MTBBE - What is translanguaging?

A bi/multilingual person uses different languages or language varieties to communicate.  You might have asked someone how they are and heard a response like: Ja, I’m fine mos or Ndirayiti. These phrases are examples of translanguaging.

Translanguaging describes the use of the different languages that a multilingual person has, that is their linguistic repertoire, to communicate. The different languages in a repertoire might not be at the same level of proficiency but can be helpful in communication and meaning-making; hence they are called language resources. Multilingual speakers sometimes use languages separately, or they may mix languages to communicate in different contexts. Translanguaging is the norm for multilingual speakers.