Translanguaging in higher education: Using several languages for the analysis of academic content in the teaching and learning process

Abstract This article reports on research that questions the existence and use of translingual practices in higher education. On the one hand, the increase of mobility in Tertiary Education leads to the presence of various individual repertoires in the classroom and, on the other hand, the use of scientific texts, usually published in English, is more and more common. These two factors impose a language choice on professors. In some cases, they may choose to use a single lingua franca, most often English, or in other cases, they may choose to undermine the English language’s hegemonic role by using what García refers to as translanguaging. This study sets out to analyse a case study in a Language and communication policies course at the University of Algarve, in Portugal. The course attendees were half local students and half Erasmus students. The professor of this course let students use their various linguistic repertoires, by using several languages during the lessons, in order to achieve a collective comprehension of the content, which in most cases was in English. In this manner, they reached what (García, Ofelia & Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Houndmills . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) define as the “co-construction of knowledge” in a “co-learning classroom environment”. Furthermore, the professor asked the students to take a structured multilingual final exam, in three languages, in order to stimulate and develop their multilingual competence.