Abstract:
Translanguaging has emerged as a powerful pedagogical strategy in multilingual classrooms, offering students
the opportunity to leverage all their linguistic resources for learning. This paper investigates how
translanguaging practices shape learners’ metalinguistic awareness and literacy development across both
dominant and marginalized languages. Drawing on sociocultural and cognitive-linguistic frameworks, the study
examines classroom interactions, literacy assessments, and student reflections in multilingual African contexts.
Findings are expected to reveal that translanguaging enhances students’ ability to reflect on language
structures, fosters literacy skills across multiple languages, and strengthens learners’ linguistic and cultural
identities. By situating these insights within broader debates on multilingual education and language equity, the
research highlights how inclusive pedagogical approaches can address literacy disparities and promote
cognitive and socio-emotional growth. The study contributes to ongoing discussions in applied linguistics,
education, and sociolinguistics by providing empirical evidence on the efficacy and transformative potential of
translanguaging in contemporary classrooms.
