RESUMEN

Este artículo es parte de una experiencia de aula para ejemplificar cómo unos estudiantes,
a manera de seres sociales, aprenden inglés como lengua extranjera en Colombia y
también cómo la profesora usa trans[cultura]linguación, un proceso por el cual se
construye significado durante una actividad de inglés mientras se comparan variaciones
lingüísticas y los estudiantes aprenden más acerca de su cultura y la de otros. Usando
conceptos de plurilingüismo y translinguación, este artículo describe cómo la profesora
intenta usar un enfoque de justicia social para la enseñanza del inglés al valorar los
repertorios lingüísticos y culturales de sus estudiantes. Como conclusión propongo
implicaciones para un cambio de paradigma lingüístico desde un marco monolítico de
enseñanza de lengua(s) a uno más dinámico en el cual los antecedentes lingüísticos y
culturales de los estudiantes sean usados como plataforma para tratar temas relevantes y
relacionados con sus comunidades.

Palabras clave: Colombia; inglés como lengua extranjera; justicia social; plurilingüismo;
translinguación

INTRODUCTION

English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught across the globe with the aim of
encouraging students to become more socio-economically competitive and, ultimately,
to achieve better academic success (Dang, Nguyen, & Le, 2013; Guo, 2012; Usma, 2009a; Wilkinson, 2015).
Although research strongly suggests that the use of multiple languages support second
language learning (C. Baker, 2001; Cummins, 1996, 2001; Hornberger, 1995, 2002), in Colombian
classrooms the standard practice remains one of banning the use of languages other
than English, including Indigenous languages (Miranda-Nieves, 2018; Peláez & Usma, 2017; Usma,
2009a, 2015; Usma & Peláez, 2017), and many teachers and policymakers still believe
that in order to learn English effectively, students must use English exclusively.

In this article, I will employ plurilingualism and translanguaging as concepts to argue

for the validation and recognition of students’ native language (which in this case is
Spanish or may be an Indigenous language), as well as their personal backgrounds
and identities. I will present a classroom scenario in which students are encouraged to
use their first language to make meaning as they learn English. Here, the teacher
promotes the use of Spanish during the learning of English in order to consolidate the
teaching of English, while using social-justice themes collaboratively. These classroom
experiences exemplify how literacy and the validation of first languages can
successfully be implemented as ways to remove barriers to learning. It also showcases
how, by allowing students to engage in their first language, serious issues regarding
social interactions (such as bullying and aggression) can be discussed in the class,
while simultaneously and effectively achieving English literacy skills. Further, using
these English-classroom experiences as examples, I propose that plurilingualism and
translanguaging converge in the classroom as an approach to teaching; which I refer
to in Spanish as trans[cultura]linguación (i.e., the synergy of languages interacting
with cultures in a pedagogical task). In this process, students use their knowledge of
Spanish and English to make meaning as they experience the merging cultures or
subcultures. Although I will focus here on non-English speaking countries in Latin
America (specifically Colombia), this approach can also be applied to other
international contexts.
Finally, I advocate for a paradigm shift in teacher education programs and language
research in which plurilingualism and translanguaging are adopted as approaches to
EFL learning in contexts where English is not the official language of instruction. I
argue that these approaches provide an equitable avenue for all students to
successfully learn English, regardless of their socioeconomic status. I ultimately posit
that this paradigm shift in EFL pedagogies may foster an inclusive learning
environment in which students make meaning while collaborating with and supporting
each other.

CONCEPTUAL CONSIDERATIONS

This article is framed within two main concepts that co-habit and are juxtaposed
concomitantly. First, plurilingualism as a concept values and acknowledges the cultural
and linguistic backgrounds that students bring to the classroom. Second,
translanguaging is an approach that allows students to use their first language to make
meaning in specific pedagogical learning tasks.

Plurilingualism

First of all, it is important to highlight that the idea of using languages for the purpose
of meaning making is not a new concept since Indigenous communities around the
world have been doing it for millennia. Certain Indigenous communities in the
Americas, Australia, central Asia, and Africa have always been using and mixing
different languages as a symbolic behaviour that have allowed them to communicate
for the purposes of trade, self-determination, human connection and cultural identity
affirmation (Henderson & Nash, 1997; Hornberger, 2009; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2012; United Nations, 2012,
2016; Walsh & Yallop, 1993). However, in broad terms, plurilingualism refers to the number of
languages or even variations of the same languages that coexist in the same society
(Council of Europe, 2001). The concept behind plurilingualism implies that the
languages we use for communication are not siloed or homogenous monolithic
systems, but are elements of a dynamic multi-system that overlaps with other
languages (Wandruszka as cited in Piccardo, 2013).

