Multilingual Space Research Articles

“They are not losing anything”: preschool educators’ language ideologies and use for young emergent multilinguals labeled with disabilities

This study examines preschool educators’ language ideologies and use in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) classrooms for young emergent multilinguals labeled with disabilities (EMLWDs). EMLWDs require services supporting both their linguistic and disability needs; however, current policies either address their linguistic or disability needs. One equity-oriented approach for preparing EMLWDs is through inclusive DLBE. Educators’ language ideologies can enhance or constrain EMLWDs’ access to equitable multilingual spaces. For example, educators’ misconceptions regarding the bilingualism of EMLWDs restrict their access to DLBE. Therefore, there is limited research concerning EMLWDs conducted in preschool DLBE settings. This study aims to fill this literature gap by focusing on educators’ language ideologies and use for EMLWDs in preschool DLBE classrooms, using language ideology and language policy theories, as well as Disability Studies in Education perspective. As an ethnographic study, the data were collected via participant observations, interviews, and recording classroom interactions. The interview data were analyzed using a constant-comparative method, and the video data were analyzed following Erickson’s five-step inductive approach. The findings revealed educators’ three primary language ideologies: multilingual language ideologies, heteroglossic language ideologies, and ideologies that reinforced English dominance. Educators’ language use revealed English as the dominant language and translanguaging for several purposes, such as to scaffold children’s understanding.

Complementary schools as ‘breathing spaces’: identity, multilingualism and critical pedagogies in heritage language education

Whilst mainstream schools in England may encourage multilingualism by insisting on the study of foreign languages, multilingual children are not always provided with support for the maintenance of their heritage languages and cultures. In response to this shortcoming, communities organise themselves to support their young members by setting up extra-curricular education institutions or associations, also called complementary schools, which contribute to the cultural and linguistic maintenance of minority communities. Through emblematic extracts from a fourteen-month ethnographic research in an Italian complementary school in London, this article examines how HL learners engage in and reflect on their multilingual practices and how they develop agency in their learning environment. The findings illustrate how critical modes of teaching and learning that make space for multilingualism can provide children with unique opportunities to discover, explore and experiment with their multilingual and multicultural selves, which, in turn, permit them to access linguistic resources and legitimise multilingual learner identities. Expanding on Fishman’s notion of ‘breathing space’, the article suggests that complementary schools represent a space where minority languages but also pedagogical practices can breathe and develop.

Recommendations on the translation of academic texts in the social sciences and the humanities

These recommendations are addressed not only to translators, but to all users of translation, including authors and readers of academic texts, journal editors and publishers, as well as reviewers. They call attention to the translated nature of many works that are often viewed as originals, and through which English as the academic lingua franca is constantly produced and reproduced in a multilingual space. Rather than approaching translation as a hindrance, they seek to highlight its transformative potential and to call for more constructive approaches to the translation of academic texts. Academic translation, these recommendations maintain, relates to the particularities of the language of the social sciences and the humanities, as distinct from that of scientific and technical texts. Relying on a theory of translation as a procedure that involves specialized techniques for the rewriting of texts, they address the relationship between writing and translating, the collaboration between academic authors and translators, and relevant issues relating to the politics of translation in a highly unequal academic field.

Emerging Multilingual Children’s School Language Socialization: A Three-Year Longitudinal Case Study of a Korean Middle School

This qualitative case study reports the impact of schooling on migrant children’s language socialization, particularly focusing on the role of language ideologies and practices within Korean schools. Despite an increasing population of migrant multilingual children in Korean schools, the education system predominantly follows a monolingual orientation with Korean as the primary medium of instruction. The research aims to address this gap by investigating the influence of Korean teachers’ and emergent multilingual youths’ language ideologies on bi- and multilingual language education. Additionally, this study explores how emerging multilingual children comply with or exhibit ambivalence/resistance toward instructed practices. Data were collected over three years from a regional middle school in South Korea and inductively analyzed using constant comparative methods. The findings underscore the significance of creating a multilingual space in classrooms where teachers value diverse linguistic and other semiotic resources, fostering more active engagement and negotiation of meaning among multilingual students. In contrast, monolingual-oriented classrooms result in the students’ passive behavior and hinder socialization into the Korean school environment. This study advocates for a more inclusive learning environment that recognizes and embraces multilingual values, facilitating meaningful language practices among emerging multilingual youth.

