Language Repertoires Research Articles

What does translanguaging-for-equity really involve? An interactional analysis of a 9th grade English class

Abstract While much research on translanguaging is in bilingual and heritage language classrooms, it is under-researched in K-12 English-medium education. To better understand translanguaging in this context, this study applied interactional sociolinguistics, including analytical categories adapted from Conversation-for-Learning (Kasper and Kim, 2015; Kim, 2019), to a ninth grade English class in Honolulu with students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The study examined interactional sequences as students did literary analysis of novels and poetry over 13 weeks. These sequences involved appropriation of others’ lexical phrases, collaborative word searches, miscommunication repair, and knowledge checks. Translanguaging, when it occurred, indicated joint meaning-making across linguistic asymmetries, and was not only a means of thinking aloud using an integrated language repertoire, but a form of helping peers as students signaled to each other to adopt language, teach them something, or work through a problem together, creating opportunities to learn. These findings suggest that equity hinges not only on allowing students to learn using their whole linguistic repertoires but on social and ethical dispositions made apparent through interactional analyses.

The Interrelationship of Family Language Policies, Emotions, Socialisation Practices and Language Management Strategies

Multilingual families in immigrant/minority language contact settings face various challenges that are related to their affective and emotional domains, as well as to their well-being. This study investigated the interrelationship of the family language policies (FLPs), emotions, socialisation practices and language management strategies of immigrant Russian and mixed-marriage families in Cyprus. The participants were eighty multilingual families from low-middle-high socio-economic backgrounds, including two- and one-parent families who resided in rural or in urban areas. Forty were mixed-marriage (Russian wife and Greek Cypriot husband) families and 40 were Russian-speaking (both spouses Russian) immigrant families who resided in Cyprus. Data sources included a questionnaire about the families’ general backgrounds, the parents’ socio-economic status, their linguistic behaviour and their children’s language proficiency, and semi-structured interviews with the mothers focused on their FLP, home language development and socio-emotional well-being. An analysis of the diverse family types revealed both differences and similarities amongst Russian speakers in Cyprus and their FLPs. Russian speakers incorporated a wide range of language repertoires in their everyday lives. Multilingualism and the maintenance of the Russian language and culture were usually encouraged, as was the development of the children’s Russian-language literacy, and the parents often used the one-parent-one-language (OPOL) approach at home. In many cases, FLPs were characterised by translanguaging to enhance dynamic multilingualism and emotional well-being at home. However, not all of the efforts resulted in successful language transmission, which may have been due to individual and/or societal differences and family configurations.

Code-switching and the Construction of Identity in Where Are We Going, Dad? Season V from the Socio-psycholinguistic Perspective

This study investigates the code-switching in people’s daily interaction in the outdoor parent-child reality TV show Where Are We Going, Dad? Season V from the socio-psycholinguistic perspective. The main purpose is to reveal how the social meanings of dialogues and identity construction enact in parents’ and their children’s daily interactions. Based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study analyzes daily conversations in different situations from three aspects, including speech accommodation, language attitude, and psychological motivation. The findings indicate that code-switching from Mandarin to English plays a more central role in the show. Moreover, code-switching used in the show is regarded as a language choice as well as a way to signify the speaker’s conscious shift of self-identity in a different situation. Language convergence denotes parents’ and their children’s adaptation to local environments and respect for local culture, meaning that speakers try to establish a common identity with the local people. Chinese and English code-switching has been associated with a shift between a soft one in Chinese and a forceful one in English, implying that there is a submissive self in Chinese and an authoritative self in English. The psychological motivation reveals the sense of belonging to the mother tongue and national identity of language users. Therefore, code-switching reveals complex ethnic identities, including the self as a show performer, cultural lover, father, or mother, which are consciously or unconsciously influenced by the speakers’ language repertoire, social background knowledge, and their intention of building ethnic identity.

Voices silenced by written texts: indigenous languages encountering standardization

ABSTRACT This article examines ways in which Indigenous teachers and students draw on diverse language repertoires while deciphering, writing, and translating texts in multilingual educational spaces. Recent normalization of orthographies tends to homogenize indigenous languages in Mexico, while silencing and excluding actual language repertoires, thus reproducing the colonial asymmetry that has privileged Spanish only in public domains. The authors draw on data from three multilingual settings to compare languaging practices surrounding work with texts. Analysis reveals the multivocality that surfaces in speech and offers insights into the power of orality to counter the dominance of standardized spellings and meanings. Attention to oral polysemy leads students and teachers to question the standardized versions and determine better ways to render in writing their own heterogeneous language repertoires for local use.

