Research shows that translanguaging – moving between two or more languages – can be a powerful tool for supporting learning, inclusion and well-being.
This article starts with a brief background to translanguaging pedagogy and its benefits. It then looks at why picturebooks are used in language education and the types of picturebooks that lend themselves to translanguaging pedagogy. Finally, it gives you practical translanguaging strategies that can be used with different types of picturebooks suitable for primary and lower secondary learners.
Background to translanguaging pedagogy
Class profiles, especially in Europe, have increasingly reflected greater linguistic diversity over the last decades as they include a greater number of children who speak various languages. According to the new Eurobarometer (European Commission, 2024), 'on average 11,5% of students in the EU speak a different language at home than at school, showing that multilingual classrooms are a reality in Europe'. These changes have been driven by mobility, both forced and chosen, technological developments and a greater acceptance of the benefits of speaking multiple languages. However, the persistence of a monolingual approach to the teaching of languages in the school curriculum in many contexts has silenced children's bilingual/multilingual identities, yet children have language rights. Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC; 1989) states: 'You have the right to practice your own culture, language and religion – or any you choose'. The latest UNESCO report on multilingualism (UNESCO, 2025) focuses on how engaging with children's languages matters for educational success and personal well-being. As a result, teaching approaches are evolving to acknowledge and accommodate this cultural and linguistic diversity. For example, translanguaging pedagogy encompasses flexible multilingual practices that enable children to draw upon the full range of their linguistic resources. This approach gives them agency, equal opportunity and choice, thus contributing to a democratic and inclusive classroom climate.
Defining translanguaging
Translanguaging is a strategy for personal and pedagogical communication in and between multiple languages. The term and concept of translanguaging originated in the Welsh educational context, where Cen Williams (1994) developed an approach that included 'the planned and systematic use of two languages for teaching and learning inside the same lesson' (Lewis, Jones & Baker, 2012: 3). The objective was to support the teaching of a minority language and simultaneously develop bilingual educational approaches that supported both languages and validated the learners' identities. Cenoz and Gorter (2017) differentiate between spontaneous and pedagogical translanguaging. Spontaneous translanguaging 'refers to the reality of bi/multilingual usage in naturally occurring contexts where boundaries between languages are fluid and constantly shifting' (2017: 904). Pedagogical translanguaging is an instructional strategy where teachers plan the alternate use of two or more languages for input and output based on the learners' whole linguistic repertoire.
Hence, translanguaging pedagogy leverages learners' full linguistic and cognitive resources to access the content of a lesson. As such, it is 'socially-just pedagogy, where moving between languages is acknowledged and welcomed as a socio-emotional supportive strategy' (Ibrahim, 2025: 219). This is a normal classroom practice, where children and teachers use multiple languages as a meaningful way of communicating.
Picturebooks and language education
Picturebooks, as a form of children's literature, operate on many levels, satisfying learners of different ages and at different stages in their language learning. They provide exposure to rich and authentic language in a natural way as the language is not sequenced or graded. This provides a meaningful context for language use. They bring multimodal representation into the classroom, encouraging meaning-making from both words and pictures. They can be used across the curriculum and offer wide educational benefits, such as conceptual, literacy and cognitive development, the development of visual and emotional literacy, and intercultural and global citizenship awareness.
There is a broad range of picturebooks covering varied themes and subject matter, and they are available in many different languages. Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, for example, has been translated into more than 65 languages, most recently Mongolian. Many picturebooks written in other languages have been translated into English, which offers an opportunity to learn about other languages and cultures and to make critical comparisons as well as the potential for translingual practice. Given the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of teaching and learning contexts today, storytelling, as a historical and traditional pastime, draws on similar themes across cultures, building bridges of understanding, and reflects the diversity of children's lived experiences. Picturebooks, therefore, offer a high-quality, flexible resource for language education.
However, many teachers are concerned that when using picturebooks in language classes, discussion often takes place in the dominant classroom language, rather than in the target language, for example English. Furthermore, if teachers are required to follow an English-only policy, they may feel guilty or even fear repercussions from school management if children use their own language(s). Essentially, the main reason for such concerns is because the rationale, benefits and skills of a translanguaging pedagogy are rarely covered on pre- or in-service teacher development courses.
Types of picturebooks for a translanguaging pedagogy
All picturebooks lend themselves to a translanguaging pedagogy, and we have divided them into the following categories, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
translated picturebooks
from other languages into English
from English into other languages
dual-language picturebooks
translingual (words from different languages combined in the same sentence)
bilingual/multilingual (text is given fully in both or all languages)
monolingual picturebooks in
target language
language(s) of instruction
language(s) of the learners
wordless picturebooks
ABC/counting picturebooks.
