Imagine two learners are heads-down on a group task, and you catch a quick exchange between them in Tagalog or Mandarin before they switch back to English. Maybe this is not as bad as you think. 
For a long time, the field of ESL operated under what we might call the “English only” assumption: that the fastest route to acquisition is full immersion, and that turning to a first language slows learners down. However, the research has been quietly offering a different perspective.
Translanguaging, the practice of drawing on a learner’s full linguistic capability rather than just English, has gained considerable traction in second language teaching. Lin and Leung (2024) observed adult ESL classrooms where learners were free to move between languages while working through complex content. What they found was that these “translanguaging spaces” deepened learning. Students engaged in richer knowledge co-construction, challenged some of the rigid power dynamics that often shape language classrooms and used multiple resources to make meaning together.
Hopkyns and Dovchin (2024) add another layer worth thinking about. Their work with ESL teachers found that “English only” policies often produce real emotional tension: for learners, who may feel that part of their identity doesn’t belong in the classroom, and for teachers, who navigate a kind of “emotional labour” in enforcing policies that don’t always match how multilingual people use language in the wider world.
So, what might this look like in your class? It doesn’t mean abandoning English instruction. Your learners are with you to develop their English skills, after all. But it might mean rethinking some small moments. Could a quick clarification in a shared first language between two learners unlock the activity? Could allowing a student to jot ideas down in their first language before translating help produce richer English output? Could naming and valuing the languages your learners bring open the door to deeper engagement?
The classes we teach are already multilingual. Perhaps learners would benefit more from drawing on their full linguistic capability.
References
Hopkyns, S., & Dovchin, S. (2024). Translanguaging and emotionality of English as a second language (ESL) teachers. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 62(3), 1257–1278. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0094
Lin, S. H.-C., & Leung, A. (2024). ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space. Applied Linguistics Review, 15(6), 2397–2425. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0202
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