Genre Translanguaging

Genre Translanguaging is a multilingual instructional framework developed to support students’ access to academic language and content through explicit, structured, and culturally sustaining teaching. The approach integrates Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), genre-based pedagogy, and translanguaging practices to help multilingual learners read, write, speak, and learn disciplinary knowledge with clarity and confidence.

This framework has been implemented in K–12 schools, teacher education, university literacy courses, and community programs in the United States, Colombia, and Brazil. Teachers consistently report that Genre Translanguaging reduces frustration and increases engagement, comprehension, and joy in learning.

What Is Genre Translanguaging?

Genre Translanguaging combines the strengths of SFL genre pedagogy—explicit teaching of how texts work—with the flexibility and inclusivity of translanguaging. Instruction is organized around a sequenced learning cycle where students use their full linguistic repertoires to build comprehension, analyze texts, co-construct writing, and develop independent academic literacy skills.

Instructional Cycle

The framework uses a clear sequence to guide multilingual learners:

• Preparing for Reading: Activating knowledge and supporting comprehension through multilingual resources.
• Detailed Reading: Unpacking meaning, structure, and language patterns using explicit, scaffolded instruction.
• Joint Construction: Co-authoring texts with teacher support, leveraging students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge.
• Independent Construction: Producing texts with growing autonomy and genre control.
• Reflection: Comparing language choices across students’ repertoires to strengthen metalinguistic awareness.

Rather than insisting on maintaining the use of one or another language during instruction, the full linguistic repertoire of students is utilized strategically and purposefully throughout these cycles.

Research Foundations

Genre Translanguaging is grounded in:

• Systemic Functional Linguistics
• Genre-based pedagogy and Reading to Learn
• Translanguaging theory
• Equity-oriented and decolonial perspectives on language education

Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) is recently being used to make visible the pedagogic practices in the classroom so teaching is intentional and effective.

My research examines how these approaches can be integrated to support multilingual literacy development, teacher learning, and equitable access to academic language.

Applications and Impact

Genre Translanguaging is or has been used in:

• TESOL and bilingual education
• Dual language programs
• Undergraduate academic writing
• Multilingual literacy projects in the USA, Colombia and Brazil
• Community literacy and family education initiatives

The framework has demonstrated improvements in reading comprehension, writing development, vocabulary growth, and participation in classroom discourse.

Current Initiatives

• Genre Translanguaging Network (GTN)
• LLENA North America and LLEN Latin America
• Teacher development partnerships in Colombia (Bogotá, Santa Rosa de Osos, Agua Bonita 2)
• Bilingual teacher preparation collaborations in Brazil
• Forthcoming book projects on Genre Translanguaging and multilingual pedagogy

Selected Publications

A full list is available on:

• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6335-2041
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X2r2vlwAAAAJ&hl=en
• ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andres-Ramirez-15

Collaboration and Contact

I welcome collaboration from teachers, researchers, and institutions interested in implementing Genre Translanguaging or adapting it to new linguistic and cultural contexts.

I am also eager to work with doctoral students who wish to research, develop, and expand Genre Translanguaging within the Curriculum & Instruction Ph.D. program at Florida Atlantic University. Students interested in multilingual education, SFL, genre-based pedagogy, translanguaging, academic literacy, and equitable curriculum design are encouraged to connect with me about potential research directions and mentorship.