Examples of translanguaging pedagogy with picturebooks
Discussion around a picturebook that takes place in the dominant classroom language or official school language (i.e. not the target language) is an example of a translanguaging strategy that helps support understanding. However, translanguaging can also occur when multiple languages are used during picturebook talk. Teachers need to appreciate and understand that there is no loss of the target language learning benefits. In fact, the opposite is true; this moving between languages provides scaffolding to understand, acquire and expand the target language. Children are involved in both language learning and learning about language, and if only the target language is used, this would be 'denying pupils a very useful learning strategy' (Ellis & Brewster, 2014: 21). Encouraging and welcoming picturebook talk in one or more of learners' other languages also makes these languages visible and shows they are valued.
Monolingual picturebooks
Mixed, written in English, addresses the themes of diversity, 'mixity' and social issues. Opportunities for rich discussion around these themes can be better developed in both the shared classroom language and the target language by allowing children to respond to questions and make comments in their own language(s), which the teacher recasts into the target language. This strategy is particularly effective during a read-aloud and facilitates learners' active participation in the storytelling.
Translated picturebooks
Mixed has also been translated into other languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, with different titles, which provides an opportunity for using another translanguaging strategy where learners compare and discuss the translation choices. Furthermore, learners can translate picturebook titles into other language(s), for example their home languages, languages in the curriculum and other languages they may know. Ibrahim (2024) suggests further activities that develop metalinguistic awareness around Mixed.
Wordless picturebooks
Wordless picturebooks, also referred to as silent books, have been used in response to the arrival of refugees from Africa and the Middle East on the Italian island Lampedusa, as they bridge cultural and linguistic barriers and can be understood by children regardless of language (IBBY, 2012).
Professional Crocodile, first published in Italian by Topipittori, Professione Coccodrillo, invites us to ponder the question, what does the crocodile do for a living? The illustrations provide various opportunities for personal interpretation and many details to explore and discuss. Professional Crocodile contains intra-iconic text in Italian: this refers to words that appear within visual images, such as environmental print in street, station or shop signs. There is also a shop sign in Arabic script. In this wordless picturebook, learners can be asked to identify these intra-iconic words by using the images to support meaning-making and to translate them into the target language and their own languages.
When using The Snowman with near beginners in a primary school in Paris, Ellis (2022) describes how she mediated the visual narrative through elicitation in the shared classroom language, French, to build up the narrative orally in the target language, English. This enabled the learners to see how one language can serve as a stepping stone to learn another and gave children a voice and a sense of creativity as they interpreted the illustrations and found words to shape the story.
Dual-language picturebooks
Dual-language picturebooks can be translingual or bi/multilingual (Daly, 2025) and are excellent for showcasing linguistic diversity in children's literature (Ibrahim, 2020). They have been used in multilingual classrooms in the UK since the 1970s (Hester, 1983) to support the language development of both bilingual children and children who speak English as their first language.
Ideally, when selecting a dual-language picturebook, one of the languages can be the children's home language(s) or another language they know. For example, Kende! Kende! Kende! is bilingual French/English with words and phrases in Lingala. The words in Lingala are written in capital letters and in a larger font to emphasise the emotions they convey. The title on the front cover, Kende! Kende! Kende! (meaning 'Go! Go! Go!') gives visibility and status to Lingala, the home language of Lolie, the main character. It also stimulates curiosity in the language and its sounds for children who are unfamiliar with this language. Kende! Kende! Kende! is an own-voice narrative about displacement, migration and finding a new home. It is inspired by the journeys of many families originating from Central Africa who were forced to leave their homes and can help children understand the reasons for migration and the importance of cultural identity. The narrative begins with French first, followed by English, then changes to English followed by French to reflect the family’s new linguistic setting when they are relocated to North America. The front endpapers show a map of Central Africa, and QR codes offer the opportunity to listen to the story in other languages spoken in Central Africa: Swahili, Portuguese, Kinyarwanda and Arabic, showing how people move between many languages. The back endpapers explain Lolie's story and include a glossary of the Lingala words and phrases with translations into French and English, framed in a border of African fabrics.
Maya's Blanket/La Manta de Maya is another example of a dual-language picturebook. It is a bilingual English/Spanish book that celebrates family traditions, creativity and recycling of precious objects. As in Kende! Kende! Kende!, children discover translanguaging as the English sentences are interspersed with words and phrases in other languages. Children can substitute the Spanish or Lingala words with words from their own languages and teach their classmates how to pronounce them. They can also discuss the positioning in terms of space given to each language, the order of the languages and the size, colour and typeface of the text and how this reflects the status of the language in society, based on the design choices.
