“Our country has gained independence, but we haven't”: Collaborative translanguaging to decolonize English language teaching

Abstract The colonial history of many English language teaching (ELT) contexts has shaped how the concept is understood, policies are constructed, and education organized. Various aspects ELT in countries that were colonized continue to promote imperialism (Motha, 2014) through naming (i.e., labeling linguistic phenomena as distinct languages, dialects, varieties), separation hierarchization dominance monolingual practices classroom. Translanguaging, a theory pedagogy challenges understandings monoglossic norms teaching, transformative potential liberate have been rendered invisible by abyssal thinking (García et al., 2021). Translanguaging posits multilingual learners do not possess two or more autonomous systems but rather they select deploy features from unitary repertoire (Vogel & García, 2017). urges educators leverage learners’ entire semiotic repertoires support their learning instead requiring them keep certain languages outside However, educational respond socially politically imposed boundaries between there ideological systemic enactment translanguaging pedagogy. This paper discusses these with reference Malaysian context draws on data collaborative designed teacher-researcher collaboration implemented elementary classrooms offer recommendations for can be decolonized.