A translanguaging approach to bilingual theorising in postgraduate researchers’ education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The monolingual English norm in current education and academic discourse has continuously marginalised the linguistic and theoretical resources in languages other than English. Drawing upon evidence from Chinese bilingual postgraduate researchers and their supervisors, this paper reconsiders their potentials for bilingual theorising with their translanguaging practices and capacities. Analyses suggest that translanguaging, rather than monolingual English, tend to be used by bilingual postgraduate researchers in academic activities including supervisory meetings, peer discussions, research interviews, academic theorising and writing. With translanguaging, bilingual postgraduate researchers may further extend their bilingual theorising capabilities to co-construct a shared multilingual and multicultural intellectual space where synergy and serendipity are valued and achieved.