Special Issue on “Integrating Translanguaging, Multimodality, and Arts-Based Pedagogies in Multilingual Classroom” in The Language Learning Journal

Julie Choi and Liz Murray explore how arts-rich translanguaging approaches can transform heritage language education in multilingual families. Through a collaborative bookmaking project with nine Vietnamese Australian parents, the study demonstrates how creative processes help families move from viewing their mixed language practices as “broken” to recognising them as valuable multilingual resources. Drawing on translanguaging and distributed language theoretical frameworks, the research reveals how collaborative artistic creation enables parents to fundamentally reconceptualise their relationship with language – shifting from seeing it as a fixed system requiring mastery to understanding it as an embodied, multimodal practice embedded in daily life and cultural participation. The authors identify four key principles for designing effective community-driven language projects and provide practical implications for educators and policymakers working to support linguistic diversity in multilingual communities. This research was conducted in partnership with ViệtSpeak, a community language organisation advocating for Vietnamese bilingual education.