Multilingual Strategies Research Articles

Language practices of Chinese doctoral students studying abroad on social media: a translanguaging perspective

Abstract Existing research has recognized the important role of translanguaging in linguistic education. Recent studies have begun to turn attention to translanguaging practices on social media. This study contributes to this growing body of literature by examining translanguaging strategies and functions deployed by Chinese doctoral students studying abroad on the social media platform Little Red Book. A netnography approach and computer-mediated discourse analysis are combined to analyze the data. The findings reveal that Chinese doctoral students employ various translanguaging strategies online, including multilingual, multi-semiotic, and multimodal strategies, to achieve a range of pragmatic functions. The multilingual strategy consists of using Chinese characters, English words or phrases, English abbreviations, English acronyms, Chinese pinyin acronyms, and Chinese pinyin initials; the multi-semiotic strategy involves the use of emojis and hashtags; while the multimodal strategy incorporates photos. The study also explores the motivations behind the use of translanguaging on social media by these students. The results indicate that social media provides translanguaging space for Chinese doctoral students studying abroad to creatively make full use of their linguistic repertoire. In doing so, they are able to demonstrate their doctoral identities, their socialization abilities, and attitudes of language playfulness.

Mother tongue: multilingual approach to acquisition

The article presents the results of the impact of mother tongues on the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) by students at the University of Kinshasa’s communication department. The study used a double sequential explanatory model combining quantitative and qualitative data collected through surveys, interviews, and tests. The research problem stemmed from observations of how the integration of French and Lingala facilitated students’ understanding, leading to an investigation into the positive impact of mother tongues on EFL learning. The study’s objectives included establishing the perfect mother tongue of students, comparing performance between monolingual and multilingual teaching, and suggesting the multilingual approach for EFL classrooms. Results supported the hypotheses that most students are proficient in lingala for some and French for others. Multilingual teaching outperforms monolingual teaching, and multilingual teaching is appropriate for EFL learners. The study recommends incorporating translanguaging and multilingual strategies into EFL classrooms at the University of Kinshasa to enhance learning outcomes.

Multilingualism in performance appraisal interviews: strategies to bridge language gaps

This paper explores three multilingual strategies to bridge the lack of a shared first language as they are used during performance appraisal interviews, namely English as a business lingua franca, receptive multilingualism, and a lay interpreter. The study is based on authentic video-recorded performance appraisal interviews at a globally active Belgian company, and follow-up interviews with the managers. The analysis focuses on how the company deals with multilingualism from a management perspective, how the managers perceive these multilingual strategies from a language ideological perspective, and how these language ideological beliefs shape the language practices of the performance appraisal interviews. We conclude that this study provides novel insights into how globalized companies deal with multilingualism in the high-stakes and potentially sensitive interactional context of a performance appraisal interview by underlining the intertwined nature of language ideological beliefs and language practices as part of a broader multilingual language management strategy.

Conflicting Expectations of Interpreters’ Roles in the Interaction between Guardians and Unaccompanied Minors

Abstract Public service interpreters assume a key role in rendering accessible social services to newcomer clients. They could even be considered inherent to social work settings that are multilingual in nature, such as the interactional context of unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians. However, despite the intrinsic linguistic diversity and the unique position of interpreters in this setting, guardian–minor encounters remain unexplored in research. The current study therefore aims to provide insight into the multilingual needs and challenges in these encounters, focussing particularly on the roles interpreters play in this setting and how they are perceived to affect the interaction. To this end, the study draws on twelve semi-structured interviews with guardians of unaccompanied minors, collected as part of a research project examining the impact of multilingual strategies on the communication and relationship between guardians and minors in Belgium. Through thematic analysis, the study explores guardians’ insecurities, revealing confusion about the professional status of interpreters, concerns about interpretation quality and conflicting expectations of what interpreters should (not) do. The study provides recommendations with a view to improving both the confidence of guardians and the efficiency of guardian–minor interactions, and highlights the relevance of the findings for various other social work settings.

