Translanguaging from Elsewheres to Decolonize Linguistic Realities and Policies: About (Dis)Inventing New Beginnings and Other Possible Ends

This article presents a critical examination of translanguaging as a growing global agenda that forefronts the complexities of linguistic and sociocultural diversity in society. Amidst divergent understandings and approaches within the field, this article argues for translanguaging’s potential as a powerful, transformative, decolonial movement. With Severo, Abdelhay and Makoni (2020), we believe that more Global South perspectives are needed in order to fully harness translanguaging’s capacity for liberating epistemologies of the South. Drawing on Medina (2016)’s concept of elsewhere, we contend that translanguaging can enable a collective movement towards embracing perspectives beyond the confines modern/colonial logic. Thus translanguaging emerges as a powerful tool for challenging coloniality, (dis)inventing new beginnings and recreating other possible ends.