Point and Counterpoint

Code-switching and
translanguaging: why they have a lot

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in common
Jeanine Treffers-Daller

The proponents of translanguaging are often not aware of the history of code-
switching research and the relevance of this research for a range of the claims
they make, for example on the issue of the separability of systems. While it is
understandable that new paradigms try to emphasize how different they are
from others, we cannot see why and how a new approach is different from
previous ones unless a fair presentation is given of the position of others and
detailed evidence is provided of the claims that are being made. In this rebuttal
I show that the translanguaging literature owes a lot to the literature on code-
switching, and that the translanguaging practices as found in the instructions
to teachers look very similar to examples of code-switching as found in the
extensive academic literature. In addition, many of the recommendations for
pedagogical practice are not as novel as the proponents of translanguaging
would like us to believe: many teachers when they hear about translanguaging
say that they have been doing it for years but haven’t had a name for it. It is
time for the translanguaging papers to now recognize that the translanguaging
agenda developed out of the ideas of other excellent researchers in bilingualism.
Key words: code-switching, translanguaging, language processing, bilin-
gualism, multilingualism

Jason Anderson (this issue) begins his eloquent Counterpoint with a quote
from Sridhar, who compares the linguistic repertoires of multilinguals
to a tropical rainforest. This is a very powerful figure of speech, evoking
images of a unified, organic ecosystem in which the different parts are
interconnected and interdependent. To me this quote illustrates, first of
all, that there is a long tradition of researchers claiming that there are
multiple connections between languages, and that the proponents of
translanguaging are not the first ones to emphasize the dynamic nature
of the systems that we call languages. Second, Anderson probably does
not realize that Sridhar is among the first researchers to systematically
investigate intrasentential code-switching, also called code-mixing. More

ELT Journal Volume 78/1 January 2024; https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccad059  82

© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Advance Access publication 27 December 2023
than forty years ago, Sridhar and Sridhar (1980) noted the fact that code-
mixing is not random but rule-governed, and that it is used for a great
variety of communicative and sociocultural purposes. Most important for
the current debate is that Sridhar and Sridhar reveal there is no evidence
for linguistic independence of the language systems in bilinguals, nor
for a complete merger. Instead they argue for an ‘interactionist model of
overlapping systems’ (Sridhar and Sridhar 1980: 10), which is very similar
to the integrated multilingual model proposed by MacSwan (2022).

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For the current debate it is also relevant that Sridhar and Sridhar approach
code-mixing from a great variety of angles: they not only provide detailed
linguistic analyses of the structures in hybrid sentences, but also point to
issues in the processing of such sentences, and the mental representation
and interaction between linguistic and cognitive systems. Clearly, these
authors are aware of the fact that hybrid/mixed speech is the norm rather
than the exception among multilinguals. In addition, they dig deep into
analyses of language structure and language processing. Many of these
issues are still being debated today, and it is thanks to the enormous
talent of these and other key researchers that the study of code-mixing
has developed so strongly over the past fifty years. Anderson dismisses
attempts to compare code-switching and translanguaging as causing
confusion, but it is the lack of detail in the many position papers on
translanguaging that is the source of misunderstandings about code-
switching and translanguaging. A brief look at some papers from earlier
times can help to clarify many issues.
As pointed out by May (2022) many proponents of translanguaging are
not aware of the history of code-switching research and the relevance of
this research for a range of the claims they make, for example on the issue
of the separability of systems. According to May this constitutes a ‘lack of
historicity’ (May 2022: 344) or even ‘historical amnesia’ (May 2022: 345).
Although it is understandable that new paradigms try to emphasize how
different they are from others, we cannot see why and how a new approach
is different from previous ones unless a fair presentation is given of the
position of others and detailed evidence is provided of the claims that are
being made. The translanguaging papers do neither of these: they make
incorrect claims about code-switching, language-processing and additive
bilingualism (see different chapters in MacSwan 2022) and ignore evidence
from previous research showing the claims cannot be upheld. However, as
all researchers know, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants that
we can see further. Citing only what confirms one’s own views, constitutes
a case of ‘stacking the deck’, which is not helpful if we want to reach
agreement on controversial issues.
One of these controversial issues is the claim from the translanguaging
papers that languages are not discrete bounded systems. Instead,
bilinguals are claimed to have a unitary repertoire from which they draw
features for communicative purposes (García et al. 2021). However, this
claim is not tenable. Bilinguals can indeed clearly separate their languages
for communicative purposes, as has been illustrated powerfully in Myers-
Scotton’s (1993) book on the social motivations for code-switching.
However, bilinguals do not always separate their languages so neatly.