Linguistic Diversity in the Border City of Split: Literary Representation of Multilingualism in Esilio by Enzo Bettiza and its Croatian Translation

ABSTRACT In this article, the Croatian translation of Enzo Bettiza’s autobiography, Esilio (“The Exile”), originally written in Italian, is analysed. Bettiza, himself bilingual (Italian, Croatian), was born in pre-war Split and lived in Dalmatia until 1945. His autobiographical accounts describe the Split of 1930s as a multicultural and multilingual space but at the same time, implicitly, demonstrate how multilingualism (including the use of linguonyms) can be disputed and defined as a means of nationalism and colonialism, which is proved by the analysis of fierce discussions about this book in Croatia. It is demonstrated in this article how multilingualism is represented both in the source and target languages, Italian and Croatian, and what consequences it has for the process of mediation.

Indonesian Language Minority in the Virtual Space of Indonesian People Majority: Virtual Linguistic Landscape of r/Indonesia Subreddit

Through the study of Virtual Linguistic Landscape (LLV), this descriptive qualitative research aims to explore the contestation of Indonesian language in a virtual multilingual space with Indonesian people as the majority, namely the r/Indonesia subreddit community, within a social media site dominated by English speakers, Reddit. Each of the top-down contents made by the community moderators and bottom-ups made by the community members is observed. The analysis consists of the identification of the language dominance as well as the informational and symbolic functions behind the use of the languages in both types of content to further elaborate the significance of the dynamic. The research found that although members of the community are mostly Indonesian, English dominates all top-down contents. This domination functions informationally as a form of language accommodation while symbolically signifying that positive attitude is more assigned to English than Indonesian language as a status symbol. However, both English and Indonesian language dominate various different bottom-up contents. While the use of both languages also functions informationally as a form of language accommodation, the symbolic functions are more significant. That is, English as a marker of competence within the space designed for niche discussions and Indonesian language as a form of closeness and solidarity among members. Additionally, the use of English in the semi-formal bottom-up content indicates an influence of language choice by the top-down contents.

Translating academia. Implications for knowledge production in the social sciences and the humanities

This introduction to the special issue provides some context on the linguistic landscape that characterizes contemporary academia and on the significance of academic translation for knowledge production. It elaborates on how the adoption of English as academic lingua franca, one of the most pervasive aspects of a global university system shaped by neoliberalism, has led to the coexistence of differently placed languages in a competitive market. Most of the world’s researchers in the social sciences and the humanities today exist in highly multilingual spaces where the simultaneous use of different languages for research, writing and teaching has become routinized. However, the preponderance of English as the universal medium of what counts as globally relevant knowledge also determines the nature of mostly covert, yet widespread academic translation practices without which the functioning of the lingua franca would be impossible. These ordinary yet widely ignored translation practices are constitutive of knowledge production in a global academic space. Reflecting on the politics of translation in this highly unequal field becomes, in this context, a necessary undertaking. Such a reflection entails, on one hand, a recognition of the continuity and inseparability of writing, interpreting, and translating in shaping the production of social scientific and humanistic knowledge and, on the other, a critique of assimilatory forms of translation through which the dominance of plain English as the language of science is constructed.

Written multilingualism challenging French hegemony in the cemetery

ABSTRACT This study examines how a historical, multilingual space is written and constructed, thus questioning monolingual French language ideology. Two cemeteries in Menton, next to the Italian border on the French Riviera, were visited and documented. The presence of Italian is clearly observable, because of the historic proximity to Italy. But also many other languages are represented, such as for example English, Russian, Polish or German: the city also has a history of being a therapeutic town where many foreigners spent time to recover or stayed because of a mild climate. This is also reflected in the linguistic landscape of the cemeteries. Building on the notions of space/place and of heterotopia, the cemeteries are examined from a qualitative, interpretative perspective. Iconicity in writing and script choice is discussed, as well as multilingualism both on cemetery level, and as pertaining to individual tombstones. The construction of linguistic spaces is examined. The results show that other national languages in the cemeteries do not challenge national French as such. However, graves of African soldiers may still question France’s colonial history and the presence of Occitan can be seen as a reminder of a former vernacular.

