Engineering a ‘contact zone’ through translanguaging

This paper presents a pilot project which uses a translanguaging approach in order to subvert the power dynamics whereby language learners, refugees and migrants are positioned as defective or ineffective communicators of a target language. The project seeks to create a space, an engineered ‘contact zone’ in which the negative, mainstream media discourses of migration can be countered through dialogue and encounter. Through translanguaging we foster creative, communicative practices in which interactants can bring into play their linguistic and cultural repertoires in order to support mutual understanding.