Translingualism: Breaking the Language Policies and Politics in Composition Pedagogy and Protecting Cultural Identities of International Students (original) (raw)
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Translingual Pedagogical Perspectives Engaging Domestic and International Students in the Composition Classroom , 2021
Translingual Pedagogical Perspectives addresses the movement toward translingualism in the writing classroom and demonstrates the practical pedagogical strategies faculty can take to represent both domestic and international monolingual and multilingual students’ perspectives in writing programs. Contributors explore approaches used by diverse writing programs across the United States, insisting that traditional strategies used in teaching writing need to be reimagined if they are to engage the growing number of diverse learners who take composition classes. The book showcases concrete and adaptable writing assignments from a variety of learning environments in postsecondary, English-medium writing classrooms, writing centers, and writing programs populated by monolingual and multilingual students. By providing descriptive and reflective examples of how understanding translanguaging can influence pedagogy, Translingual Pedagogical Perspectives fills the gap between theoretical inquiry surrounding translanguaging and existing translingual pedagogical models for writing classrooms and programs. Additional appendixes provide a variety of readings, exercises, larger assignments, and other entry points, making Translingual Pedagogical Perspectives useful for instructors and graduate students interested in engaging translingual theories in their classrooms. Contributors: Daniel V. Bommarito, Mark Brantner, Tania Cepero Lopez, Emily Cooney, Norah Fahim, Ming Fang, Gregg Fields, Mathew Gomes, Thomas Lavalle, Esther Milu, Brice Nordquist, Ghanashyam Sharma, Naomi Silver, Bonnie Vidrine-Isbell, Xiqiao Wang, Dan Zhu
Translingual Pedagogical Perspectives Engaging Domestic and International Students in the Composition Classroom, 2021
Chapter 10, "Translingualism as Methodology for Peer Writing Consultants-in-Training," focuses on the ways translingual practices can be taken up in nonclassroom learning environments. The author, Naomi Silver, describes the introduction, and subsequent revision, of copyrighted material, not for distribtion do not always reach back into this rich history, as editors, we fully acknowledge that without the work of those cited above, this collection, and the valuable insight of the contributors, would not be possible.
The Modern Language Journal, 2017
The article aims to expand the scope of research on international teaching assistants (ITAs) by foregrounding identities as pedagogical resources. Employing an ethnographic multiple case study approach, the study examined the experiences of 2 English department ITAs in learning to teach College Composition classes at a public university in the United States. Guided by Morgan's () “identity as pedagogy” and Canagarajah's () conceptualization of “translingualism,” the study found that the ITAs’ becoming of translingual teachers was constrained by their perceived linguistic membership and competence, which intersected with other identity categories such as accent, nationality, ethnicity, and religion. In addition, they adopted different orientations to their multilingualism to manage the challenges of teaching diverse groups of students, and were able to deploy various identities as pedagogy. The findings suggest that the ability to re‐imagine oneself as a translingual and to d...
Crossing Divides: Exploring Translingual Writing Pedagogies and Programs
2017
In this edited collection, Bruce Horner and Laura Tetreault explore a variety of contributions that introduce and discuss translingualism and its application. Based on the CCCC 2013-14 preconvention workshops on "Crossing Divides I and II: Pedagogical and Institutional Strategies for Translingual Writing" and after the special issue on "Translingual work" in College English, 2016, comes this collection. With twelve chapters, divided in four parts, it makes a valuable contribution to the emerging discourse of translingual research and practice. The first part of the book, "Theorizing Translinguality in Writing and its Teaching" offers different theoretical perspectives on translingual writing, which frame the more practical aspects of parts two and three. Part four is comprised of different responses to the previous parts, which demonstrates the critical and self-reflective choices the editors made when organizing this collection. In the introduction, Horner and Tetreault address the dominant discourse in US college writing research and teaching that views language difference
Translingualism in Three University Roles: Pedagogical Postures and Critical Cautions
Journal of Academic Writing, 2020
This essay offers and develops some useful parameters toward the ongoing conversations on multilingual and multi-dialectic writing students in Europe and the United States, two settings with oft-competing views of writers’ varied language backgrounds. I present a synchronic snapshot of writing pedagogy as it relates to translingualism at this temporal moment. Specifically, I seek to link three different university roles—classroom teachers, writing center directors, and WAC directors—to certain translingual postures and their consequential applications. By introducing and elaborating upon the labels “Traditionalist,” “Allied Enthusiast,” and “Active Advocate” as they attend each role, I wish to offer helpful ways to understand the consequences of embracing these postures. This charting of stakeholders and their characteristics can more readily facilitate concrete scholarly discussion concerning translingual writing instruction as it moves forward. I conclude with recommendations and...
