The various guises of translanguaging and its theoretical airstrip

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the necessary complementarity between a translanguaging and named language-perspective by critically examining risks of ‘overshooting’ when a translanguaging view is theoretically posited as the ultimately superior (sociolinguistic) theory of language use and learning in today’s multilingual world.

KEYWORDS:

• Translanguaging
• sociolinguistics
• boundary work
• named languages
• categorisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report with reference to this publication. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Lancaster/Ghent Symposium on ‘The Various Guises of Translanguaging’ (2019, Ghent), at a seminar for the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (2019, University of the Western Cape), at Sociolinguistics Symposium 23 (2021, Hong Kong) and at the AILA triannual Conference in Groningen (2021). I am grateful to these various audiences for their perceptive comments and critical engagement. Any remaining shortcomings are entirely mine.

2 As part of this, the notion of ‘translanguaging’ has featured as a stake in paradigmatic struggles between cognitive/psycholinguistic and social/sociolinguistic approaches to the study of language and learning, and as a moral-political stake which stresses sociohistorical justice in a contemporary world ridden by far-reaching inequalities.

3 ‘Learning through translanguaging in monolingual school policy contexts’ by Kirsten Rosiers and Stef Slembrouck was presented at the 3rd Swedish Conference on Translanguaging, held at Linnaeus University in Växjö, in April 2019. The quoted data was obtained as part of FNRS-project under grant no. 26056176 (PI Jürgen Jaspers, Université Libre de Bruxelles; researcher Kirsten Rosiers). Informed consent included the publication of a pseudonymised transcription in scientific publications.

4 CEFR stands for Common European Frame of Reference for Languages, which organizes language proficiency in six levels. In Flanders, the level B2 secures entry into higher Education.