ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by discussing the kinds of translanguaging that students at Urban College do on a regular basis, and the reasons behind this translanguaging. It explores translanguaging in student writing, considering what kinds of writing assignments might encourage translingual writing among students, and what kinds of philosophical approaches to these translingual assignments instructors might best adopt. The chapter aims to discuss how translingual writing can be incorporated into core pedagogies in the classroom—including formal assignments—considering the kinds of assignments that might give students space to perform translingually without requiring them to “out” themselves as translingual. Transliterations are not negotiations or performances: they are “faithful” renderings and as such do not have space in them for the author’s voice; the creativity behind the rendering is obscured. A “negotiation model” of linguistic research and the study of student writing is described in A. S. Canagarajah, as a gesture towards changing the way instructors approach linguistic variation in student writing.