Code-switching and translanguaging: why they have a lot in common 83

 This is exactly the challenge for theories of multilingualism: these need to
account for both of these behaviours. Multilinguals can, on the one hand,
separate their languages, and inhibit one when they speak the other, but
on the other hand, they can mix them freely when the situation allows
it. The proponents of translanguaging only see one side of the coin (the
blurring of the boundaries between systems) but ignore the obvious fact
that language separation is possible and very common too, except in truly
mixed languages (see Bakker and Mous 2013 for details).

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A good example of research that is ignored by the translanguaging papers
is the following quote from Myers-Scotton, who notes that ‘codeswitching
makes optimal use of the resources in [bilinguals’] linguistic repertoires’
(Myers-Scotton 2000: 1259). This was published long before the terms
‘resources’ and ‘repertoires’ became fashionable in translanguaging
papers. The similarity between the claims made by Myers-Scotton and
those in the translanguaging papers is striking. This strongly suggests
that the translanguaging literature owes a lot to the literature on code-
switching, which is not surprising because one of the key proponents (Li
Wei) wrote a PhD about code-switching himself.
It is interesting to read Anderson’s claim that there ‘there is no difference
in the language acts, only in how we decide to analyse and understand
them’ (op. cit.: 75). Unfortunately, this statement is again not supported
by the research evidence. The variability in mixing patterns is well attested,
for example in Muysken’s (2000) seminal book Bilingual Speech, where
the variability in patterns is linked to typological differences between
languages, and sociolinguistic variables (time depth, immigrant/non-
immigrant communities, etc.). In my own work we uncovered subtle
differences in Malay–English mixing patterns among two teachers in higher
education in Malaysia (Treffers-Daller et al. 2022). The similarities and
differences between the behaviour of these teachers and between mixing in
an educational context and other contexts could only be revealed through a
detailed analysis of the ‘language acts’ of the speakers.
A further look at García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) volume on the
translanguaging classroom, which Anderson suggested I should read,
reveals that some of the translanguaging practices as found in the
instructions to teachers in this volume look exactly like the examples
we find in the extensive academic literature on Spanish–English code-
switching (Pfaff 1979; Poplack 1980). The following examples are typical for
the kinds of mixing that is advocated:
(1) Listen to students and all their cuentos (stories), using all their
language practices.
(2) Her students felt valorados (valued), when they heard the expression
‘si te cansas’ (if you get tired). (García et al. 2017: 161)
Again, it is only by looking at the linguistic detail that these similarities
emerge. Of course, as García et al. (2017: 75) explain, pedagogic
translanguaging is much more than code-switching because it entails a
wide range of activities. While these activities clearly show how different
languages can be used in the classroom, many of these activities can
be found in second-language classes around the world, and are not

84 Jeanine Treffers-Daller
specific to translanguaging classrooms (e.g. looking up words in bilingual
dictionaries, annotating texts with translations of vocabulary). Indeed,
García et al. (2017: 63) admit that many teachers when they hear about
translanguaging ‘tell us that they have been doing it for years but haven’t
had a name for it’. This is exactly the situation we encountered in an Indian
classroom, where the teacher referred to the children’s home situation
in explaining the terms for chemical processes such as evaporation and
condensation. The example from the Indian classroom can of course be