ABC/Counting picturebooks
Many ABC picturebooks are subject-specific. For example, Creatures of the Rainforest: Two Artists Explore Djabugay Country presents facts about animals in a Queensland rainforest. The animals are named in both English (which decides the letter, for example P for Platypus) and Djabugay, so children discover indigenous cultures through both art and language. ABC picturebooks also offer a meaningful springboard for children to create their own personal ABC books in the target language and to connect words and pictures from their different languages and experiences. This enables them to create links between words, pictures and meaning and to discover linguistic similarities and differences and develop metalinguistic awareness.
For upper primary or lower secondary, Count Your Way Through South Africa, a twist on the familiar 1, 2, 3 counting book and written in English, presents historical information about apartheid in South Africa while teaching how to count from one to ten in Zulu, and We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey through Tanzania offers children the opportunity to learn how to count in Swahili. In addition, the pictures provide cultural and geographical information that offers opportunities for discussion about similarities and differences. Using picturebooks that contain languages from different contexts ignites children's curiosity about languages and allows them to discover different cultures, sounds and writing systems to develop language awareness and confidence in learning languages.
Summary of translanguaging strategies
Strategy 1
Description: Mediation of a picturebook in the language of instruction (i.e., not the target language) or in multiple languages.
Benefit: Supports understanding by scaffolding to understand, acquire and expand the target language. Makes learners' other languages relevant for learning.
Picturebook type: All
Strategy 2
Description: Selection of picturebooks that include words in languages spoken by children in the class.
Benefits: Makes learners' languages visible. Learners develop positive attitudes towards their bilingual/multilingual identities.
PIcturebook type: Dual language/multilingual
Strategy 3
Description: Discussion around complex themes in both the shared classroom language, the children’s own languages and the target language.
Benefits: Allows learners to express their ideas using their full linguistic repertoires, respond to questions and make comments, resulting in richer discussion. Facilitates learners' active participation during a read-aloud.
Picturebook type: All
Strategy 4
Description: Mediation of the picturebook's peritextual features (e.g. front/back covers, inside cover, front/back endpapers, dedication, title page, glossaries – e.g. pronunciation, author's note, etc.).
Benefits: Makes learners aware of picturebooks as an art form and as an integrated whole by considering how languages are used to provide further information, such as geographical, auto/biographical, meaning and pronunciation of key words.
Picturebook type: Dual language, ABC, Counting
Strategy 5
Description: Mediation of the visual narrative through elicitation in shared classroom language to build up the story orally in the target language.
Benefits: Learners see how one language can serve as a stepping stone to learn another. Gives children a voice and a sense of creativity as they interpret the illustrations and find words to shape the story. They experience the power of the pictures, exercise their imaginations and develop visual and emotional literacy.
Picturebook type: Wordless
Strategy 6
Description: Comparison and discussion of translation choices, e.g., title of a picturebook translated into other languages.
Benefits: Develops metalinguistic awareness and highlights language choice and hierarchies.
Picturebook type: Translated, Dual language
Strategy 7
Description: Facilitation of learners' responses to questions and comments in their own language(s) and teacher recasts into the target language as necessary.
Benefits: Values learners' language(s), reinforces their understanding and models what they want to say in the target language.
Picturebook type: All
Strategy 8
Description: Creation of multilingual glossaries in learners' home languages.
Benefits: Integrates learners' languages in a cross-curricular approach.
Picturebook type: All
Strategy 9
Description: Identification of intra-iconic text by using the images to support meaning-making and translation of the text into the target language and own languages.
Benefits: Develops noticing, visual literacy and language awareness.
Picturebook type: Any picturebook that contains intra-iconic text
Strategy 10
Description: Identification and substitution of words in other languages into words from their own languages and teaching classmates how to pronounce them.
Benefits: Develops noticing, language awareness.
Picturebook type: Dual language
Strategy 11
Description: Discussion of the positioning in terms of space given to each language, the order of the languages and the size, colour and typeface of the text.
Benefits: Develops awareness of language hierarchies, choices and status.
Picturebook type: Dual language
Strategy 12
Description: Creation of personal ABC books in the target language and connecting words and pictures from learners' different languages and experiences.
Benefits: Creates meaningful links between words, pictures and meaning to discover linguistic similarities and differences and develop metalinguistic awareness.
Picturebook type: ABC
Strategy 13
Description: Selection of picturebooks that contain different languages.
Benefits: Ignites curiosity about languages, allows learners to discover different cultures, sounds and writing systems and develop language awareness and confidence in learning languages.
Picturebook type: Dual language, ABC/Counting
Strategy 14
Description: Choice to use preferred language when giving personal responses to a picturebook and reviewing learning.
Benefits: Empowers learners and values all languages, allows them to express deeper responses/feelings, develops metacognition and creates an inclusive learning environment.