Whether located in North America or Europe, multilingualism and plurilingualism are

sometimes interchangeable and can be confusing (Galante, 2018). For the purposes of this
article, I would like to make a subtle distinction. For example, some scholars recognize
multilingualism as languages interacting at a societal level (Toronto, New York, or
London are examples of today’s multilingual cities), whereas plurilingualism looks at
the languages that an individual possesses at any given time in life ( Cavalli, Coste, Crişan, & van
de Ven, 2009
). In other words, a person who speaks or knows various languages or
variations of the same language is a plurilingual person, and a city in which there are
many languages and cultures interacting is considered a multicultural city (see Figure
1). A good example of a plurilingual individual would be someone who was born in
Brazil, then travelled to Ecuador, where he learned Spanish, and later visited the USA
for educational purposes, and then subsequently married an Italian woman. In addition
to having acquired at least four languages-to various degrees of fluency-this person
also has some knowledge of the Indigenous languages that his grandparents used to
speak. Some may claim that since most of the people on the planet know more than
one language or variations of the same languages (including Indigenous languages),
we can say that we are all, in some degree, plurilingual (Piccardo, 2013).
Figure 1 A Visualization of Plurilingualism and Multilingualism

Plurilingualism does not work in isolation; it works in tandem with both concepts of
plurilingual and pluricultural competence, recognizing the ability a person has to use
various languages in a communicative intercultural interaction. This person is seen as a
social agent who has various degrees of linguistic proficiency and who has experiences
across several cultures (Council of Europe, 2001). One of the highlights of
plurilingualism is that it has assumed a subtle yet profound shift in perspective towards
the use of multiple languages, in a manner that benefits individuals by negating the
notion that it is essential to achieve linguistic perfection; this removes the stress of
trying to achieve the fluency of a native speaker (Coste, Moore, & Zarate, 2009).

Further, plurilingual and pluricultural concepts can become the point of departure for
equitable education, especially in the area of language teaching. Piccardo (2013) offers a
synergic vision that proposes a change from a monolingual paradigm of language
teaching to a plurilingual one; this allows for a pedagogy whose goal is to move away
from the hierarchies of languages. Piccardo proposes key principles that can be
applicable to any classrooms or language policies:

1. The teaching and learning of languages should strive for promoting languages
and linguistic diversity,
2. Cross-curricular approaches in which languages interact synergistically should
be fostered;
3. Transferable language skills should be cost-efficient, leading to awareness and
self-esteem in learners that potentially optimize learning.

These principles validate and empower students and their cultures, making language-
learning more relevant to their lived experiences, and consequently more equitable.
Thus, it makes sense that a plurilingual approach to education can encourage a more
robust socially just pedagogy. For Piccardo (2013, 2016) shifting towards a plurilingual
approach to language education constitutes a pivotal social-justice issue, because it
minimizes the barrier between languages and their different varieties, making
education more holistic, synergic, and inclusive. She posits that “once such a
conceptual shift towards plurality occurs, the door is open for people not only to accept
plurilingualism but to take pride in it and to capitalize on it” (Piccardo, 2016, p. 12). In
other words, a plurilingual approach-one in which students’ linguistic and cultural
backgrounds are being asserted-provides a means to reduce their fear of language
production.

Translanguaging

When a person has a document in English and writes the content in Spanish for a
Spanish-language audience to understand it, that is translation (M. Baker, 1998). When
two bilingual people are having an informal conversation and they switch languages as
a strategy because they cannot find the phrase/word meaning in one of the languages,
that is code-switching (Gumperz, 1982). If I read an article in English and then I discuss the
content in Spanish with my peers, that is translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014). In order to
understand what translanguaging encompasses, the concept of languaging needs to be
clearly defined.

