A Case For Supporting Translanguaging in Technology

Monolingual ideology prevails in technology. It is further dominated by the English language. The problem arising from monolingual ideology in technology is pronounced for individuals with limited digital literacy and English familiarity. We present a case study of two pairs of first-generation migrants and their children who completed a series of web and mobile-based tasks in their home language, English, and a different language. We highlight the various roles the children played in helping their parents use technology and the ways in which the pairs moved between languages to seek and provide help. We make a case to move away from monolingual ideologies in technology towards translanguaging, taking into account the rich language repository available to bilingual and multilingual users. We conclude by drawing three design considerations to nurture translanguaging practices.