Translanguaging Strategies to Support Emergent Bilinguals in Texas

In a first-grade classroom, a student closely studies a world map. She can identify land, lakes, and oceans, and soon connects an ocean to a story her family has talked about at home. When she wants to share her thinking aloud, though, she hesitates. She understands the concept, but struggles to express it in English.

These moments are a common reality for emergent bilingual (EB) students, who make up nearly 24% of all students in Texas schools, according to the TEA.

Every student has a linguistic repertoire made of stories, connections, and experiences, all personal and unique to them. Every book they read and conversation they hold gives them more language to understand the world around them and form their own thoughts and ideas.

Translanguaging is a pedagogical approach that enables emergent bilinguals to draw upon their full linguistic repertoires to make meaning, access content, and develop language. The goal of translanguaging is to expand a student’s understanding of language as a whole, which in turn helps emergent bilinguals access grade-level content and participate in class effectively.

In practice, this means students are encouraged to use all of their language resources — speaking, reading, or writing using both English and their home language — to engage with content and communicate understanding.

One of the primary indicators of translanguaging is fluidity. If your students can flow between languages to make meaning, they are translanguaging!

If a student reads a passage in English, then writes notes in another language, she is translanguaging.

If another student explains an idea to a peer using two languages in the same conversation, he is also translanguaging.

You may find that your students are already translanguaging as they think, reason, and build understanding. A teacher has identified translanguaging in their classroom when they can say, “My students are tapping into all of their language resources to understand the content.”

Teachers can support translanguaging through thoughtful lesson design and simple, daily classroom practices. Here are five strategies you can use to create translanguaging opportunities in your classroom. These strategies use the example of a unit about maps and globes.

1. Thinking Side-By-Side. Introduce a concept, such as the difference between maps and globes, using visuals and discussion. As a class, record similarities and differences on a Venn diagram, labeling the diagram with familiar words in English and/or students’ home languages.

2. Talk It Out! Have students turn to a partner and share two facts about globes and two facts about maps. Encourage them to use English, their home language, or both to explain their thinking. After sharing, invite volunteers to share with the class.

3. Read, Pair, Point. Display a map, then read an article about maps together. After reading together, have students pair up and take turns reading the same article aloud. Encourage them to use English, their home language, or both as they read about and point to key features of the map.

4. Sketch and Share. Learn about maps and legends by having students each draw a map of the classroom and create a legend with symbols for desks, windows, the rug, and other features. Encourage them to label symbols in English, their home language, or both. Then, invite students to share their maps with a partner and explain the meaning of each symbol in the language or languages they feel most comfortable using.

5. Talk About Tools. After exploring map tools like the legend, title, and compass rose, have students discuss with a partner or small group the purpose of each tool and how the tools help them understand a map. Encourage students to use English, their home language, or both to explain their thinking and draw connections between the tools they’ve seen.

Studies Weekly supports dual language education and emergent bilinguals with thoughtfully designed curricula that make social studies accessible to every student, with:

• Side-by-side TEKS-aligned English and Spanish publications
• Built-in language objectives aligned to ELPS
• Newcomer-friendly scaffolds and TELPAS-supportive tasks
• Opportunities for translanguaging and meaning-making across lessons

When you choose Studies Weekly as your instructional partner, emergent bilingual students receive access to rigorous, standards-aligned social studies content without barriers to participation. Studies Weekly empowers teachers to support language development and ensure equitable access to learning for all students.

Reach out today to get a quote and see how Studies Weekly can support your classroom.

“Studies Weekly is a great resource for my Bilingual Department! My students love having both the English and Spanish versions to work out of. They are so fun and engaging. There are so many additional resources that are provided to support my teachers!” – Bilingual Director, TX