Translanguaging: A Survey of China and New Zealand

• In Event: 43.067 - (Re)Theorizing Translanguaging From Non-Anglo Contexts/Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
Our study specifically examines translanguaging studies to date in two non-Anglo contexts: China and New Zealand to push back against dominant narratives of translanguaging research in Anglo contexts.
Perspectives
Translanguaging can be usually understood from three perspectives: (1) as a practice, translanguaging describes “multiple discursive practices in which bilinguals engage in order to make sense of their bilingual worlds” (Garcia, 2009, p.45); (2) as a theory, translanguaging interrogates the duality of bilingualism and claims that there is only one unitary linguistic repertoire from which multilinguals select linguistic features strategically and creatively to mediate complex social and cognitive activities (Otheguy, Garcia, & Reid, 2015; Garcia & Li Wei, 2014); and (3) as a pedagogy, translanguaging aims to foster asset-based pedagogies that incorporate learners’ full linguistic repertoires into learning (Garcia, 2009). Translanguaging shifts the focus from the language to the language user, calling attention to their agency, criticality, and creativity in communicative acts while questioning the social hierarchies that would curtail such traits (Li Wei & Wu, 2011; Garcia & Kleyn, 2016).
Methods and data sources
We first report on an analytical survey drawing upon all published studies relating to translanguaging in the People’s Republic of China and New Zealand to identify trends and gaps across the literature. Secondly, we draw upon empirical data collected by the second author at Pasifika and Māori early childhood education centers in New Zealand to further discuss findings. The analysis is emergent and draws upon the theory of translanguaging and a social justice framework throughout.
Results
Our findings reveal that while the practice of translanguaging has long been an established part of language learning in multilingual environments, the discourses found in many official language policies erase this. Additionally, our survey includes a discussion of the finding that translanguaging occurs across geographic regions (including under-reported East Asian contexts), though it has not often been called as such, making it heretofore an area not receiving much attention. Furthermore, the goals of research involving translanguaging data change depending on the priorities of different regional and sociopolitical contexts, which also need to be account for. The empirical data in New Zealand Pasifika and Māori educational environments also show the normalcy of translanguaging as pedagogy in non-Western dominant education, while highlighting the need to adopt a local community perspective to understand the significance of language choices and use. Finally, this talk argues that translanguaging holds the promise of allowing teachers to scaffold students’ language and content learning, and to further develop student agency to become critical and creative language users (Wei, Hua, and Wu, 2009).
Scholarly significance
This presentation contributes twofold. First, it provides a cross-cultural meta-analysis of translanguaging research to date, spanning North American, East Asian, and Pacific contexts. Second, this presentation engages the audience in a critical consideration of how our understanding of theories such as translanguaging better serve communities when adjusting the “heart” of translanguaging to represent a local community perspective.

Authors

• Zhongfeng Tian, Boston College

• Corinne A. Seals, Victoria University of Wellington