ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an instructional approach, based on the concept of translanguaging, which involves allowing students to deliberately cycle between their first and second languages. This is illustrated through data collected from 19 Japanese EFL students who participated in a PBLL class at a Japanese university. The language was analyzed according to how students used both English and Japanese to coordinate their linguistic and cognitive abilities with the demands of the project task, referred to as alignment. Our findings suggest that students made use of translanguaging to align with the affordances of the project development process in four ways: (1) creating, (2) interacting, (3) reviewing, and (4) repairing. All of these units of participation were underpinned by the students’ use of the personal learning environments they created using their smartphones. There is, however, no denying that for lower proficiency students, building rapport and sharing personal information is easier to do in their first language.