Languaging as a concept is not new; Maturana (1978) had already proposed the
term lenguajear in Spanish; this refers to how language is incorporated in our lives as
a mode of living and as a continuing and ever-changing process of our interactions
with other human beings. Here, he helps us to understand languaging as an approach
to express our thoughts, emotions, and feelings as processes to make meaning. In the
field of language learning, the work of Swain (2008) on the conceptualization of languaging
has been fundamental. For her, languaging means producing language in an attempt
to understand and solve problems, as well as the process of making meaning in a
specific language-learning situation. It conveys an action that is both dynamic and a
never-ending process. In languaging, language is used to mediate cognition, or to act
as a vehicle through which thinking is articulated and transformed into written or
spoken form. Empirical data demonstrate how language students set about solving
problems, using language as a tool to mediate their thinking, and thereby help and
support each other in making meaning. For example, Tocalli-Beller (2005) highlights a lesson
about idiomatic expressions in which students were able to support each other in order
to understand given idiomatic expressions in an English class, and this exchange
allowed students to reflect on their own learning, making them perform better on
subsequent tasks.

state: “Languaging is different from language conceived simply as a

García and Sylvan (2011)

system of rules or structures; languaging is a product of social action and refers to

discursive practices of people” (p. 389). In multilingual contexts, languaging
transcends the barriers of meaning-making and becomes a process in which
bilingual/multilingual teachers and students engage in complex discursive practices in
order to “make sense” and communicate-this process is called “translanguaging”. This
term was first coined by Cen Williams (as cited in Lewis, Jones, & Baker, 2012) for the
systematic planning and use of two languages in the same lesson. Also, García (2009)
and García and Wei (2014) describe translanguaging as the communicative norm of
multilingual communities and the different discursive practices as seen from the
speakers of these communities; they are not only a duality of separated languages but
one linguistic repertoire that is used to make meaning. The authors also argue that
translanguaging may include translation and code-switching practices, not necessarily
as a shuttle between two languages, but as elaborated bilingual linguistic practices to
make sense by doing various production and comprehension tasks.
One of the many advantages of translanguaging is that it facilitates finding a balance
in the power relations among languages in the classroom. Canagarajah (2011) notes that
multilingual language students feel free to use the languages with which they are more
comfortable in using to make meaning, thus countering school impositions of
monolinguistic ideologies. Consequently, the main advantage of a translanguage-
infused classroom is that it inspires and transforms pedagogies that acknowledge the
students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds. C. Baker (2001) describes four main
pedagogical advantages of translanguaging:

1. It promotes a better, deeper, and fuller understanding of the subject matter.

2. It helps students to strengthen their weaker language.
3. It supports students with home-school links and cooperation.
4. It integrates fluent learners with beginner students.

Furthermore, translanguaging explains the constant adaptation, movement, and

fluidity of languages in contemporary multilingual societies. English language learners
are constantly using their linguistic repertoires to make meaning. As a pedagogy,
translanguaging allows flexibility in language teaching and takes away the stress that
EFL teachers may experience when thinking rigidly about the exclusive use of English
in the classroom. For all these reasons, I posit that translanguaging can be enacted in
the classroom as a means of encouraging social justice. Kleyn (2016) underlies this notion
when he argues that translanguaging is an equitable approach to education in which
students’ linguistic and cultural resources are brought to class. Teacher-educators and
teacher candidates must ask themselves what the sociopolitical and economic reasons
are and why they are promoting English-only policies, and why racialized ideologies are
given free rein to silence language practices which, otherwise, would allow the
coexistence of other languages and their variations inside the English language
classroom. To this end, Kleyn recommends a discussion of the following questions with
students and future teachers:

Voice: What is the role of translanguaging in providing voice to emergent bilinguals? If

students are denied the use of their home language, what are the implications
educationally, emotionally, and politically?

Freedom: To what extent is linguistic freedom provided to students who speak a home
language that differs from the national language? Are the human and linguistic rights
of these students being met? If not, what changes need to occur at the national, local,
and school levels?

Access: How is access to learning content and a new language facilitated or limited to
emergent bilinguals, and why? And what role can translanguaging play in making
learning more accessible?

Answering these questions will allow us to better comprehend the need to create a
space to educate children equitably within a socially just environment. This will be a
space in which students are encouraged to build on their translanguaging practices and
discourses, as teachers build on those flexible practices in order to challenge the
concept of the ideal “standard language” (García & Leiva, 2014) that many policies and
classroom teachers have strived to achieve for so many years.

