This paper explores the notions of language contact phenomena like borrowing, codeswitching, codemixing, codemeshing, and translanguaging. It also examines the concepts of translingualism and translingual literacies. It debates how the notions of bilingualism and multilingualism are distinguished from translingual literacies and translingualism, and how these concepts arose according to distinct theoretical positions. It also proposes the contents of the other articles covered in this special issue, and points out their crucial points, framing them in the context of inquiry on translingual literacies. The following six areas from around the world are included: (1) negotiating voice in translingual literacies, (2) Amerindian and translingual literacies, (3) translingual and transcultural practice in a rural classroom, (4) translingual and transcultural navigation among immigrant children and youth, (5) créolisation and the new cosmopolitanism, and (6) translingual practice among African immigrants in the USA. Finally, this paper also includes two book reviews linked to translingual literacies, and it also offers some conclusions on the debated topics, as well as some proposals for further directions in future inquiry.