Afrofuturistic Translanguaging: Pathways to Students' Wellbeing in Disciplines

This study highlights the drawbacks of monolingual instruction in university disciplines and its adverse effects on students’ knowledge acquisition, mental, emotional, and academic well-being. Incorporating Afrofuturism, the research introduces translanguaging as an innovative component to explore the advantages of employing multilingual strategies. The goal is to mitigate limitations posed by monolingual approaches and actively contribute to safeguarding students’ comprehensive well-being in the academic context. Incorporating Afrofuturist principles, this study utilizes textual analysis with the researcher as a research instrument. It analyses how multilingual teaching not only addresses limitations associated with monolingual instruction but also positively impacts African students’ well-being. Innovative studies on translanguaging practices are highlighted, offering multilayered insights into the dynamic interplay of languages and knowledge in disciplines. The research offers an innovative approach by integrating Afrofuturist translanguaging strategies, providing valuable insights for enhancing student well-being across university disciplines. Identifying the limitations of monolingual instruction on disciplinary expertise, the study underscores its detrimental impact on African scholars’ mental, emotional, and academic well-being. By introducing Afrofuturist-aligned translanguaging practices, the research illuminates innovative strategies that surpass these limitations, demonstrating the advantages of embracing multilingualism in disciplinary settings. This Afrofuturist-inspired approach promotes a more inclusive understanding of linguistic diversity, nurturing belonging and resilience among students. Recognizing the detrimental effects of monolingual instruction on holistic growth in Africa’s universities, this study champions a transformative transition towards multilingualism.

In-Service Primary Teachers’ Practices and Beliefs About Multilingualism: Linguistically Sensitive Teaching in the Basque Autonomous Community

Summary European schools have seen a considerable increase in the number of multilingual students (Bergroth et al., 2021). Teaching languages separately restricts the use of students’ entire linguistic repertoire; however, new lines of research have pointed out the usefulness of multilingualism and the potential benefits of pedagogical translanguaging (Leonet et al., 2017). In this context, Linguistically Sensitive Teaching (LST) allows teachers to make multilingualism visible in their classrooms (Llompart & Birello, 2020). This qualitative research study was conducted in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), where Basque and Spanish are official languages. In most cases, English is taught as a Foreign Language. Even though the minority language is not the student’s first language in many cases, most students’ families choose Basque as the language of instruction (Basque Government, 2020). This study analyses in-service primary teachers’ perspectives on multilingual education in a government aided semiprivate school. Data were collected through linguistic landscape analysis, observations, and a focus group discussion. Two researchers observed one hundred six primary multilingual students and eight in-service language and content teachers for three weeks. Teachers who participated in the study were at least bilingual and fluent in Basque and Spanish and some (4) were also fluent in English (B2–C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages). The findings reveal that in-service primary teachers are aware of the utility of putting LST into practice, and they are willing to teach and flexibly use languages. In addition, they believe in transferences across languages and highlight the value of using language to learn content. Although in many cases, multilingual strategies are appropriate for adapting to the current situation, those strategies are not systematized, creating a climate of insecurity. The results suggest the need for more linguistically sensitive education and training.

Online translanguaging and multiliteracies strategies to support K‐12 multilingual learners: Identity texts, linguistic landscapes, and photovoice

The COVID‐19 pandemic has given rise to the burgeoning of online, blended, and hybrid classrooms. The transition to virtual learning has been a challenge for many teachers and learners, but for multilingual learners (MLs) who have to navigate the virtual learning environment in a new language, online learning can be particularly difficult. Translanguaging (García et al., 2017) and multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015) theories call for teachers to support MLs by activating their prior knowledge, connecting to their lives, integrating their home languages and cultures, and engaging them in learning through multiple modalities. This theory‐based practice article discusses three pedagogical strategies based on translanguaging and multiliteracies theories which are designed for multilingual K‐12 classrooms with an online learning component: (1) digital identity texts, (2) linguistic landscapes, and (3) photovoice. The examples presented in the article were developed through the authors' collaborative and reflective engagement with each other, and drawn from their respective work with K‐12 MLs and the preservice teachers preparing to teach MLs in mainstream classrooms in Ontario, Canada. The authors offer suggestions for how the proposed translanguaging and multilingual strategies can challenge monolingual practices, develop critical language awareness, and expand students' diverse language and literacies practices.