Can Recall Data Be Trusted? Evaluating Reliability of Interview Data on Traditional Multilingualism in Highland Daghestan

In this article, we address the issue of reliability of quantitative data on multilingualism of the past obtained as recall data. More specifically, we investigate whether the interviewees’ assessments of the language repertoires of their late relatives (indirect data) provide results that are quantitatively similar to those obtained from the people of the same age range themselves (direct data). The empirical data we use come from an ongoing field study of traditional multilingualism in Daghestan (Russia). We trained machine learning models to see whether they can detect differences in indirect and direct data. We conclude that our indirect quantitative data on L2 other than Russian are essentially similar to direct data, while there may be a small but systematic underestimation when reporting others’ knowledge of Russian.

Polycode as a Strategic Resource of Intercultural Communication

The study discusses the application of adaptive strategies in the process of cultural integration under the conditions of multilingualism, taking into account the dynamics of aggregation of foreign cultural elements in the linguistic consciousness of foreigners. The study was carried out in an interdisciplinary plane, integrating the developments of psycholinguistics, communication theory, linguoculturology and sociolinguistics. The work is based on the basic methods of conducting a free associative experiment, lexico-semantic analysis of the received reactions, contextual analysis and interpretation of verbal associations, interlingual comparison techniques, conceptual modeling techniques and linguistic and cultural commentary. The relevance of the research is due to the importance of the interactive interaction of languages and cultures that form the civilizational communicative space. The novelty of the undertaken research is related to the identification of the role of the multilingual cultural landscape as a translator of ethnic and national values by scanning the slices of the introduction of foreign cultural language segments into the linguistic consciousness of foreign students. The article is aimed at monitoring the multilingual diversity and the strategic repertoire of learning new foreign languages in the multicultural environment of the host country based on the data obtained as a result of a free associative experiment using the «adaptation in the country and region of education» stimulus. The results of the study indicate that the reactions to a complex stimulus obtained in a phased experiment made it possible to identify a core universal for the phased dynamics of adaptation in the structure of the field model of the associative layer of the concept and describe the content of cognitive features formed by the reactions. The analysis of verbal representations demonstrated the motivation for the use of communicative response strategies by foreigners and the specifics of embedding in a foreign cultural environment.

Individual differences in nonnative lexical tone perception: Effects of tone language repertoire and musical experience.

This study sought to understand the effects of tone language repertoire and musical experience on nonnative lexical tone perception and production. Thirty-one participants completed a tone discrimination task, an imitation task, and a musical abilities task. Results showed that a larger tone language repertoire and musical experience both enhanced tone discrimination performance. However, the effects were not additive, as musical experience was associated with tone discrimination performance for single-tone language speakers, but such association was not seen for dual-tone language speakers. Furthermore, among single-tone language speakers, but not among dual-tone language speakers, musical experience and musical aptitude positively correlated with tone discrimination accuracy. It is thus concluded that individuals with varying extents of tone language experience may adopt different strategies when performing tone discrimination tasks; single-tone language speakers may draw on their musical expertise while dual-tone language speakers may rely on their extensive tone language experience instead.

Ethnicity and Tone Production on Singlish Particles

Recent research on Singlish, also known as Colloquial Singapore English, suggests that it is subject to ethnic variation across the three major ethnic groups in Singapore, namely Chinese, Malay, and Indian. Discourse particles, said to be one of the most distinctive features of the language, are nevertheless commonly used by bilinguals across all three ethnic groups. This study seeks to determine whether there are ethnic differences in the pitch contours of Singlish discourse particles produced by Singlish speakers. Four hundred and forty-four tokens of three Singlish particles, sia24, meh55, and what21, produced by the three groups of English-speaking bilingual speakers were drawn from the National Speech Corpus, and the pitch contours extracted and normalized. Statistical analysis of the overall pitch contours, the three acoustic parameters of mean pitch, pitch range, and pitch movement, and the variability of these parameters showed that the effect of ethnicity on the three acoustic parameters was not statistically significant and that the pitch contours of each particle were generally similar across ethnic groups. The results of this study suggest that Singlish may be acquired as a first language by Singaporean speakers, pre-empting any ethnic differences in the production of the particles that might otherwise have resulted from the speakers’ differing language repertoires.

