What Is Translanguaging Defined
The term Translanguaging was originally coined as a Welch word“trawsieithu”in classroom to describe “a pedagogical practice which deliberately switches the language mode of input and output in bilingual classrooms—translanguaging means that you receive information through the medium of one language(e.g.，English)and use it yourself through the medium of the other language.”(Lewis，Jones，and Baker，2012a，2012b).In other words，translanguaging is using more languages in knowledge acquisition and skill training.Ofelia(2009)defines that“translanguaging is the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features or various modes of what are described as autonomous languages，in order to maximize communicative potential.”
Since the notion of translanguaging comes from observations of language teaching，it is predictable that such a notion can be equally applicable in translation teaching which is essentially built upon the practice of language teaching.Below are perceptions from motivations for the establishment of undergraduate program in Monash University.
Undergraduate translation units (Chinese and English)in Monash University were offered from 2005 and by 2014 there were eight translation subjects being offered，and a translation major has been established(2009)within the Chinese Studies Program in Monash University.From curriculum design and throughout the delivery of these translation courses since 2005，much attention and interests have been given to the issues central to the role of translation different from its stereotyped function of professional training.Survey results are also used for analysis to illustrate the changing circumstances that demand new thinking in devising new curriculum and pedagogical approaches of translation teaching.
As Li(2018)notes that“the actual purpose of learning new languages—to become bilingual and multilingual，rather than to replace the learner’s L1 to become another monolingual—often gets forgotten or neglected，and the bilingual，rather than monolingual，speaker is rarely used as the model for teaching and learning.”Translanguaging as an effective means to enhance learners’language proficiency calls for change in the conventional translation teaching mode.The following is an account of the establishment of the undergraduate translation major in the Chinese Studies Program in Monash University.The thinking behind such moves is a showcase in which all changing factors confronting the educators are taken into consideration.