Picturebook type: All
Final thoughts
The rationale for using a translanguaging pedagogy needs to be communicated to both learners and parents/caregivers to reassure them that it offers educational benefits that go beyond the learning of a target language only. Ideally, this should be a whole-school approach, where translanguaging is developed across the curriculum to create an 'inclusive ethos' (Little & Kirwan, 2019: 41) that respects and celebrates learners' multilingual identities.
References
Picturebooks
Briggs, R. (1978) The Snowman. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Brown, M. & Díaz, D. (2015) Maya's Blanket / La Manta de Maya. Children's Book Press.
Cappy, K., Gentille, Y. & Dariah, R. (2024) Kende! Kende! Kende! Child's Play Library.
Carle, E. (1970) The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Chung, A. (2018) Mixed: A Colourful Story. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Eqlitis, A. & Brim, W. (2005) Creatures of the Rainforest: Two Artists Explore Djabugay Country. Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation.
Haskins, J. & Benson, K. (2007) Count Your Way Through South Africa. Millbrook Press.
Krebs, L. & Cairns, J. (2004) We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania. Barefoot Books.
Zoboli, G. & Di Giorgio, M. (2017) Professional Crocodile. Chronicle Books.
Academic
Cenoz, J. & Gorter, D. (2017) 'Minority languages and sustainable translanguaging: Threat or opportunity?', Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(10), pp. 901–912. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2017.1284855.
Daly, N. (2025) Language, Identity and Diversity in Picturebooks: An Aotearoa New Zealand Perspective. London: Routledge.
Ellis, G. (2022) 'The Snowman: Expanding boundaries and perspectives in ELT through literature with Raymond Briggs and Salman Rushdie introduced by David Valente', CLELE Journal (Children’s Literature in English Language Education), 10(2), pp. 128–131. Available at: https://clelejournal.org/introduced-david-valente-4/ (Accessed: October 2025).
Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (2014) Tell It Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers. London: British Council. Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/resource-books/tell-it-again-storytelling-handbook-primary-english-language-teachers (Accessed: October 2025).
Ellis, G. & Ibrahim, I. (2015) Teaching Children How to Learn. Delta Publishing.
European Commission (2024) Special EU Eurobarometer 540: Europeans and Their Languages. Brussels: European Union. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_2686 (Accessed: October 2025).
Hester, H. (1983) Stories in the Multilingual Primary Classroom: Supporting Children's Learning of English as a Second Language. ILEA.
IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) (2012) Silent Books. Available at: https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/activities/silent-books (Accessed: October 2025).
Ibrahim, N. (2020) 'The multilingual picturebook in English language teaching: Linguistic and cultural identity'. Children’s Literature in English Language Education (CLELE Journal), 8(2), pp. 12–38. Available at: https://clelejournal.org/article-1-nayr-ibrahim/ (Accessed: October 2025).
Ibrahim, N.C. (2024) 'Picturebooks as a resource for exploring language and identity in English language teaching', Communicare – et fagdidaktisk tidsskrift fra Fremmedspråksenteret, Spring 2024, pp. 16–20.
Ibrahim, N.C. (2025) 'Translanguaging as inclusive pedagogy and multilingual oracy', in Karoulla-Vrikki, D. & Lopriore, L. (eds) Young Learners' Oracy Acquisition and Development in International Foreign Language Learning Contexts. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 218–232.
Lewis, G., Jones, B. & Baker, C. (2012) 'Translanguaging: Origins and development from school to street and beyond', Educational Research and Evaluation: An International Journal on Theory and Practice, 18(7), pp. 641–654.
Little, D. & Kirwan, D. (2019) Engaging with Linguistic Diversity: A Study of Educational Inclusion in an Irish Primary School. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
UNESCO (2025) Languages Matter: Global Guidance on Multilingual Education. Paris: UNESCO. Available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/languages-matter-global-guidance-multilingual-education (Accessed: October 2025).
Williams, C. (1994) Arfarniad o ddulliau dysgu ac addysgu yng nghyd-destun addysg uwchradd ddwyieithog [An evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of bilingual secondary education]. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Wales, Bangor, UK.
Gail Ellis is an independent teacher educator and adviser. Her interests include learner agency and children’s rights, picturebook-based pedagogy, inclusive practices and teaching quality in early language learning. She is a co-founder with Tatia Gruenbaum of the Words & Pictures Library, a member of the Editorial Review Board for the CLELE Journal and a winner of the British Council ELTons Outstanding Achievement Award 2024.
Nayr C. Ibrahim is Associate Professor of English Subject Pedagogy at Nord University. She has over 25 years of experience in English and bilingual education in Portugal, Paris, Cairo, Hong Kong and now Norway. Her research interests are bi/multilingualism, early language learning, multiple literacies, language and identity, learning to learn, children's literature and children’s rights.
Gail and Nayr worked together for 20 years at the British Council Paris and are co-authors of 'Teaching children how to learn.'
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