pedagogical-translanguaging
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- PaperTESOL Quarterly22 Jul 2026
Pedagogical Translanguaging in Motion: Multimodal Mediation in Preservice Teachers' Storytelling with Young English Learners
Sue Garton, Serdar Tekin
This study investigated how eight preservice English teachers in Turkish primary schools used translanguaging and multimodal strategies during storytelling lessons over eight weeks. Initially, teachers relied on shared linguistic repertoires to manage interaction and scaffold comprehension, but over time they shifted toward increased use of gesture, visuals, and realia while verbal translanguaging became more selective. The findings provide classroom-based evidence of how translanguaging practices evolve and offer implications for multilingual pedagogy and teacher education.
Original abstract
Amid growing interest in multilingual pedagogies, translanguaging has increasingly been positioned as a response to monolingual teaching norms. Yet empirical accounts of what pedagogical translanguaging looks like in everyday classrooms—particularly in teaching English to young learners—remain limited. At the same time, although storytelling occupies a central place in young learner pedagogy, little research has examined how teachers mobilize linguistic and semiotic resources during storytelling lessons. Addressing both gaps, this study draws on the pedagogical translanguaging framework and the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism to investigate the evolving practices of eight preservice English teachers (PSTs) in Turkish state primary schools. The data set comprises 32 video‐recorded storytelling lessons over 8 weeks and follow‐up in‐depth interviews. Findings show that PSTs initially drew on shared linguistic repertoires to manage classroom interaction and scaffold story comprehension. Over time, however, these practices shifted, and translanguaging use decreased as PSTs increasingly employed multimodal strategies, including gesture, visual supports, and realia. Findings suggest how teachers' mediational practices became increasingly adaptive, with verbal translanguaging becoming more selective alongside increased use of multimodal mediation. The study contributes classroom‐based evidence of how translanguaging evolves over time and offers implications for multilingual pedagogy and teacher education in young learner contexts.