Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to engage with the ideas of Suresh Canagarajah – a highly acknowledged scholar from Penn State University, in the United States of America – on translingual research and practice. In order to do so, an interview with him was jointly planned by Ruberval Franco Maciel (UEMS) and Cláudia Hilsdorf Rocha (UNICAMP) and carried out in August 2019, during an event held in Brazil. Taking into account the increasing number of studies on translingualism worldwide in the past few years and the leading role played by Canagarajah’s work in this field, the interview aimed at expanding views and contributing to broaden the scholarship in this area. To situate and contextualize the author’s ideas, some considerations on translanguaging as a language theory and educational approach are firstly made. As a result, Canagarajah’s voice and points of view are put in dialogue with a plurality of ideas, highlighting the complex, dynamic and challenging nature of a translingual turn in contemporary times and its possible connections with Brazilian language studies. Translingual work intertwined with affective, multimodal and multisensory approaches is considered a possible and interesting path to be explored in the near future.
Highlights
RESUMO: O propósito central deste manuscrito é apresentar as ideias de Suresh Canagarajah – um altamente conceituado professor e pesquisador da Penn State University, nos Estados Unidos da América – sobre pesquisas e práticas translíngues
Multilingual theories and policies have been increasingly debated in the field of Applied Linguistics in times of globalization, mobility and super-diversity (VERTOVEC, 2007; BLOMMAERT; RAMPTON, 2011)
It seems fair to point out that, on the one hand, translanguaging research visibility has increased significantly these days, but, on the other hand, studies on what we understand as translanguaging today cannot be considered new, since its Welsh origins date back to the 90’s (LI WEI; GARCÍA, 2016)
Summary
Multilingual theories and policies have been increasingly debated in the field of Applied Linguistics in times of globalization, mobility and super-diversity (VERTOVEC, 2007; BLOMMAERT; RAMPTON, 2011). As a result, translanguaging, both as a language theory and an educational practice, can be seen as a highly transgressive orientation, once it challenges authoritative ideologies, resist inequalities and opens paths for other identitary, sociocultural and linguistic realities (LI WEI; GARCÍA, 2016) In this regard, Canagarajah (2017a) discuss translingual practices in their interface with neoliberal discourses. Canagarajah (2017b) echoes many scholars (BLOCK; GRAY, HOLBOROW, 2012; BLOMMAERT, 2013; LI WEI; ZHU HA, 2013; PENNYCOOK; OTSUJI, 2015, just to mention a few) and broadens views on these matters by moving beyond structuralist orientations when debating translingual theories on language He aligns translingual practices with spatial repertoires and claims that a translingual approach should involve four interrelated domains, which expand its definition. It seems interesting to situate the activity by contextualizing our interest in the subject and offer some more details on what made this dialogue possible
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