Language and disciplinary literacies for accessing, learning and communicating meaning: students’ experiences of the transition from school to first-year undergraduate engineering

ABSTRACT Language use is central for accessing, learning, and communicating understanding of undergraduate engineering knowledge. There is a need to understand students’ experiences, interpretations, and expectations of language use – conceptualised as related notions of language and disciplinary literacies – in their transition from school to and through first-year university. We use interviews with nine first-year mechanical engineering students to describe this transition as a to-and-fro process of navigating a continuum of complexity. All students experienced this as a process of uncritical socialisation into undergraduate engineering. Yet navigating this continuum was harder for some, a process that was inflected through their language repertoires and schooling experiences, but also agentive and personal. Students identified an absence of opportunities to bring their knowledges, languages and identities to this process. These findings and our conceptual tools have purchase in wider debates concerned with the transition into engineering programmes in which diversity is increasingly the norm.

Morphophonological Features of Lɛtɛ Loanwords from English

The aim of this paper is two-fold: to describe the phonological and morphological features of English loanwords (nouns and verbs) which appear in Lɛtɛ lexicon and to identify and account for the largest semantic class of English loanwords. Lɛtɛ (Kwa: Guan) is spoken in Larteh, a town in southeast Ghana. The language has not received much attention, and as such, there has been no study to investigate the phenomenon of lexical borrowing in the language. The linguistic situation in Larteh is characterized by trigglosia, a situation where three languages with distinct communicative functions are in use. Akuapem Twi is the second language of most Lɛtɛ speakers. The paper distinguishes between codeswitching from borrowing to initiate the discussion from the right perspective. Motivation for borrowing from English primarily stems from the need to fill lexical gaps in Lɛtɛ. Consequently, data for the study suggest that the semantic class of science and technology is the largest of all the semantic domains of English loanwords. Data sources include bilingual wordlists of English and Lɛtɛ; focus group discussions and Lɛtɛ folktales. Upon analyzing the data, we observed that English loanwords undergo morphological and phonological alterations such as epenthesis and vowel harmonization to become nativized. The study is underpinned by the Matrix Language Frame Model (MLFM) (Myers-Scotton, 1997; Myers-Scotton et al., 2002), a model which is designed to account for bilingual speech. Following the MLFM, lexical items which enter Lɛtɛ lexicon are expected to take up morphological and phonological features of the language. Our study however found out that not all loanwords exhibit morphophonological features of Lɛtɛ; in the case of loan nouns, the Akuapem Twi number markers are rather employed. The paper adds to existing literature on borrowing and points out that a matrix language does not always dictate new linguistics features that are borne by the loanwords, but the linguistic situation of the recipient language community, coupled with the language repertoire of speakers play a roleю

‘So, only relying on English is still troublesome’: a critical examination of Japan’s English medium instruction policy at multiple levels

ABSTRACT Drawing on neoliberal ideology as a theoretical lens, this study critically examines how neoliberal ideological assumptions shape the interpretation and implementation of TGUP (Top Global University Project) as an English-medium instruction (EMI) policy in the Japanese context at multiple levels of government, universities, and multilingual international students. We examined documents describing TGUP policies published both by the government and TGUP universities, and then contrasted these policies with interview data drawn from conversations with three key stakeholder groups (international students, EMI faculty, and administrative staff) in four focal universities. The findings reveal the conflicts of policy making at different levels and challenge the English-only ideology in EMI practices. By taking a critical language policy approach, the study offers a nuanced understanding of how neoliberal ideology constitutes a policy-to-practice gap in language policy and planning. We argue that EMI should not be reduced to English-only medium of instruction, but rather treated as an alternative approach to the internationalization and globalization of education, and understood as a learning space where multilingual students enhance their learning by relying on their shared language repertoires.

