Translanguaging research methodologies

Abstract

In the same way that translanguaging research asks us to be amenable to what may seem at first glance to be “unusual” usages of language, this forum piece asks researchers of translanguaging to be open to “unusual” research methods. It explores the importance of complementing conventional research methodologies with “unusual” ones in order to conceptualize the complexities of translanguaging both as a phenomenon (socially situated language practice) and as a practical theory of language (Li Wei, 2018). After outlining some relevant theoretical premises of translanguaging, this article proposes that scholars of applied linguistics interested in translanguaging consider revisiting the methodological assumptions guiding their scholarly work. Put differently, the urgency lies not only in drawing on research methodologies to make sense of translanguaging but also how to translanguage research methodologies themselves in our pursuit of understanding language practices that have historically been marginalized in various realms of society and education and overlooked or dismissed by researchers in applied linguistics.