Translingual identity across transnational education spaces: study on a group of Chinese students in joint education programme

Abstract

ABSTRACT Informed by translingual practice [Canagarajah, S. 2013a. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. New York: Routledge] and poststructuralist conceptualisation of identity [Norton, B. 2000. “Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change.” TESOL Quarterly 35 (3): 504–505], this qualitative case study explored the process of translingual identity construction and negotiation among a group of Chinese students in a joint education programme between China and the United States. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. Data analysis found that these Chinese students initially perceived themselves as deficient ESL speakers resulting from a lack of competence in English, but were able to transform this dilemma with the development of powerful national identities throughout their China-US transnational experiences. In order to claim ownership of English and membership in the host community, besides using standard norms of English to handle academic and social life communication, students developed translingual dispositions as well as translingual practices to supplement their communicative competence with expanded semiotic repertoire. The study extends previous discussions on identity by examining through an analytical lens as translingualism to explore students’ identity construction and negotiation in transnational education spaces and provides implications for translingual-oriented language policy and ideologies in intercultural contexts to enhance outcomes of teaching practices and students’ learning.