Optimising diverse linguistic capital through translanguaging in a large humanities course

Translanguaging is preferred as a non-deficit pedagogical approach towards tackling a linguistic access issue for diverse students by tapping into their linguistic capital and giving them a chance to be represented by bringing their own knowledge and full linguistic repertoire into their learning space. In the context of South Africa, large classes tend to have diverse language profiles, and adopting translanguaging strategies is a useful approach to enhance student learning, engagement, and sense of belonging. The focus of the paper is to share a good practice example of the use of translanguaging pedagogy as a strategy to optimize linguistic capital in a large humanities course - Text in the Humanities. The learning outcome for this large course is for students to have a better understanding of reading and producing texts in the humanities and utilizing translanguaging pedagogy as a strategy to enhance student learning experiences.