“(I Just) Blurt Out”: Remodeling Translanguaging

Abstract While code‐switching tends to focus on individual languages, separating each named language of the multilingual speaker, and suggests that these speakers switch between these languages, translanguaging supports the notion that, regardless of whichever language(s) they know, individuals have one unitary repertoire, including semiotic resources, from which they draw freely to make meaning. Adopting linguistic ethnography, this study investigated the translanguaging practices of three Chinese international students studying at a UK university through participant observation and fieldnotes, classroom audio recordings, and interviews. While each participant had their own practices and explained them from their own perspectives, a common theme was that participants were frequently not conscious of their language choices, providing further evidence for a unitary linguistic repertoire and supporting the notion of translanguaging being “highly spontaneous” (Goodman & Tastanbek, 2021, TESOL Quarterly , 55, p. 44). From the insights generated by this research, a set of new translanguaging models, which include linguistic and semiotic resources, is proposed to reflect this reality. The models, unlike many previous ones, are pedagogically focused and can be used by multilingual students and their teachers – who may not be applied linguists – to explore and understand their meaning‐making practices. Recommendations for how to do so are presented.