Journal of Second Language Writing, 2021
With the new wave of migration and the pressure to support various linguistic and cultural resources, academia nowadays has become relatively inclusive, and many researchers are becoming much more socially and academically active. One way of supporting students in light of this trend is to reject the dominant monolingual paradigm and incorporate a dynamic approach to linguistic creation and interaction in the classroom (Bou Ayash, 2019; Canagarajah, 2012). Translingual Dispositions: Globalized Approaches to the Teaching of Writing adds a more nuanced understanding and complexity to the previous scholarly conversation about named terms such as translingualism and translanguaging in education. The driving force behind Translingual Dispositions is that Frost, Kiernan, and Malley believe that "a translingual understanding of language use clearly resonates with scholars working in English-medium writing programs" (p. 4) to empower and support students who have linguistic and cultural capital originating in languages other than English. Rather than engage readers in scholarly debates about the definition of translingualism, the editors have stated clearly that their goal is to broaden the current understanding of the term from global, nuanced, varying perspectives. The audience of this edited volume is mainly writing-teachers in English-medium writing classrooms, L2 writing-curricula policymakers, and graduate students specializing in L2 writing who are interested in language ideology, translingual writing approaches, and students' empowerment through language. Furthermore, EFL writing teachers who are under pedagogical pressure to use English-Only as a medium of instruction might find this collection a window of hope. Frost, Kiernan, and Malley have selected studies from researchers seeking to critically engage readers not only in local, U.S.-based, translingual writing discussions, but also with a significant range of global perspectives and ideas. Frost, Kiernan, and Malley set the tone in the introductory chapter, opening up with an overview of literature that criticizes the ideology of monolingualism and its subsequent negative effects on today's institutional practices, educational assessment, and curriculum design. They have compiled a plethora of different, inspiring studies revolving around the practice of translanguaging at the postsecondary level. The title of the book, Translingual Dispositions, reflects the unprecedented demand for linguistic inclusivity and challenges the traditional monolingual approaches in writing classrooms. The text provides a range of examples that aid teachers of writing, arming them with effective tools for promoting the use of translingualism in the teaching of writing. The authors emphasize that the practices of translanguaging can be fluid and vary across different zones, and this edited collection aims to have a wider and more global understanding of the term and to inform educators about the global practices of translingualism in different contexts of the world. Framing their views in a 'translingual disposition,' different authors from multiple disciplinary perspectives and representations of language ideology in English-medium writing classrooms explore ways of applying translanguaging across spaces to improve the writing classrooms nationally and internationally. Moreover, the editors, in a glimpse, explained that their main force behind inviting different authors is to emphasize and perpetuate the 'trans' while moving away from the traditional 'multi' understandings of languages and cultures. The body of this collection is thematically divided into three sections, each of which includes four chapters. These twelve chapters are written by 23 authors and co-authors who are mainly practicing writing teachers and language specialists from various contexts, such as Sweden, Lebanon, and the U.S.A, and linguistic backgrounds, (including L1 speakers of English). The different sections in the collection add texture to the applications and theoretical understanding of translanguaging in writing classrooms. These sections are: Section I, "Multilingual Students Experiences in English-Medium Classrooms," Section II, "Investigations of Deliberately Translingual Pedagogy," and Section III, "Translanguaging Practices." In the following paragraphs, I comment on selected prominent chapters of the edited book. Section I engagingly showcases how multilingual student writers experience monolingual writing-practice ideology. The studies as a whole in this section offer further theoretical orientation towards the effectiveness of a translingual disposition in the writing classroom. For instance, in Chapter 1, Nancy Bou Ayash reflected on the experience of her three writing students in the regional context of Lebanon where the students' languaging experience showed that a translingual approach can foster students' personal and intellectual growth. Such a practice in the EFL classroom, as Bou Ayash argued, empowers students' linguistic identities and opens doors for Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Afterword. Translingual lives and writing pedagogy: Acculturation, enculturation, and emancipation
oward a transnational University: WAC/WID across borders of language, nation, and discipline, 2022
This chapter explores concepts, discussions, challenges, and strengths of transnational and translingual scholarship on writing included in the book “Toward a transnational University: WAC/WID across borders of language, nation, and discipline”. Should teachers suppress, tolerate, or encourage the use of (vernacular) language varieties, hybrid semiotic forms, and culturally-diverse epistemic rationales for academic purposes? Even if teachers decide to ignore this question, their pedagogical practices will necessarily embody a particular answer to it. To suppress language varieties responds to subtractive approaches and promotes a process of acculturation; to tolerate language varieties draws from additive and accommodative approaches and promotes a process of enculturation; and to encourage language varieties draws from critical and heteroglossic approaches and promotes emancipation. One of the conclusions is that it is not a responsibility of non-traditional students to adapt to the traditional university and the monolingual/monoglossic imperative, but a responsibility of traditional universities to adapt to new learning needs and opportunities, as well as new cultures, languages, identities, and trajectories. Students viewed as “problematic” can no longer be sent somewhere out of the classroom to have their language—and their world view—“fixed”.