Code-Switching Practices in Multilingual Classrooms: Exploring Pedagogical Functions

This study explored the pedagogical functions of code-switching toward teaching and learning processes in multilingual classrooms. The pedagogical function is strongly important to be recognized regarding the successfulness and effectiveness of teaching and learning process. This study reports on code-switching practices for multilingual classroom communication in secondary level in Indonesia, which English is the main instruction of teaching. This study employed ethnographic case study design and the data were gathered through observation, interview and recording. The data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive and the obtained data demonstrated that code-switching has three function categories in terms of pedagogical functions, i.e. 1) knowledge construction/curriculum access, 2) classroom management, and 3) interpersonal relationship. If so, teachers and students are allowed to switch their language as long as they fulfill academic functions and expand students’ language repertoire. It can be inferred that the findings suggested that these practices could foster students to become bilingual people and promote the language minority.

Who texts what to whom and when? Patterning of texting in four multilingual minoritized language communities and a preliminary proposal for the language repertoire matrix

Abstract Though computer mediated communication has been widely studied, private messaging in minoritized languages (many without standardized orthographies) is an area of minimal research. This article looks at texting in four multilingual language communities: Maguindanaon (Philippines), Sebuyau (Malaysia), Mamaindê (Brazil) and Marubo (Brazil). The majority of the data comes from the Maguindanao case study, an Austronesian language spoken by over one million speakers in the Maguindanao province of Mindanao Island. Based on this preliminary data, an initial framework with which to understand the language choices for digital messaging in such societies is proposed. The broader implications of this study are its insights into the variable patterning of texting in minority languages in general, providing a baseline for future work in this area. This preliminary study suggests that the texting repertoires of minority language communities are found to pattern after their parallel repertoires of either orality or literacy. These patterns are collectively referred to as the “Language Repertoire Matrix”. The variable that distinguishes one texting repertoire from another is the language(s) used for intra-group texting: minority (L1), majority (L2), or minority + majority (L1 + L2) languages. We propose that the choice of employing either the orality or literacy repertoires for intra-group texting demonstrates the underlying function of such texting within that society. The conclusion offers some suggestions on how these insights might apply to the field of minority language development.

The Double-Edged Sword of Mandarin: Language Shift and Cultural Maintenance among Middle-Aged Chinese-Malaysians

Abstract Previous research has demonstrated that the increasing importance of Mandarin in education and public life has led many younger Chinese-Malaysians to regard Mandarin as their mother tongue and part of their cultural identity rather than a heritage language. Fewer studies have documented the language repertoires of middle-aged and older Chinese-Malaysians. This paper presents a qualitative study of Mandarin use conducted with six Chinese-Malaysians aged 40 and older. The participants reported extensive use of Mandarin in the domains of home, work, religion, and cultural maintenance, which were served by a heritage language in the past. This indicates that the use of Mandarin by the older generation Chinese-Malaysians to engage with the contemporary linguistic world is influenced by hegemonic local and global factors. This study therefore highlights the significance of Mandarin as both an element of cultural identity and an instrument of heritage language loss.

Tertiary education ESP program delivery in Vietnam and language practices in globalised workplaces: examining the extent of alignment

ABSTRACT This paper investigated the language resources needed for communication in Vietnam’s import/export services and the level of alignment with the associated English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. To examine the communicative practices used in this workplace, the study employed methods of semi-structured interviews and a collection of 48 emails and eight phonecalls adopted to interact with customers. Similarly, semi-structured interviews and ESP teaching materials were administered to explore teachers’ practices and the language input. The findings indicate an increasingly valuable variety of English as a lingua franca (ELF) which is identified in particular genres with different choices of registers and stylistic features adapted to communicative conditions in the fluid globalised workplace. Given the agility and unpredictability of work in a globalised setting, the analysis shows how the workers’ mobile language repertoire is not tied to the criterion of linguistic accuracy, but rather favours the achievement of meaning and function. However, the adaptable, truncated ‘good enough’ language used in the workplace does not align with the lexicogrammatical focus of the ESP course. The study contributes to understandings of alignment in ESP curricula and materials redevelopment in times of globalisation and countries such as Vietnam where ELF is used for international interactions.

