As a pedagogical approach, the concept of translanguaging refers to the use of the learner’s full language repertoire in teaching and learning (García et al. 2017). This paper focusses on the role of translanguaging in the context of trilingual education models in Friesland, the Netherlands, in which Dutch, English and Frisian are used in instruction. It is set within the current context of regional minority/indigenous languages growingly encountering migrant-induced diversity. The presence of migrant languages exponentially complicates the language ecology in these trilingual schools. The research presented looks at the role of translanguaging-based approaches within this setting. The typical insistence on the national languages as main languages of schooling (Kroon & Spotti 2011) is based on the idea that immersion in each of the target languages triggers the best outcomes, thus leading to language separation pedagogies. In fact, also in trilingual education models in which three languages are regularly used in instruction, languages are still kept hermetically apart in instruction (Arocena & Gorter 2013; Riemersma & de Vries 2011). In this context, a project conducted in 5 trilingual schools in Friesland, the Northern province of the Netherlands, will be introduced. In a multiple exploratory case-study (Yin 2014), a translanguaging approach was developed and implemented in five primary schools with the aims of: a) reducing the language separation pedagogies practiced in the schools and b) giving immigrant languages a place in the schools’ trilingual model with a national language (Dutch), a regional minority language (Frisian) and a foreign language (English). Results show that a translanguaging approach was used to design activities in which the three main languages of instruction jointly play a role, whereas a language awareness approach (Young & Hélot 2003) was adopted in order to valorise immigrant languages. Further, teachers needed to go through a process of ownership construction in order to be able to embrace the concept of translanguaging as a valid pedagogical practice. Consequences for a translanguaging pedagogy will be discussed.

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