Reconceptualising the notion of cross-linguistic transfer in multilingual spaces: A Global South perspective from South Africa

There is a growing consensus among applied linguists from the Global South that orthodox linguistic and applied linguistic paradigms, theoretical frameworks and methodologies do not adequately serve these contexts. As a result, there has been an increase in interest in challenging Global North paradigms, theoretical perspectives and methodologies. In line with these concerns, in this critical reflective paper, I interrogate the notion of cross-linguistic transfer, which remains popular in some studies on language and literacy learning and teaching in linguistically and culturally complex Global South contexts, including the South African context. Using two studies drawn from two complex multilingual South African universities as illustrative cases (Dyers and Antia, 2019; Makalela, 2014), and framing these studies from a decolonial lens and a translanguaging perspective, I show that the concept of cross-linguistic transfer is problematic because it fails to capture a range of the communicative repertoires, both linguistic and non-linguistic, of multilingual students in these universities, and by extension, in similar contexts. I also contend that the notion of “transfer” in cross-linguistic transfer undermines the multidimensional interdependence of communicative resources of multilingual users. Following this critical analysis, I call for the reconceptualization of cross-linguistic transfer, arguing that this conceptual vocabulary is not consistent with the ontological realities and epistemological perspectives of multilingual students in a complex multilingual South African context. I conclude the paper by briefly discussing the implications of the reconceptualization of cross-linguistic transfer for multilingual educational settings and language and literacy research in the geographic African context, in general, and the South African context, in particular.

¡BE PREBEARED! TEATRO EN EDUCACIÓN - THEATRE IN EDUCATION: A multilingual project for early learners

ABSTRACT This article documents the creation and implementation of a multilingual (Spanish and English) Theatre in Education (TIE) play for general education and Dual Language kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The author illustrates how enacting “role work” and dramatic play in TIE supports Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theories in enhancing learning in the early childhood classroom. The author argues for the need to create more multilingual Theatre in Education. Through an analysis of critically engaged pedagogy by scholars Sonia Nieto and D. Pakkar-Hull, as well as the author’s implementation of a multilingual TIE play, the article highlights the positive outcomes in classroom learning when students’ languages and cultures are embraced in the learning environment while wrestling with the challenges of creating multilingual spaces in traditional monolingual theatrical and classroom structures.

Времена года в русской поэзии удмуртского поэта В. Ар-Серги

The article is devoted to the study of the semantics of the seasons in the Russian-language poetry of the Udmurt poet and prose writer V. Ar-Sergi. The relevance of this work is caused by the fact that today artistic texts of national authors require a holistic conceptual analysis, since they are strongly influenced by Russian literature, which in turn affects their ethnocultural identity. The issue of preserving, strengthening and developing national language in the multilingual space of the Russian Federation is acute. The author undertook an analytical review of the problem on the material of the Ar-Sergi Russian-language poetry. During the study, traditional methods of literary research (quantitative, structural-semiotic, comparison and collation, method of holistic text analysis) were used. Both traditionally mythological and individual authorial realia associated with the perception of calendar natural changes are reflected in the poetic texts of Ar-Sergi. The degree of their semantic connectedness with traditional canons of Udmurt culture is determined. Comprehension of the natural passage of time is closely intertwined with the emotional and psychological plan of the works. The natural landscape axiologically becomes a theme for constant artistic reflection in the poetry of Ar-Sergi. The lexical units from the lexico-semantic group “seasons” have not only a certain temporal semantic load but also denote the internal emotional state of the lyric subject in the poetic texts of the Udmurt poet. The attention of the author is turned not only on his own worldview but also folk-mythological contexts of the whole ethnic group.

Shifting ecologies of family language planning: Hungarian Australian families during COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study took a mixed-methods approach to investigate family language planning (FLP) in Hungarian families raising children in Australia. The study aimed to explore the complex factors impacting FLP and how families responded to the rapidly changing social conditions during the outbreak of Covid-19. The pandemic highlighted the shifting spatiotemporal dynamics of the family domain. Therefore, the project sought a holistic insight into the shifting family ecology, incorporating language use patterns, motivations, language maintenance and learning strategies and family well-being. Data were collected through an online survey (N = 80) and parental interviews (N = 13). The findings provide empirical evidence of the translocal and transnational dimensions of intergenerational language maintenance. The paper argues for an ecological approach in FLP, which recognises the complex social, affective and ideological dimensions of the family domain and the translocal aspects of language planning. As the results demonstrate, Hungarian families experienced the impact of Covid-19 in contrastive ways: for some, new opportunities arose to establish the home domain as a dynamic multilingual space; for others, the social isolation further reduced the space afforded to the heritage language. Therefore, agency was crucial for responding to these shifting circumstances.