Finally, I have argued that plurilingualism and translanguaging as concepts support

spaces that allow students to use their language repertoires. Nevertheless, this does
not happen in a vacuum, but is created through the everyday practices of the
speakers, which are sociohistorical in nature (Heller, 2007). These practices are not fixed
or straightforward from the beliefs or attitudes of individuals who interact in
multilingual contexts who have an array of lived experiences. Thus, this plurilingual
and translanguaging ideological approach to language equips and empowers bilingual
or multilingual speakers to challenge the monolingual dominant paradigm and to resist
the tendency some researchers have to study languages as existing in isolated silos.
Heller (2007) further asserts that this approach presents a more flexible idea of
bilingualism and represents a view of envisioning languages as a societal resource,
stressing the individuals’ agency and ability to perform in different social situations.
Additionally, Creese and Blackledge (2011) suggest that “flexible bilingualism can be viewed as
heteroglossia rather than code-switching, allowing the speaker rather than the
language to be placed at the heart of the interaction, and linguistic practices to be
situated in their social, political and historical conditions” (p. 1206). In other words,
language and learning are no longer seen as separate entities, but rather as a process
in which the speakers and their interaction become the sum of their experiences, their
histories, and their lives.

Although it has been demonstrated that a monolingual EFL classroom may present
power relations that can create conflict among students (Forero-Rocha & Gómez-Rodríguez, 2016),
adopting a plurilingual and translanguaging approach to education may position the
school as a site for transformation and production of social equality. This may be
reflected in the way in which students and teachers work as mediators for problem-
solving during the learning process, thereby fostering a more equitable learning
environment. Ultimately, the concepts described in this section do not act in isolation
but interact with each other much like a linguistic ecosystem (see Figure 2) in which
language-learning is situated in very specific spaces, places, and times.

Figure 2 An Ecological Framework for EFL Education

Classroom Experience: Teaching About/for Social Justice

In general, plurilingual pedagogies and translanguaging approaches to teaching EFL in

Latin America have been minimally explored in the academic literature ( Escobar-Fallas &
Dillard-Paltrineri, 2015
), and may not have been explored explicitly at all in Colombia. Here, I
present a classroom experience in which a Colombian high school teacher uses a
social-justice approach to teaching English by (a) discussing issues related to
problematic situations in the school and (b) allowing students to use their linguistic
repertoires to make meaning as they discussed these issues. In my relationship with
the teacher I acted as a critical friend (Costa & Kallick, 1993) where my role was to
understand the teacher’s concerns with regard to her class. I heard her teaching
stories; I gave feedback and I offered emotional support whenever she felt it was
needed.

With over 20 years of English teaching experience, Laura 1 teaches EFL in a high school
in the south of Bogota, Colombia. The neighbourhood in which she works is located in
a poor area of the city where displaced people from the war, 2 African Colombians
and campesinos3 live. Most of her students have experienced violence at home, in
school, and on the street, at the hands of parents, relatives, and street-gang
members. Additionally, students do not have much exposure to English outside the
school and do not have opportunities to practice English, thus making Laura’s teaching
job more demanding. Despite this challenge, while reflecting on her work with her
class, Laura expressed that her personal goal was to use her grade nine class as a
space to foster a welcoming environment for learning English, as well as using English
language learning as an opportunity to empower her students to become agents of
social change.

The classroom experience presented in this article serves as an example of how Laura
uses a dynamic plurilingual pedagogy as a dialogical action ( García & Sylvan, 2011) to draw on
the knowledge of students’ own culture and other “internal” cultures of Colombia to
make connections between their Spanish-language repertoire (which includes
knowledge of other variations of Spanish) and English. By using this approach, Laura’s
unintentional expectation is to teach about social justice, so her class becomes one
that works for social justice.

Laura’s experiences in high school enabled her to witness the inequalities that her
students have faced over the years. Many students come to class having no breakfast,
others have problems with their families, and some suffer bullying and victimization
from local ruthless and violent groups. In many of our conversations, Laura would ask
herself: “How can my English class address these issues? And how can I create a more
peaceful learning environment in my classes?”

