Translanguaging with Purpose — Mariana Jiménez Portfolio

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Conference Presentation · Thought Leadership · 2026

Translanguaging with Purpose

Translanguaging as Instructional Strategy: Bridging Research and Practice for Multilingual Learners · SAAABE · San Antonio, TX · 2026

Presentation Overview

This practitioner-research presentation challenged the field's tendency to treat translanguaging as permissive code-switching — and reframed it as a strategically planned instructional move explicitly tied to ACTFL proficiency goals. Delivered to the San Antonio Association for Bilingual Education (SAAABE), the presentation drew on classroom evidence and doctoral research to model how translanguaging can be embedded into lesson architecture without undermining Spanish language development targets.

SAAABE 2026 ACTFL Framework Bilingual Education Research-to-Practice

Central Argument

Translanguaging is not the absence of language boundaries — it is the deliberate, research-grounded use of a student's full linguistic repertoire in service of a specific proficiency goal. Without a language objective, it is not translanguaging pedagogy. It is just switching.

— Core thesis, Translanguaging with Purpose · SAAABE 2026

Three Core Arguments

Translanguaging must be planned at the lesson level. It belongs in the lesson architecture — embedded into the Crear phase with a specific proficiency goal — not added as an accommodation or used as a default when instruction breaks down. The Raíces micro-framework demonstrates what this looks like in practice.

Translanguaging and biliteracy are complementary, not competing. Honoring a student's full linguistic repertoire strengthens, rather than undermines, their development of academic Spanish. The research — García, Celic, Seltzer, and others — supports this claim. The presentation connected theory to classroom evidence.

Cultural specificity matters. Translanguaging pedagogy must honor the particular linguistic and cultural identity of each student — not flatten all multilingual learners under a single "bilingual" label. A Venezuelan-born student's Spanish is not interchangeable with a Mexican American student's. Instruction must respond to that specificity.

Educator Takeaways

🎯

Always start with a language objective

Every translanguaging move in a lesson should be tied to a specific ACTFL proficiency goal — not left open-ended. Name the function: Narrar, Clasificar, Sintetizar.

🗺️

Plan the bridge, don't just permit it

Design the specific moment when students use their full repertoire — in Explorar for comprehension, in Crear for production. Document it in your lesson plan.

🌱

Honor the specific, not the general

Ask: which student's language am I honoring, and what is their specific linguistic background? Culturally sustaining pedagogy is specific, not categorical.

📊

Assess the outcome, not just the process

Use observation protocols to capture what students produced after the translanguaging moment — that's the proficiency evidence that justifies the pedagogy.

What This Work Demonstrates

This presentation is evidence of thought leadership, community engagement, and the ability to translate scholarly research into practitioner-accessible content — all central to roles in curriculum development, program design, and multilingual education leadership. SAAABE represents the exact professional community that curriculum developers, program leads, and publishing specialists cultivate: bilingual educators, school leaders, and community advocates working at the intersection of language, culture, and equity. The presentation also demonstrates the kind of clear, evidence-grounded communication this work requires — making a complex theoretical framework actionable for classroom teachers.