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seen as translanguaging, even if the teacher had not heard the term before.
It illustrates once more that the translanguaging strategies advocated
in the book are not as original as the proponents of translanguaging
would like us believe. In fact, it is common sense to allow students to use
dictionaries or the internet to try and get to the meaning of a text. Few
teachers would need to be told to make use of these resources, or to ‘draw
on’ the students’ own resources and repertoires. In the early twentieth
century, a well-known American philosopher and education specialist,
John Dewey, noted that ‘teachers have a moral responsibility to become
familiar with their students’ home cultures and design lessons that appeal
to their interests, using conditions in the local community “as educational
resources”’ (Dewey 1938: 23, cited in Schmidt and Alssup 2019: 3).
While building on or drawing on students’ repertoires in the classroom
seems like a good idea, it is important to realize that not all students are
literate in their home languages. This was the case among many children
who participated in our multilingualism and multiliteracy project among
low socioeconomic status children in India (Tsimpli et al. 2019). The
children came to school with a variety of home languages, some of which
did not even have writing systems, and in most cases the teachers did
not speak the children’s home languages either. Doing translanguaging is
going to be very challenging under these circumstances, and it is rather
surprising that this issue is not being raised at all in García et al. (2017).
In the videos that Anderson recommended, the presenters claim that it
is possible to do translanguaging even if the teacher does not know the
children’s home languages; they can, for example, allow the children to
write translation equivalents on the whiteboard, next to the English term.
At no point in this video or the accompanying guide is mention made of
a potential absence of literacy skills in children’s home languages, nor do
the presenters discuss problems with the translatability of terms (see the
points raised in the Point). We all know from experience that providing
translation equivalents in another language is very difficult, and often
exact translation equivalents do not exist. In addition, many words are
polysemous, which means different translations are needed depending on
the context. This makes it very difficult for learners to provide appropriate
translation equivalents. These difficulties presented themselves in the
pilot study of a research project of one of my PhD students. Her students
were adult Arabic L1 learners of English as an L2, and they were given the
task to create flashcards with the English word on one side and an Arabic
translation equivalent on the other side. This turned out to be too difficult,
and the flashcards contained many errors. In the final project, teacher-
made flashcards had to be used instead of student-made flashcards, to
avoid students practising with cards that contained errors. At the very least,

Code-switching and translanguaging: why they have a lot in common 85

 one would expect the proponents of translanguaging to show an awareness
of these issues.
Most researchers make an effort to demonstrate how their work builds
on the work of predecessors, and provide appropriate summaries of
their work. This is not just a matter of courtesy, but of academic integrity.
The proponents of translanguaging have been successful in moving
multilingualism in the classroom to the top of the agenda in a variety

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of contexts, which is a great achievement. It is time for translanguaging
papers also to recognize the achievements of others, and to show how
the translanguaging agenda developed out of the ideas of other excellent
researchers.
A final word should be said about all those teachers across the world
working with multilingual children or adults. They manage to do what
the proponents of translanguaging advocate: respect the languages,
cultures and traditions of the learners. But how they want to teach is their
business, and researchers from Western countries should not prescribe
translanguaging as the one-size-fits all solution. Some researchers believe
only English should be used in the EFL classroom. We should respect those
views, because it is for the researchers and teachers in different parts of the
world to decide what solutions are most appropriate in their contexts.
Final version received November 2023

Funding
Funding was received from the ELT Journal (OUP) for presenting an
earlier version of the arguments at the ELT Journal debate at the IATEFL
conference in Leeds.

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Treffers-Daller, J., S. Majid, Y. N. Thai, and N. Flynn. Jeanine Treffers-Daller is Professor of Multilingualism
2022. ‘Explaining the Diversity in Malay-English Code- (Emeritus) at the University of Reading (UK). She has
switching Patterns: The Contribution of Typological published widely on language contact phenomena
Similarity and Bilingual Optimization Strategies.’ in a variety of languages, on language dominance in

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Tsimpli, I., L. Mukhopadhyay, J. Treffers-Daller, S. the speech of bilinguals and second-language learners.
Alladi, T. Marinis, M. Panda, A. Balasubramanian, and She is Editor-in-Chief of Languages (MDPI) and on the
P. Sinha. 2019. ‘Multilingualism and Multiliteracy in editorial board of Bilingualism, Language and Cognition,
Primary Education in India: A Discussion of Some and the International Journal of Bilingualism.
Methodological Challenges of an Interdisciplinary Email: [email protected]

Code-switching and translanguaging: why they have a lot in common 87