She teaches English for around three hours a week in a grade nine class; her students
are in level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) scale.
According to Laura, since her students are not proficient enough in English, everyone
uses Spanish for meaning-making. Most of the time, she writes on the board in English
to explain a concept after which she would translate it into Spanish. As much as the
students try hard to speak in English, they seem to struggle, so she continually asks
herself how her class can be more engaging, meaningful, and motivating, so that her
students are encouraged to use more English.
In order to address this issue, Laura thought that it was a sound idea to discuss social
problems through the lens of peace education. Laura and her students collaboratively
developed a social justice-oriented project. First, she asked her students what the
meaning of peace was to them. Laura spent a few classes discussing the concept of
peace, her students responded mainly in Spanish and Laura scaffolded some of the
language they used into English. She realized that their answers were vague and
unclear, so she encouraged them to expand their ideas by drawing and writing some
sentences in English with her help (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Students’ Drawings and Phrases About Peace

After a few weeks, Laura decided that merely drawing was not enough and that talking
about peace needed a more active component. Students felt engaged with the first
task and they then proposed to Laura to do skits to talk about peace. Laura suggested
a more concrete action and motivated students to discuss and propose how they could
prepare skits about how to stop school bullying. The students and the teacher used
Spanish to discuss different types and characteristics of bullying. They discussed who
the bullies, accomplices, bystanders, and victims were in their own context. After that,
they had conversations about possible ways to prevent and respond to bullying. As a
final activity to wrap up these discussions, students drafted skit scripts in Spanish, and
Laura helped them to translate and edit them in English. After several weeks of
language support and feedback provided by Laura and performative skills supervised
by the drama teacher who helped students to rehearse and be ready for presentations,
the final project was presented before the class, and a few weeks later, before the
entire school in the form of a drama performance.

Laura argues that this project could not have been possible if she had not allowed the
students to use Spanish to carry out the activities. Her students expressed the view
that the whole project was easier to carry out because of that and asserted that they
had learned more English than before. They indeed felt more empowered and
motivated to learn more English after that experience. Laura confirmed that this group
continued using Spanish to scaffold English-learning while simultaneously creating a
campaign against bullying by using drama and other art forms such as painting,
graffiti, dancing, and hip-hop.

DISCUSSION: TRANS[CULTURA]LINGUACIÓN

The concept of translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014) has been used as the communicative
norm of multilingual communities in North America and sometimes elsewhere. For
example, when used as a pedagogical strategy, Lewis et al. (2012) and García (2011) have
proposed the use of languages alternatively for input and output activities in the
English language classroom. This allows multilingual speakers to engage in discursive
practices as a way of making sense of their bilingual worlds. Translanguaging has been
demonstrated to be a powerful tool that can challenge monolingual and colonial
tendencies of the English language by giving space for students to draw on their fluid
linguistic and cultural resources (de los Ríos & Seltzer, 2017). For example, García and Sylvan
(2011) described translanguaging as a dynamic plurilingual pedagogy in which
students were allowed to use their home languages at an International High School in
New York as a way of making sense of a learning moment. Similarly, Laura challenged
the traditional approaches to teaching despite the unspoken Colombian linguistic-policy
expectation to speak English during the entire time in class. By challenging static
models of teaching and allowing dynamic approaches in the classroom, Laura’s class
has become a good example of how to further social justice, and how to change power
relations, promote equal access, and encourage the generation of knowledge ( Goldfarb &
Grinberg, 2002
). Due to the ethnic and geographical diversity of the students in Laura’s
class, she argues that it is important to respect all variations of Spanish and to allow
students to use those variations to interact with each other during English activities.

Laura’s class exemplifies translanguaging practices in which languages are not only
being used to make meaning, but also to learn about the students’ own culture. Laura
tapped into her students’ Colombian cultural and linguistic capital in order to make
meaning, build upon, and understand vocabulary in English. Students not only became
more aware of the different variations of their own Colombian Spanish from various
regions of the country, but were also able to make connections to the same
phenomenon in English. In other words, Spanish has been used to learn English, and
culture has been placed at the centre of learning to draw meanings.

In order to exemplify this, in one of Laura’s classes, while rehearsing the skits, she
discussed how American English is different from that spoken in England, and she
brought up an example from Colombian culture. The word bolsa (bag in Spanish) has
different meanings in different regions of Colombia. Students were prompted to give
examples of how they say the same word in the different cities from where they came.
For example, for one student from El Valle (a province in Colombia) chuspa is the word
for bag, whereas for another student from Cundinamarca (another province) talego is
the word they use. She encouraged her students to appreciate the different variations
of the Spanish language in Colombia as they learned different variations of English.
Giving respect to and understanding variations of Colombian Spanish allowed Laura’s
students to recognize that English is not the powerful utilitarian language it is made
out to be, but just another language in which to communicate. Laura believes that her
class has become a hub for social justice in the sense that the relation of power has
been challenged, and students become active participants in the curriculum decision-
making. Further, her students are not only empowered to use Spanish and other
vernacular variations fearlessly in class, but are also engaged and motivated to learn
about other cultures and languages while learning English.

