ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus on the theoretical aspects of graphic languages within the Reggio Emilia Approach and multilingual contexts of Reggio Emilia infant-toddler centers and preschools and U.S. Reggio-inspired schools. A brief historical overview describes the value of drawing cultivated by Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia educators over decades. The theories of the hundred languages, languaging , and translanguaging pedagogy present an invitation to consider a broader interpretation of what language can become. The relationship between drawing and verbal language as action processes to create meaning within the bi-, multilingual context strengthens the potentialities of translanguaging. The concept of small group learning within Reggio Emilia pedagogies parallels the translanguaging space as generating new possibilities and co-constructed meanings and realities. The authors advocate for more research on drawing in bilingual and multilingual settings, including serious studies of the drawing-as-language phenomenon . While drawing is usually in service to language learning as an add-on activity, the authors propose that it should be considered essential in translanguaging and interwoven within the linguistic repertoire of bi-and multilingual children as an opportunity to construct robust and complex meanings.
