Translanguaging: An Enactive-Performative Approach to Language Education
Abstract
In this chapter, we describe the concept of translanguaging (translangager) at the intersection of Francisco Varela's enaction paradigm (1999) and the performative turn in cultural studies (Fischer-Lichte, 2004; Sting, 2012). We will shed light on two processes that unfold in relation to each other: empathising and living aesthetic experiences that ‘anchor abstract knowledge in a sensitive and embodied knowledge of the world’ (Aden, 2008: 11). Linking the biological roots of language (Maturana & Varela, 1987) and the aesthetic roots of poetic languages (Lecoq, 1997), we pave the way for an enactive-performative pedagogy for languages (Aden, 2017a; Aden & Eschenauer, 2014). From here we map out language education within a framework of translangageance that we define as the process of emergence of a common language that makes sense, through all forms of language.