The phenomenon mentioned above is best described by a concept that I have

named trans[cultura]linguación, where there is a transaction between languages
(and/or variations of the same language) while students learn about their own culture
and about other cultures. For McLaren (2003), this central aspect of culture is a particular
way in which a group lives and makes sense of its given circumstances and conditions
of life, as expressed by their symbols and social practices, such as those found in
music, dress, food, religion, dance, and education. Therefore, culture becomes as
much an individual/ psychological construct as well as a social construct (Matsumoto & Juang,
2012
), one which Laura and her students certainly use to create meaning in a
Spanish/English learning environment.

To expand on this idea further, I borrow from translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014)
and transculturización (Ortiz, 1983, p. 86), which describe how complex phenomena occur
when multiple cultures trans-mutate in various directions within a specific context and
among various individuals.4 With this in mind, I will define trans[cultura]linguación as
the dynamic process in which the Spanish and English languages are juxtaposed with
the merging and converging of cultures. Although this phenomenon may also occur in
other contexts in which one or more languages (including Indigenous languages) are
used to explain specific aspects about culture to make meaning in a specific learning
task, in this article, I exemplify it by referring to the acknowledgment and learning of
language variations and cultures from different regions of Colombia, and the learning
of variations of the English language and its connected cultures within a pedagogical
task.

Additionally, I can give another example that explains this phenomenon. When I was
an ELE (Español como lengua extranjera / Spanish as a foreign language) teacher, I
used to compare the different geo-cultural variations of English in the USA, in Canada,
and the world, with the different variations of Spanish in Latin America. In this
example, I used to compare vernacular English with Standard English, and then
contrast it with vernacular variations of Spanish in various regions in Latin America. In
other words, the concept of trans[cultura]linguación5 refers to two things: (a) the level
of knowledge a person has of both variations of Spanish and English to make meaning
and navigate their social lives, depending on the cultural location; and (b) the
approach of teaching culture and linguistic variations of both English and Spanish
based on different contexts, which requires the teacher to be knowledgeable of the two
(or more) languages and two (or more) cultures. I acknowledge that teachers may not
be knowledgeable about all the cultural and linguistic repertoires of the two cultures,
however, trans[cultura]linguación refers mainly to how teachers and students engage
the cultural knowledges they possess and the possibilities they have to learn more
about other cultures and subcultures in a pedagogical task. In other words, how the
class can be sparked into a curiosity that propels them to learn more about the local
cultures of other students in the classroom, as well as other global cultures.

Unlike some EFL teachers who believe that students will best learn English by
conducting class exclusively in English, Laura believes that she has challenged that
notion by allowing her students to use their first language, Spanish. By adopting
a trans[cultura]linguación approach, Laura has demonstrated that she could help to
remove barriers to learning by creating an enabling, inclusive environment that
validates first language identities and allows students to use Spanish to make
meaning.

Finally, I posit that trans[cultura]linguación may become one more approach available
to challenge static models of language teaching and learning, not only in multilingual
locales of the Global North, such as New York, Toronto, London, and so on, but also in
other locations of the Global South in Latin America, such as Bogota, Mexico City, and
Buenos Aires. Students will not only learn the subject matter, but also learn more
about their own culture and that of others from their own local country. They will thus
be provided with opportunities to reflect on linguistic variations from different urban,
rural, and regional locations.

A quote from García and Sylvan (2011)

provides an apt conclusion to this section:

Teaching in today’s multilingual/multicultural classrooms should focus on

communicating with all students and enabling them all to negotiate challenging
academic content by building on their different language practices, rather than simply
promoting the teaching of one or more standard languages. (p. 386)

To this end, I invite teachers and researchers to reflect on the different cultures and
individuals interacting in the language classroom. As demonstrated in Laura’s
classroom experience presented in this article, Colombian students from
different departamentos (provinces/states), who speak different variations of Spanish,
had the potential to learn about themselves and their own regional cultures while
simultaneously learning English.