Translingual Dispositions: Globalized Approaches to the Teaching of Writing
With the new wave of migration and the pressure to support various linguistic and cultural resources, academia nowadays has become relatively inclusive, and many researchers are becoming much more socially and academically active. One way of supporting students in light of this trend is to reject the dominant monolingual paradigm and incorporate a dynamic approach to linguistic creation and interaction in the classroom (Bou Ayash, 2019; Canagarajah, 2012). Translingual Dispositions: Globalized Approaches to the Teaching of Writing adds a more nuanced understanding and complexity to the previous scholarly conversation about named terms such as translingualism and translanguaging in education. The driving force behind Translingual Dispositions is that Frost, Kiernan, and Malley believe that "a translingual understanding of language use clearly resonates with scholars working in English-medium writing programs" (p. 4) to empower and support students who have linguistic and cultural capital originating in languages other than English. Rather than engage readers in scholarly debates about the definition of translingualism, the editors have stated clearly that their goal is to broaden the current understanding of the term from global, nuanced, varying perspectives. The audience of this edited volume is mainly writing-teachers in English-medium writing classrooms, L2 writing-curricula policymakers, and graduate students specializing in L2 writing who are interested in language ideology, translingual writing approaches, and students' empowerment through language. Furthermore, EFL writing teachers who are under pedagogical pressure to use English-Only as a medium of instruction might find this collection a window of hope. Frost, Kiernan, and Malley have selected studies from researchers seeking to critically engage readers not only in local, U.S.-based, translingual writing discussions, but also with a significant range of global perspectives and ideas. Frost, Kiernan, and Malley set the tone in the introductory chapter, opening up with an overview of literature that criticizes the ideology of monolingualism and its subsequent negative effects on today's institutional practices, educational assessment, and curriculum design. They have compiled a plethora of different, inspiring studies revolving around the practice of translanguaging at the postsecondary level. The title of the book, Translingual Dispositions, reflects the unprecedented demand for linguistic inclusivity and challenges the traditional monolingual approaches in writing classrooms. The text provides a range of examples that aid teachers of writing, arming them with effective tools for promoting the use of translingualism in the teaching of writing. The authors emphasize that the practices of translanguaging can be fluid and vary across different zones, and this edited collection aims to have a wider and more global understanding of the term and to inform educators about the global practices of translingualism in different contexts of the world. Framing their views in a 'translingual disposition,' different authors from multiple disciplinary perspectives and representations of language ideology in English-medium writing classrooms explore ways of applying translanguaging across spaces to improve the writing classrooms nationally and internationally. Moreover, the editors, in a glimpse, explained that their main force behind inviting different authors is to emphasize and perpetuate the 'trans' while moving away from the traditional 'multi' understandings of languages and cultures. The body of this collection is thematically divided into three sections, each of which includes four chapters. These twelve chapters are written by 23 authors and co-authors who are mainly practicing writing teachers and language specialists from various contexts, such as Sweden, Lebanon, and the U.S.A, and linguistic backgrounds, (including L1 speakers of English). The different sections in the collection add texture to the applications and theoretical understanding of translanguaging in writing classrooms. These sections are: Section I, "Multilingual Students Experiences in English-Medium Classrooms," Section II, "Investigations of Deliberately Translingual Pedagogy," and Section III, "Translanguaging Practices." In the following paragraphs, I comment on selected prominent chapters of the edited book. Section I engagingly showcases how multilingual student writers experience monolingual writing-practice ideology. The studies as a whole in this section offer further theoretical orientation towards the effectiveness of a translingual disposition in the writing classroom. For instance, in Chapter 1, Nancy Bou Ayash reflected on the experience of her three writing students in the regional context of Lebanon where the students' languaging experience showed that a translingual approach can foster students' personal and intellectual growth. Such a practice in the EFL classroom, as Bou Ayash argued, empowers students' linguistic identities and opens doors for Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
The connection between transcultural dispositions and translingual practices in academic writing
Journal of Multicultural Discourses
This article discusses how transculturalism and translingualism contribute to expanding epistemological landscapes in research on interculturality by analyzing the relationship between the two terms. While both translingualism and transculturalism respond to the increasing diversity, mobility, and hybridity in communication and identities, their relationship has not been studied, as scholars articulating either concept belong to different fields. We analyze a case of a multilingual student to demonstrate how his translingual writing practice was enabled by his dispositions deriving from his transcultural experience. In addition to demonstrating his rhetorical and linguistic sensitivity from his transcultural disposition, we also show that his writing creates a space for his peers and teacher to develop a broadened disposition to appreciate language diversity and creativity. We conclude the article by discussing future possibilities of a transcultural and translingual approach in studying interculturality to promote 'pluri-dialogic imaginations, globo-ethical positions and epistemological ecologies'.