Addressing translanguaging practices at higher education in a bilingual virtual learning environment involving learners from diverse regions of Colombia

Abstract

This qualitative research project employed an exploratory study aiming to address translanguaging practices in a Bilingual Virtual Learning Environment (BVLE) of higher education settled in diverse regions of Colombia, through an open online questionnaire and the observation technique for achieving three goals: to explore the relevance of translanguaging practices in a higher education setting, to design a proposal with those practices adapted and thought up to the study context and to determine the implementation’s influence on the selected practices. This project arose from the need to overcome a monolingual perspective and analyze the perceptions of students about taking advantage of both languages -English and Spanish- in BVLE and the tensions related to bilingualism in this multicultural context. As a result, this study expects all the participants and agents of higher education to reflect upon bilingualism, and their roles when exploring new pedagogical approaches in language learning.