Five Ways to Stretch Theatrical Space on Contemporary American Stages (US)

This article seeks to outline and define a number of arresting tendencies in contemporary playwriting in the United States, particularly when it comes to the poetics of space. Starting from an analysis of theater centered on spatial modalities (Chaudhuri, Foucault, Brook, Schechner), I delineate five innovative trends in 21st-century theater, with regards to their use of material and metaphorical space. I begin with an exploration of multilingual space, broadening the stage world to accommodate otherness in the plays of Quiara Alegría Hudes, Nilo Cruz, Virginia Grise or Jeff Augustin. A second highlighted tendency emphasizes the instability of space and its liminal, porous quality in the works of Sarah Ruhl, Lindsey Ferrentino, Annie Baker and Sarah DeLappe. A third trend reframes and disrupts theatrical space, in palimpsestic and explosive ways (Lucas Hnath, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Young Jean Lee, Aleshea Harris), and a fourth further overturns this space in politically-charged, shocking reversals which threaten the audience’s comfort (Jeremy O. Harris, Young Jean Lee, Jackie Sibblies Drury). Finally, collaborative performance projects by Erika Chong Shuch and Andrew Schneider provide an opportunity to delve into paradoxically private, almost invisible forms of theater.

A multi‐sited analysis of the linguistic landscape of Hong Kong through a center‐periphery approach

AbstractTaking a center‐periphery approach, this study is a rare attempt to present a multi‐sited empirical analysis comparing three physically adjacent and connected sites in a town in Hong Kong to explore the interconnectivity, subjectivity, and dynamicity of the landscape. While all three sites can be considered bilingual or even multilingual spaces with the omnipresence of English, there are noticeable differences in terms of how much English there is, the physical material and semiotic resources through which English is displayed, and in what forms such English exists. In other words, the three sites differ in the degree, texture and creativity of English through the ways in which physical geography, architectural setting and social actors interact.

Becoming an independent Swedish citizen: Critical literacy as a tool for multilingual literacies in Swedish for Immigrants

The aim of this article is to study the space for multilingualism and multiliteracy in the development of literacy skills through critical literacy in Swedish for Immigrants. The focus is on adult second language learners (L2 learners) with low education and Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy is used for the analysis of material from classroom observations. The observed teaching included space for multiliteracies and students were explicitly stimulated to bring their own experiences and express their own views. Thus, this linguistic ethnographic study supports earlier claims that all points on the continua are important in literacy education for adults. However, it also shows that conflicting perceptions may exist in class regarding what is happening and what should happen. Topics that are commonly used in critical literacy may further add to such risks. Developing literacy skills in an L2 means hard work, especially developing such skills from basic levels in adulthood. Thus, creating engagement is an important task for teachers, while teachers may hesitate in raising sensitive topics if they fear it may lead to conflict.

Malayalam literature as a transnational space of political change: Migration and Bahrain’s 2011 uprising in Benyamin’s Jasmine Days and Al Arabian Novel Factory

A central theme in Benyamin’s twin novels Jasmine Days (2014) and Al Arabian Novel Factory (2014) is the role of migrants in Bahrain’s 2011 uprising and their attitudes towards the ruling regime’s repression of dissent amongst native citizens. This article argues that Benyamin’s novels advocate recognition of the political impact of migration from Kerala and elsewhere by questioning the supposedly depoliticized economic space to which migrants belong in Bahrain and the other Gulf States, and by asserting Keralan migrants’ long-standing connection to the region and not merely their contributions to its economy as transitory outsiders. Writing in a regional Indian language and for a Malayalam readership about the political and social dilemmas of an Arab city, Benyamin constructs a transnational multilingual space where writing and translation enable dissent and where individuals from different national and linguistic backgrounds have a stake in political change and its repercussions.

Building bridges: the bilingual language work of migrant construction workers

The construction industry (CI) employs significant numbers of migrant workers, making construction sites multilingual spaces. Workers who do not share a common language work alongside each other, posing issues for safety, integration and productivity. Methods used to overcome these language barriers include the use of bilingual workers as informal interpreters. The prevalence and importance of informal interpreters is recognized in the literature. However, their language work is not well understood, and hence, the research question addressed is: what language work do the informal interpreters do and how? This study uses the theoretical lens of translanguaging to conceptualize communication onsite between speakers of different named languages, emphasizing the flexible and multimodal nature of language in use. An ethnographic approach is adopted, comprising 40 international informal interviews, and observational field notes and material data from the UK. The language work of the informal interpreters is explored through this data and theoretical lens; their language tasks and the nature of their language work is identified, including the use of visuals, gesture, and technology. Far from being straightforward and predictable, the findings show that the scope of their language work varies considerably. In this informal language work, the boundaries between languages and of what constitutes interpretation are blurred. A novel aspect of language work emerges from the data, showing that this often includes mediation. This study clarifies understandings of communication and informal interpretation on multilingual construction sites and these findings could contribute to future best practice on the use of bilingual workers as informal interpreters.

Translanguaged discourses of Bemba and English: The mobility and mixing of languages in a multilingual space

Couched within the overarching framework of translanguaging, this paper attempts to show the real-life language practices of social actors away from the dominant narratives of translanguaging in bilingual education. Predicated on the mixing and mobility of languages across time and space, the paper uses casual conversations from two multilingual spaces, a university campus, and a marketplace. Firstly, the paper shows the mixing of the English language and Bemba, a widely spoken indigenous language in Zambia while arguing that the Bemba-English translanguaged discourses provide evidence for the mobility and the disembodiment of language and locality. Secondly, the paper argues that the spread and circulation of Bemba in multiple localities should be seen as the mobility of bits and pieces -and/or resources akin to urbanity and hybridity. The paper concludes by bringing into the spotlight the dynamics of the Bemba-English translanguaged discourses in which morphemes as semiotic resources create new lexical items which destabilize expected linguistic norms and boundaries.

Beliefs about Multilingualism with Respect to Translanguaging: A Survey among Pre-Service EFL Teachers in Indonesia

Introduction. Recently, multilingualism and translanguaging have received considerable attention and are always a topic of interest and public debate in language education. However, to our knowledge, studies on pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism with respect to translanguaging in the Indonesian context have not appeared in the literature. Therefore, to address this gap, this research investigated beliefs about multilingualism with respect to translanguaging, including language separation, language use/mixing, and language support, among pre-service EFL teachers in the Indonesian context. Materials and Methods. This study is quantitative in nature, adopting a survey research design. We collected data from 270 pre-service EFL teachers using an online Likert scale questionnaire that lacked any potentially sensitive questions. They were between the ages of 17 and 26, and were English teacher candidates majoring in English education at higher education institutions on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, which included the percentages and frequency distributions of the participants’ Likert scale responses. Results. The current study’s findings corroborate previous research indicating that teachers believe multilingualism and collaborative use of languages are potential assets that can benefit their students’ language learning. Discussion and Conclusion. Language separation in EFL classrooms appears to be a point of contention for the majority of pre-service EFL teachers surveyed, with a preference for and support for multilingualism and translanguaging over language separation in EFL classrooms. They agree on the importance of using or mixing other languages in their classes. On the one hand, they believe that it is critical to avoid other language support in classrooms; on the other hand, they believe that other language support can benefit students, offering a wave of optimism about future language education. Therefore, there is a need to gradually introduce and include pedagogical translanguaging to the existing curricula. The integration of new multilingual facts and the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies are part of a larger educational renewal. There is a need to intentionally create a multilingual space (translanguaging space) in EFL classrooms to fully utilise studentsʼ multilingual capabilities creatively and critically because today many teachers struggle to reconcile the disparities between monolingual educational policies and the realities of multilingual classrooms.

Challenging the ‘Dual’: designing translanguaging spaces in a Mandarin-English dual language bilingual education program

ABSTRACT In response to a growing call for developing flexible, multilingual spaces in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs, this paper explored how [Sánchez, M. T., O. García, and C. Solorza. 2018. “Reframing Language Allocation Policy in Dual Language Bilingual Education.” Bilingual Research Journal 41 (1): 37–51.] translanguaging allocation policy could be strategically and purposefully implemented in a Grade 3 Mandarin classroom in a U.S. Mandarin-English DLBE program where the majority of the students were English-dominant speakers. Taking the form of participatory design research [Bang, M., and S. Vossoughi. 2016. “Participatory Design Research and Educational Justice: Studying Learning and Relations Within Social Change Making.” Cognition and Instruction 34 (3): 173–193.], I (as a researcher) and a Mandarin teacher worked together to co-design translanguaging spaces within and across three content areas: Chinese Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Data collection included classroom and design meeting recordings, observational field notes, and teacher and students’ artefacts and interviews throughout one whole school year. Inductive and deductive coding were adopted for data analysis. Findings revealed that it was a balancing act to create translanguaging spaces while maintaining the language-minoritized space and privileging students’ use of Mandarin. Translanguaging spaces took many shapes based on contextual factors such as different learning objectives and curricular demands of each content area. Students were able to demonstrate a fuller picture of their academic performance, develop deeper content understandings, build cross-linguistic connections, and become more aware of their bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural identities.