Final Reflection and Implications

In this contemporary globalized world, we are more connected than ever before, and
languages and cultures no longer exist in hard-to-reach, isolated silos. Students
pursue English language learning for economic and social mobility, and in the process
are losing or beginning to devalue their own home languages; they are failing to
recognize that bi/multilingual learning is a valuable asset ( Cummins, 2001). For instance,
research clearly shows that students with strong reading skills in their home language
will also have strong reading skills in their second language ( August & Shanahan, 2006; Riches &
Genesee, 2006
). Although, according to Laura, some English teachers still believe that
Colombia has been portrayed as a monolingual/monocultural country, her pedagogical
approach challenges this image. As de Mejía (2006) points out, Colombia has a rich diversity
of cultures and languages, and this needs to be clearly acknowledged, recognized, and
factored into English language teaching. Within this context, I contend that now is the
time to value and embrace different variations of the Spanish language, as well as to
value the country’s own Indigenous languages represented in many Colombian
classrooms and schools.

Laura’s classroom experience may serve as an example to inspire other teachers to

explore how pedagogical tasks can be used to make linguistic connections while also
learning English. The fact that her students possess knowledge of Spanish variations
from the different regions of Colombia helps to demonstrate that students are not
monolingual in the strict sense of the word; as Piccardo (2013) said, “we are all
plurilingual”, and thus attention must be paid to students’ linguistic and cultural
repertoires, so as to ensure a more holistic education in English language teaching.
With this in mind, Cenoz (2013) focuses on three dimensions of holistic views on
multilingualism: multilingual speakers, their entire linguistic repertoire, and their social
context. Considering this, I think the teaching of language(s) in Colombia may be
inspired by

a holistic approach [that] aims at integrating the curricula of the different languages to
activate the resources of multilingual speakers. In this way, multilingual students could
use their resources cross-linguistically and become more efficient language learners
than when languages are taught separately. (Cenoz, 2013, p. 13)

What this means for bilingual (Spanish/English and other Indigenous languages)
teachers is that they could develop activities in which different variations of Spanish
expressions from various Colombian regions are integrated within English language
learning tasks. Ultimately, a more holistic curriculum which allows flexibility and fluidity
in language teaching and learning, one which fosters “flexible bilingual pedagogy”
(Creese & Blackledge, 2010, 2011), can be developed. Based on the above, I propose three
implications for a framework towards achieving a flexible and fluid holistic curriculum
for English language teaching in Colombia and elsewhere: (a) equal education, (b)
teacher education, and (c) language research.

Equal Education

In a country where in most elite schools, the curriculum is offered in English as the
medium of instruction (de Mejía, 2011), translanguaging could potentially offer an
instructional space for public school students to make meaning while discussing issues
that are relevant to their communities. Thus, a curriculum that integrates plurilingual
and translanguaging ideas has the potential to create equal opportunities for public
school students to use their home language as a support and scaffolding for learning
English in a less stressful manner. This suggests a paradigm shift in which the
linguistic repertoires and language variations (in this case, of Spanish and English) and
Indigenous languages are recognized, respected, and valued in the schools by keeping
in mind what trans[cultura]linguación is. In this way, language education gains the
power to dismantle monolithic narratives of the ideal English native speaker, and dispel
the assumptions, beliefs, and practices that fuel the monolingual bias (Escobar-Fallas & Dillard-
Paltrineri, 2015
). Within such a framework, students would not worry about attaining higher
levels of oral proficiency by trying to imitate the native English speaker but will rather
learn English while affirming their own identities (Cummins, 1996) as Colombians, thus
balancing the cultural and linguistic forces to make learning more equitable, especially
for students in public and underfunded schools. Hurst and Mona (2017) have suggested that
translanguaging pedagogies may best benefit students who are disempowered by
English-only language ideologies. Furthermore, according to Laura, her class certainly
became a hub to challenge such ideologies and it encouraged students to respond to
issues of violence and aggression in the school in a context where Colombia is
attempting to transition to being a more peaceful society.