Sociolinguistic context matters: Exploring differences in contextual linguistic diversity in South Africa and England

ABSTRACT Individual reports of language history, use, and proficiency are generally considered sufficient for language profiling. Yet, these variables alone neglect the contribution of contextual linguistic diversity to one’s overall language repertoire. In this study we used the Contextual Linguistic Profile Questionnaire to evaluate whether there is a difference in contextual linguistic diversity between participants across the linguistically dissimilar contexts of South Africa and England. We further assessed whether self-reported lingualism status groups (monolinguals, bilinguals, multilinguals) scored differently on contextual linguistic diversity to evaluate the utility and uniformity of categorical labels across varying contexts, and investigated how codeswitching and socio-economic status contributed to these effects. Our results demonstrated that contextual linguistic diversity differs between nations: South Africans score higher, promotion of multilingualism is dependent on socio-economic status only in England, lingualism status is not contextually comparable when measured categorically, and codeswitching accounts for linguistic features of South Africans.

The Need for a Bilingual Mode of Instructional Design for Higher Education

Immersion in English language at higher education level might not benefit students who did their schooling in their mother tongue, native tongue, or regional language. L2 classroom is the only way for the students who come from economically and socially backward communities to learn the language. When the instruction is fully in English, these students feel left out and disconnected. They are not motivated enough as the means to attain goals is not clear. Therefore, it is hypothesized that a bilingual mode of instruction that makes use of the students’ existing language repertoire might motive them and help them achieve better in L2 learning. This paper has analysed and suggested various motivational models explaining the relationship between students’ attitudes and achievement in second language skills. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to study students’ attitudes towards learning and their efficiency in achieving the target language.

The relationship between the perception and production of L2 and L3 rhotics in young multilinguals; an exploratory cross-linguistic study

ABSTRACT There is a scarcity of research into the relationship between speech perception and production from a multilingual perspective. The present exploratory study investigates longitudinally the acquisition of rhotic sounds in 24 adolescent learners who have the same language repertoires (English, German, Polish), with English being their L2, and German and Polish their L1 or L3. The design involved a forced-choice goodness task (for perception) and a delayed repetition task (for production) administered in both L2 and L3 at two testing times. The overall results show better performance in perception than production of L2/L3 rhotics at both testing points, although the relationship between the two domains was modulated by the L1 background and universal learnability of the target rhotics. A major effect of language proficiency was found, as overall a stronger link between the two modalities was found for the L2 than the L3 of the learner groups. However, detailed analyses demonstrate different types of perception-production link for individual learners over time.

Swahili language and literature as resources for Indian Ocean studies

AbstractIn this contribution, our common point of convergence as an anthropologist and a literary scholar is to see Swahili language, literature and other texts as interwoven with the depth, scope, and complex dynamics of human experience and social life on the East Africa coast, with its long history of Islam. This includes prominently a view as to how this relates or is integral to the larger Indian Ocean world. Swahili language and its genres have been shaped in relation to, and in context of, transregional interaction with other languages and traditions that carry influence, and significance for the coastal residents. Ideas, thoughts, arguments and verse are taken on, adapted, mediated and disseminated flexibly by Swahili speakers through language repertoires and (mostly poetic) genres in changing media. These range from oral performances and handwritten manuscripts to booklets, CD recordings, radio programs and social media platforms.

Do a Learner’s Background Languages Change with Increasing Exposure to L3? Comparing the Multilingual Phonological Development of Adolescents and Adults

The present study longitudinally explores regressive phonological cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in seven adolescents (aged 12–13) and seven adults (aged 21–39) by examining voice-onset time (VOT) of /p,t,k/ in their first, second, and third language (L1, L2, and L3, respectively). All participants had the same language combination (L1 German, L2 English, L3 Polish) and were recorded completing a range of production tasks in all three languages four times over the course of the first year of L3 learning. The scope of previous research on phonological CLI is thus broadened in two ways: (1) by tracing the development of all languages upon the arrival of a new language in a multilingual’s system longitudinally, and (2) by investigating CLI patterns in two age groups when input and learning environment are comparable. Previous L2 age studies have mostly only made retrospective assumptions about (target) language development, so that longitudinal data, including the entire language repertoire of multilingual speakers, are needed to substantiate claims made in that regard. For the adolescent group, significant changes to both their L1 and L2 over time were found, while the adults’ background languages remained relatively stable on the group level. However, for both groups, much individual variation was uncovered.