Resumen de Translanguaging in Spanish world language classrooms: US secondary school teachers’ reported practices and perceptions

Ying Xiong

• A long-standing assumption now under scrutiny is that new languages are best taught and learned monolingually. This contrasts with contemporary translanguaging pedagogy emphasising the importance of using learners’ knowledge and experience and all linguistic repertoires. Despite the appeal of these approaches, most existing research focuses on teaching English as the target language, little is known about language teachers’ practices and attitudes toward translanguaging in world language classrooms of language other than English, especially considering the varying social statuses of the target languages compared to students’ first languages across contexts. The current study bridged this gap and investigated the reported practices and perceptions of translanguaging among US secondary school teachers of Spanish as a world language (SWL). Using a mixed-methods design, 91 US secondary school SWL teachers were recruited to complete questionnaires, with follow-up semi-structured interviews with four participants. This study will explore participants’ attitudes and motivations toward translanguaging in the classroom and will discuss the implications of a multilingual approach to world language education.