Multilingualism and translanguaging: rethinking boundaries in an Australian university.

If increasing numbers of socio- and applied linguists are correct, and we have entered a historical period of what is being called ‘complex diversity’, ‘super diversity’ (Blommaert and Rampton, 2011), and even where ‘current multilingualism’ is thought to be ‘a new linguistic dispensation’ (Singleton, Fishman, Aronin and O - Laoire 2013), then the notion of English as the only language of learning and teaching in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region may no longer be tenable. This paper discusses attempts to re-think conventional boundaries of English language teaching and ‘western’ epistemologies of knowledge in the teaching of international students within an Australian university. Teaching and learning interventions include explicit use of a set of
translanguaging practices (see also Garca-a and Li 2014) accompanied by diagnostic assessment by teachers and higher degree students of these attempts. The interventions offer graduate and undergraduate students opportunities to utilise their linguistic expertise and to develop reflexive
practices and classroom-based research experience. Findings arising from diagnostic analysis of the intervention show correlations between students’ academic proficiency in the home language and in English. These correlations may have implications for developing a more nuanced approach towards understanding the likely trajectory of the academic achievement of international students in Australian universities. The findings also indicate the potential for reciprocity of learning and reflexivity that enhances student experiences of higher education study in Australia.