy for multilingual populations. Its wide-ranging examples creates a unified conceptual framework for the often-contested term and highlights some of the creative programs and dynamic approaches to plurilingual pedagogies and methods around the globe. These approaches would be useful to educators and teacher educators in higher education working with multi-lingual populations who are interested in implementing translanguaging pedagogies and practices.

Translanguaging in Higher Education lives up to its title. All chapters in the book illustrate how translanguaging in higher education disrupts monolingual ideologies as multilingual students, professors, class materials, and policies come together to facilitate meaning making. Overall, this book makes some important contributions to the field by engaging translanguaging in multiple conversations.

This well constructed collection of studies sheds valuable light on an under-researched area by investigating translanguaging in higher education contexts. Combining advocacy and exploration, it provides both a critique of the prevailing monolingual habitus of universities and important insights into what adopting translanguaging can achieve in higher education.

Two factors make this book ground-breaking and transformational. Firstly, it changes the conversations that we have been having about multilingualism in higher education, providing us with a translanguaging lens. Secondly, it extends our understandings of translanguaging itself. The book presents both the potential of translanguaging, especially in higher education, as well as the tensions and conflicts with which it is sometimes received.

Mazak and Carroll have put together an outstanding collection of critical studies challenging the monolingual ideologies in higher education from a truly global perspective. It is both empirically rich and analytically sharp. It furthers the translanguaging research agenda significantly.

Catherine M. Mazak is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Her research interests include translanguaging, bilingual education and multilingual higher education.

Kevin S. Carroll is Associate Professor in the Department of Graduate Studies in the College of Education at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. His research interests include language planning and policy, translanguaging and language maintenance.