Shuhang Li
What is translanguaging?
Translanguaging is the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features from their unique repertoire in order to maximize communicative potential. It’s also the deployment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages (García,2009). Everyone has his own unique language, that is, personal idioms. No two people’s personal idioms are the same. The following are two examples of super language practice.
Example 1: Chinglish
Smilence 笑而不语= smile + silence, referring to the stereotypical Chinese reaction of smiling without saying anything.
Democrazy 痴心妄想 = democracy + crazy; mocking the so-called demo- cratic systems of the west and in some parts of Asia where certain legis- lations such as the ownership of firearms can be protected due to political lobbying and, in the case of Taiwan, parliamentarians get into physical fights over disagreements. The occurrence of the word was prominent after the news of Trump’s victory in the US presidential election broke.
You can you up, no can no BВ, meaning ‘If you have the ability then you do it. If you don’t have the ability, then say nothing.’, which is a translation of你行你上啊,不行别逼逼。
To interpret these expressions, we must understand the social and political context behind them, the history of Chinglish, the subjectivity of the Chinese people, and the ideology they challenge.
Example 2: Examples of Chinese Dialogue in Singapore
Seetoh: Aiyoh (discourse particle), we are all<aki nang> 自己人 = own people, meaning ‘friends’), bian khe khi (免客气 = don’t mention it). Ren lai jiu hao (ЛЖ = good of you to come), why bring so many ‘barang barang’ (‘things’). Paiseh (歹劳= I’m embarrassed). ‘Nei chan hai yau sum’ (你真有心= you are so considerate).
Jamie: Don’t say until like that. Now, you make me malu (‘shame’) only. You
look after my daughter for so many years, mei you gong lao ye you ku lao (没有功劳也有苦劳= you have done hard work even if you don’t want а prize). I feel so bad that I could not come earlier. ‘Mm hou yi si’ (不好意思 = I’m embarrassed). I was so shocked to hear about Seetoh, tsou lang ham ham (做人 ham ham -meaning life is unpre- dictable), jie ai shun bian. (节哀顺变= hope you will restrain your grief and go along with the changes)
Bold: Hokkien
In square brackets < > : Teochew
Underlined: Mandarin
In double quotation marks: Malay
In single quotation marks: Cantonese
Italics: Singlish
Sometimes people confuse the concepts of supralinguistic practice and code-switching. From the above examples, it is true that the two people switched between Hakka, Chaoshan, Putonghua, Malay, Cantonese, English, and Singaporean English, but such consideration is not very meaningful. Code-switching presupposes that monolingual mode is the default mode, and then people need to switch back to monolingual mode, but this presupposition does not apply to multilingual communities. The boundary between languages is dynamic and fluid.
Where did the practice of interlanguage come from?
The English translation of translingual practice is translated from Welsh trawsieithu to describe such a teaching practice: teachers teach in Welsh and students respond in English. Such a teaching practice can change the power relationship between teachers and students, and focus on meaning-giving and identity-building in the teaching process.
The concept of language practice is borrowed from Humberto Mathurana and Francesco Varela, Chilean biologists and neuroscientists, who emphasized that language should not be regarded as an established fact or finished product, but as a process that is constantly being shaped. Language practice refers to the coordinated combination of various physical, physiological, semantic, and cognitive attributes and abilities by language practitioners. The uniqueness of this way of looking at language practice is reflected in the following three aspects: first, it makes us regard language as a process; Secondly, it makes us realize that the distinction between linguistic, paralinguistic, and non-linguistic in language practice is meaningless. What is important is feeling, experience, history, memory, subjectivity, and culture; Third, language learners do not acquire a language but adjust their bodies and brains to adapt to the language practice around them.
What does the practice of translanguaging emphasize?
The addition of trans to language is not only to better summarize the dynamic and mobile practice of multilingual but also to illustrate the following two points: first, multilingual do not think in a monolingual system under the political definition; Second, human thinking needs to use a series of different cognitive, semantic and modal resources, not limited to traditional reading and writing.
Trans in the practice of translanguaging emphasizes its three characteristics:
First, transcend, that is, supralinguistic practice is a flowing practice, which transcends the language system and structure constructed by society.
Second, transformative, that is, supralinguistic practice can not only change the language system but also change personal cognition and social structure.
Third, translinguistic practice, that is, translinguistic practice, can bring a new understanding of language, language learning, and language use to different disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, sociology, and pedagogy.
Question: What is your biggest difficulty in understanding translanguaging? If these examples appear in your English teaching, how can you help your students understand them?
Reference:
Li, W.(2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39 (1), 9-30.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective
Malden, MA; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
