Linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms have become a reality in an increasing number of school environments. A promising perspective with explanatory potential when examining the use of learners’ languages in the classroom is that of translanguaging (TRLNG)/trans-semiotising. Yet despite the current world fame and popularity of the concept in the scholarly literature and among teachers “on the ground,” it is not without problems and caveats, which will be examined basing on an extensive overview of current pedagogical and research scholarship (k = 272; Author, 2021; under review). We will discuss the limits to the applicability of the concept in the narrow sense of a multilingual resource-based set of pedagogical practices with diverse student populations. Among the many qualifications, we shall see how TRLNG may be less transformative and critical than has been suggested. We will notice that TRLNG practices may unintentionally reproduce disadvantages and reinforce inequalities and the hegemony of majority languages, where language singletons (learners with no same-language peers) in particular face steeper challenges. Moreover, not all students appreciate the opportunity to use their home language(s), pupils may not find the practice liberating at all, and it may actually cause a decrease in well-being. Finally, foreign/world language classrooms require the reconciliation of many conflicting goals, necessitating a trade-off between the need to acknowledge students’ linguistic diversity and freedom of expression on the one hand, and helping them learn the register or language that is the target of instruction on the other.

Naturally, many aspects and practices of TRLNG are worthwhile and salvageable. The final minutes of the talk will focus on these, concluding with a recommendation of more critically aware and reflective plurilingual L2 pedagogies that always take into account the circumstances and ecologies of the classroom and the subjectivities of the students (see e.g., Byrnes, 2020).