TRANSLANGUAGING: AFFORDANCES FOR COLLABORATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

Globalisation, digital technologies and mobile learning have created unprecedented opportunities for language learning across space and time, while various ‘turns’ in applied linguistics are impacting on traditional conceptualisations of language and language learning. The emergence of bi/multilingual perspectives in particular has led to a re-evaluation of dynamic and hybrid language practices in educational settings, resulting in new explanatory concepts such as translanguaging and calling into question monolingual underpinnings of language scholarship and practice. In the light of shifting thinking about language learners as emergent bi/multilinguals, what are the affordances of translingual language practices? Drawing on affordance theory and Galley et al.’s (2014) community indicator framework, this article presents a small case study of bilingual learners (English/German) in an international online exchange. An examination of translanguaging patterns in the learners’ online interactions demonstrates the affordance potential of expanded semiotic repertoires for the co-construction of meaning and building collaborative learner communities.