Teacher Education Programs

Most teacher education programs in Colombia continue to advocate for communicative

language teaching approaches that favour English-only policies, given that this is what
is expected by government and institutional authorities. This negatively affects
marginalized communities in the country (Usma, 2009a, 2009b; Usma, Ortiz, & Gutierrez,
2018). This points to a need for change in how teachers envision a classroom where
more socially-just oriented pedagogies are more inclusive of cultural and linguistic
practices (Sierra-Piedrahita, 2016). In-service and pre-service teachers in Colombian public
schools need to gain a deeper knowledge of plurilingualism and translanguaging, what
these concepts mean, and how they can contribute to the effective teaching of English.
Both professional-development programs and bilingual-education programs will benefit
from including theoretical, practical, and research courses on these topics, and
language-education programs can integrate courses that teach the importance of
students’ home languages and their linguistic variations, especially as students gain
awareness of other cultures and languages.

It is important in today’s globalized world that as students are exposed to languages

and cultures across the planet through the internet and social media, they acquire the
relevant codes and skills. Accordingly, in order for teachers to not lag behind the
rapidly evolving Zeitgeist, teacher-education programs need to equip students in their
charge with the needed skills. Laura’s classroom practices may present a sound
example as to how teachers can incorporate simple activities to activate students’
curiosity for learning about other cultures and languages, and as a means of fostering
more sustaining pedagogies (Paris & Alim, 2017) that favour marginalized communities in
Colombia. Laura’s classroom experience is a miniscule example of how teachers have
already begun to push back at the established linguistic hierarchy from the bottom up,
so that they can bring about meaningful pedagogical changes.

Language Research

Colombian researchers may find interesting connections in exploring the relationship

between Spanish and learning EFL and the role Colombian Indigenous languages can
play in the learning of other languages (English included). Although there is emerging
research in Colombia investigating current teaching practices, and further social
research among undergraduate students and in-service teachers (see Escobar, 2013), more
attention can be paid to the system of semilleros de investigación (research
incubators), very popular among teaching education programs across Colombia. These
research groups at undergraduate and graduate levels can potentially use the
resources they already have to advance research on plurilingualism, translanguaging,
and their relationship with Colombian cultures (ethnic cultures, subcultures, urban
cultures, etc.). Additionally, now that Colombia is in a post-peace accord era, this
presents an opportune time for teachers and researchers to potentially explore the
connections between social justice and peace education in EFL. These themes are no
strangers to the goals of plurilingualism, which are “to perceive the language teacher
(who teaches the mother tongue, the language of the school or foreign languages) as
an individual who has social responsibilities, including responsibilities towards oneself
as a plurilingual and intercultural speaker, and towards others” ( Bernaus & European Centre for
Modern Languages, 2007
, p. 16). For Oliveira and Ançã (2009), the realization of these goals calls for
training language teachers and teacher researchers who can help their students to
become more aware of the context in which their communication and learning
experiences take place, and to become agents who represent an evolving plurilingual
competence. To this end, research methods such as collaborative action research
(CAR) and youth participatory action research (YPAR) have the potential to engage
both teachers and students in (re)discovering languages and cultures, and the role
these play in the current sociopolitical environment in Colombia.

Ultimately, there is an urgent need to see students’ cultural and linguistic diversity not
as impediments to learning languages, but as cultural-capital resources that they bring
from home to school. Once this is clearly understood, the intellectual capital of our
societies will grow dramatically (Cummins, 2001), fostering a new generation of students
who can become agents of social change. I concur with Alexander and Busch (2007), who agree
that

the maintenance and promotion of multilingualism is essential in the modern world

because of its implications for diversity, development, democracy, didactics and
(human) dignity [and] depriving a person of the free and spontaneous use of his or her
mother tongue constitutes a violation of a fundamental human right. (p. 15)

Throughout this article, I have suggested that plurilingualism and translanguaging are
key concepts for the teaching and learning of EFL in Colombia (and, for that matter, in
any number of other countries). I have also argued for change from a monolithic
framework of learning language(s) to a more dynamic and fluid one that
uses trans[cultura]linguación as a point of departure for a paradigm shift in language
pedagogy. This, I strongly believe, will ensure equitable pathways for all students,
regardless of socioeconomic and class status, or their geopolitical location, to
successfully learn and value their own languages as they learn English, and to do so
while addressing issues that are relevant to their communities. So, when a student,
like one in Laura’s English class, asks: “Teacher, ¿puedo hablar en español?” The
answer is a convincing “¡Sí! Yes, of course!”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS