Spontaneous Translating and Translanguaging in a Russian Language Classroom

Abstract

While translating and translanguaging have received a lot of scholarly attention, their mutual relationship has not yet been sufficiently theorized. In recent translanguaging research, carried out in language classrooms, translating and translanguaging are sometimes subsumed into the same practice as translanguaging undermines the notion of different languages. This article contributes to this endeavour through a study of translation and translanguaging practices in a Russian language classroom in Catalonia. Based on three examples where the teachers explains the meaning of Russian set phrases to the students through Catalan translations, we argue that translating and translanguaging should generally be maintained as separate concepts, but that in some cases they are a mutually embedded practice as acts of translanguaging can complement translation through their creative potential. While traditionally, translation and translanguaging were eschewed in language learning and teaching, we show that as a combined practice they have a place in the classroom.