Language practices in Namibian primary schools

ABSTRACT The main focus of the article is on teachers’ classroom language practices in eight primary schools in Oshana and Khomas school regions. Language ideologies and translanguaging practices were used as a theoretical framework to evaluate the language ecologies that were created by the language practices in the schools included in the research study. The data consist of 140 responded questionnaires, 19 individual interviews and eight focus group discussions with teachers, and 47 observed lessons. Mixed methods were used to analyse the data. Questionnaire responses were analysed quantitatively except for open-ended questions. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews and focus group discussions as well as the observed lessons. The results show that despite teachers’ efforts to gear the classroom language practices towards a more multilingual language ecology by using different multilingual strategies, the prevailing hierarchical language ideologies, reinforced by the assessment that is done in English only, contribute to maintaining the dominant position of English compared to the local languages.

Multilingualism in Lebanon: bridging reality to practice

Abstract Although Lebanese use different languages, mainly Arabic, English, and French, in their daily interactions, the Lebanese educational system continues to adopt monolingual-oriented practices to language teaching. In English language classes, teachers and students are expected to exclusively use the target language as the language of instruction. Such a practice hinders students’ engagement in the learning process, especially during early stages, as they often face vocabulary and pronunciation challenges. Hence, there is a discrepancy between linguistic norms prevailing outside the classroom and the teaching strategies implemented inside the classroom. In an attempt to bridge the gap and maximize students’ English learning, I utilized my position as an English instructor to teach through the implementation of multilingual strategies. This article draws on my experience and on my students’ feedback to provide insights into implementing multilingual strategies to teach English language, with a focus on design and affordances of specific strategies.

A multilingual pedagogies initiative in higher education

ABSTRACT The research reported on in this article examines the attitudes towards student linguistic diversity and multilingual pedagogies of 30 university lecturer participants enrolled for an accredited short course on multilingual pedagogies at a South African institution. The aim of the course is to support lecturers in helping students gain access to their disciplines using multilingual strategies including translation and translanguaging. Staff from a range of disciplines drawn from 8 faculties formed the first cohort of participants. Within a postmodern research paradigm, an interpretive approach was used to understand and analyze data collected from questionnaires, language histories and a language portrait exercise. We discuss findings on staff perceptions of translanguaging in their teaching; their knowledge of and sensitivity towards their students’ linguistic repertoires, their own language backgrounds and the challenges they face in catering for linguistic diversity in their lectures. We also present participants’ examples of multilingual pedagogies based on what they had learned from the MP course.

A Deep Learning Approach for Robust Detection of Bots in Twitter Using Transformers Model

The volume of audio visual content produced on social networks has increased tremendously in recent decades, and this information is quickly spread and consumed by a large number of people. The disruption of false news sources and bot accounts for disseminating fake news is a possibility in this scenario. Applied research has been supported by promotional information as well as sensitive stuff over the network. Artificial Intelligence will be used to automatically assess the trustworthiness of social media accounts (AI). In this research, we describe a multilingual strategy to using Deep Learning to solve the bot identification problem on Twitter. End-users can utilise machine learning (ML) methodologies to assess the trustworthiness of a Twitter account. To achieve so, a number of tests were carried out using cutting-edge Multilingual Language Models. Construct an encoding of the user account's text-based features, which is then concatenated with the rest of the metadata to build a potential input vector on top of a Bot-DenseNet Dense Network. As a result, this article evaluates the language constraint from prior experiments where the encoding of the language was limited. Only the metadata information or the metadata information along with some other information was examined by the user account. properties of fundamental semantic text The Bot-DenseNet also generates a low-dimensional representation of the data. Within the Information Retrieval (IR) framework, a user account can be utilised for any application.

The mechanism and influences of multilingual packaging strategy for tourism product: From the perspective of selective accessibility model

The mechanism and influences of multilingual packaging strategy for tourism product: From the perspective of selective accessibility model

Beyond the mother tongue: language as cultural capital in Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

ABSTRACT The paper investigates multilingual aesthetics in Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007). It argues that the novel refuses and undermines the family romance of the mother tongue by grounding its experimental form and language in Western poststructuralist theory. Yet, the text fictionalises the encounter with the other language as a love story, a fatal romance of conquest and profound metamorphosis thus revealing the complex status of English as cultural capital. As it exhibits multilingual strategies, the book also displays an elite cosmopolitism based on European literary canonical works that reinforces rather than discards monolingual ides of language and literature.

Hoe universeel zijn receptieve meertaligheidsstrategieën?

There are multiple ways in which language learners’ multilingual repertoire can be put to use in foreign language learning and teaching. One such use is receptive multilingualism (RM, cf. Blees & Ten Thije 2017). Despite the fact that RM has been found to be an effective means of communication between adult speakers of typologically related languages, like Dutch and German (see Beerkens, 2010; Van Mulken & Hendriks, 2015; Ribbert & Ten Thije, 2007), there is hardly any research investigating its use and effectiveness in younger learners in school settings (Ten Thije, Gulikers & Schoutsen, 2020). In this contribution, we present the results of a pilot study in which we investigate whether German secondary-school students make use of their multilingual repertoire by employing receptive multilingual strategies when decoding an unknown, but typologically related language (Dutch) and whether they can transfer these skills when decoding a less typologically related, unknown language (Maltese).

La búsqueda del lector híbrido como motivo implícito de la traducción pragmática. Caso de la novela Puppet de Margarita Cota-Cárdenas y su traducción al inglés

The article deals with a particular case of intra- and intertextual translation of a highly pragmatic nature, which can be seen in Puppet. A Chicano novella by Margarita Cota-Cárdenas. Composed mainly of fragments of conversations, monologues and personal letters, the novel reflects Spanish-English codeswitching, as a characteristic feature of the speech of the Mexican American community in the USA. By (re)producing a range of heteroglossal forms of this community communication, Cota-Cárdenas uses translation procedures to reach the hybrid reader who is, at the same time, the hallmark of Chicanos. The multilingual strategies (Hansen Esplin, 2012) of the author and the translators, Barbara D. Riess and Tino Sandoval, become the main pragmatic objective of the novel, both in its source and target versions. Given the multitude of translation procedures observed in both versions of this hybrid novel, the relativity of traditional translation terms, such as original and translation, is also discussed, as both turn out to be bilingual texts and pragmatic translations.

Reconsidering Monolingual Strategies of Bilingual Education through Translanguaging and Plurilingual Educational Approaches. Are We Moving Back or Forward?

This study explores monolingual and multilingual strategies in bilingual education by investigating translanguaging practices in the Georgian monolingual Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Two research questions guided this research: (1) What Translanguaging practices do teachers use in the CLIL Natural Science program with a monolingual approach? (2) What is the rationale for teachers’ translanguaging pedagogical approaches in monolingual Natural Science lessons in the CLIL? The study utilized a classroom observation qualitative research method to answer the designed research questions. The findings reveal that the planned and implemented curricula differ considerably. The translanguaging approach is more emergent instruction rather than a well-planned and organized process. Second, teachers use translanguaging in scaffolding to support students and explain new teaching materials to be comprehensible. Third, translanguaging makes the instruction more student-centred. when switching to translanguaging, students become more active and more actively engaged in the learning process Fourth, translanguaging in the Georgian separated CLIL model is a more spontaneous strategy derived from classroom dynamics than planned to support learners’ linguistic repertoire. Accordingly, it can be characterized as one of the pedagogical practice of translanguaging, codeswitching, rather than translanguaging itself. Finally, translanguaging is an instrument for teachers’ empowerment

Societal impact through lingual plurality

Recent tendency towards internationalization of academic publishing has reinforced the dominant role of English language in scholarly debates and discussions. The monolinguistic development has led to several drawbacks: it risks to sustain global inequalities in knowledge production, limits the access of non-native English speakers to international publishing, and disengages place-specific knowledge from national and local contexts, not only in scholarly communities but also among decision-makers and within the civil society. In response, Fennia seeks ways towards multicultural publishing, including lingual plurality. The journal has a long history in multilingual publishing yet, in its present form – following international standards of journal publishing, with modest resources – its content is solely in English. The editorial briefly introduces this linguistic development, since 1889, and presents ideas for further activities. Fennia’s current multilingual strategy emphasizes the popularization of the peer reviewed content in different languages, which is implemented through collaboration with the online popular science forum Versus. This serves two ends in broadening the audience, beyond the academy and the primarily English-speaking world. The collaboration of Fennia and Versus has already yielded multilingual popular science articles accessible in the contexts that the research concerns and in the societies where the authors work. Based on positive experiences and feedback, we are eager to continue similar efforts promoting linguistic plurality. As achieving these aims requires notable extra effort – from authors, editors, and the publisher – we call for support and commitment from the funding agencies and academic institutions that we rely on, along with the scholarly community whose voluntary work forms the basis of all activities in Fennia.

Unexpected Disadvantages of a Simultaneous Quadrilingual Upbringing, a Case Study

At the crossroad between linguistics and cross-cultural communication, multilingualism is frequently presented through its most positive perspective. However, if the long-term benefits outrun the disadvantages, frustration is often the dominant feeling among the speakers during their early years. Based upon meticulous observations and careful collection of examples in a multilingual family, this article is a case study of the difficulties encountered by polyglots growing up with four simultaneous languages: Russian, French, Czech, and English. Using the research framework usually developed for the study of bilingualism, the article reviews not only the psychological and cognitive difficulties encountered by tetraglots, but also the social and linguistic drawbacks they are confronted with. It also examines common multilingual strategies such as code-switching, words creation and language mixing. It concludes that the linguistic development of tetraglots does not differ much from bilingual ones, except for the elongated period before acquiring production speech. Quadrilingual children tend to speak later than not only monolingual children, but also bilingual ones.

Multilingualism and Social Inclusion in Scotland: Language Options and Ligatures of the “1+2 Language Approach”

Recent global trends in migration, trade and overall mobility have continued to transform our objective realities and subjective experiences around linguistic diversity. More broadly, in many countries, the politics of multilingualism seem to have changed the old links between language and nation-state. In this context, Scotland is studied in this article as a case study as it acts to dispel the myth of a ‘monolingual country.’ Its recent language policy, the “1+2 Language Approach” (Scottish Government, 2012b), including regional languages, modern foreign languages and heritage languages of migrants have created opportunities as well as imbalances and issues of equity in the Scottish language habitus. Drawing on Kraus’s work (2018), this article demonstrates how the policy creates language as ‘options’ and as ‘ligatures.’ However, these ‘options’ and ‘ligatures’ are not salient and straightforward. The policy is explored on three different levels: (1) on its potential for allowing the development of multilingual communication strategies such as intercomprehension, code-switching and mixing, (2) on its commitment to linguistic justice avoiding language hierarchies and (3) on its links with dominating, neoliberal approaches to education and the economy. The article finally concludes that options and ligatures visible in language policy impose some semantic order on the confusion of layered co-occurrences of various hegemonies, or the general strain between macro and micro distinction.

Multilingual consultations in urgent medical care

ABSTRACT More than half of the world’s displaced population has moved to urban or peri-urban areas, and in Brussels, the superdiverse Belgian and European capital, the emergency care sector provides an important setting for analysing the multilingual challenges faced by health practitioners. To gain a better insight in the interactional dynamics of emergency department consultations with immigrant patients, this paper focuses on multilingual strategies that include ‘ad hoc’ communicative solutions used in the absence of professional interpreters (lingua franca use, non-verbal communication, medical translation software, language mediation through companions or hospital staff). Despite their efforts, the participants in our two case-studies lacked the linguistic and interpreting subtleties needed to perform complex linguistic-interactional tasks, and in this way, a form of ‘false fluency’ was created. Ad hoc multilingual solutions, significant as they are, require additional language support to avoid diagnostic insecurity. At the level of patient management, a ‘linguistic assessment’ of patients could potentially be integrated into the triage process, and clinicians should be trained on how to recognise and remediate communication problems under the specific conditions of the emergency department.