Using the computer’s microphone, the Google Translate interface allows you speak or type in one language and have that translated into any one of huge number of different languages, and hear the translation as audio. Speaker buttons are a simple feature of the Google Chrome internet browser. This article therefore follows an ongoing Year 1 translanguaging trial, where 5-6 year old English beginners make use of Google speaker buttons to facilitate their social and academic learning. In this vein, we wanted to explore how similar strategies might operate in Key stage 1 and Foundation Stage classrooms, where oral language use predominates. Written translations give students the ability to express academic and linguistic knowledge that is still well beyond their reach in English. In Key Stage 2, this approach is based on integrating the use of Google translate for scaffolding literacy and curriculum content. Since 2011, the ISH has been implementing a trial translanguaging approach across both EAL and mainstream teaching contexts. This means approximately eighty percent of the school’s student population is bilingual. The International School of the Hague (ISH) Primary, where we work, is host to ninety-plus nationalities and over sixty different languages.
