education – Educational Sociolinguistics

Interesting Translanguaging Phenomena

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.

Can Language APP Save the Disappearing Indigenous Languages？

Shuhang Li

“Where in the world do you learn Chinese in Cantonese?” The Secretary for Education of Hong Kong, China said that if we learn Chinese in Cantonese in the long run, we need to study whether we will lose the advantage of Hong Kong. The language learning application Duolingo offers courses in Navajo and Hawaiian, but in fact, the number of people who speak these two languages may not reach 30000, which is less advantageous.
Myra Awodey, the chief community expert of Duolingo, admitted that the company had predicted that this was not a profitable project, but she said: “This is just something we feel we must do.” This cheap learning platform has more than 33040 users, and all of them attend free courses. It is hoped that its unique position in the language learning community “can not only protect the endangered language but also make the language spread.” Awodey means that although Duolingo usually offers widely used language courses, it has also received requests for minority language courses. Duolingo’s website shows that more than 20000 users are interested in learning Hawaiian.
The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893, and the use of the Hawaiian language for teaching and learning was banned in 1896. The number of Hawaiian language users declined sharply. Hawaiian was not recognized as the official language of Hawaii until the Constitution of Hawaii was amended in 1978. In the 1980s, the state’s education department established the Hawaiian Research Program and the Hawaiian Language Experience Program. The University of Hawaii also opened related degrees, reopened schools that teach Hawaiian, and established a non-profit organization ‘AhaP ū Nana Leo to revive and spread the language. However, according to a state report in 2020, Hawaiian is still the fifth largest language in the local area except for English, and only 18610 people can speak Hawaiian. The content of the Duolingo Hawaiian language course is developed with the help of Kamehameha Schools, a Hawaiian school network dedicated to developing the Hawaiian alpine ethnic education system.
K, Vice President of Community Engagement Resources, Kamehameha Schools āʻ Eo Duarte said: “The foundation of our ancestors’ adoption of new printing technology in the 19th century ʻō lelo Hawai ʻ I Bring it into this platform, so that traditional skills, literature, and history can be inherited. ” Ekela Kaniaupio Crozier, a member of the development team of the course, has 40 years of Hawaiian language teaching experience. She said: “People always think local people will like and support Hawaiian. The reality is that prejudice still exists, and people still think that learning Hawaiian is a waste of time today.” She added: “Just like using English in Hawaii, we also hope to see the Hawaiian language widely used. Indeed, it is the official language of the state and should have equal status.” Kaniaupio Crozier specifically mentioned that the primary target of the course is Hawaiian aborigines. She thinks it is particularly important for local people to learn their language first: “This is mainly to help us learn our language first, let it return to the owner (Hawaiian)’s heart, and share it.”
The situation of language disappearance and culture disappearance is more serious. It is estimated that 1500 people are transferred to the area in San Juan County, Utah to learn Navajo in an old way. Clayton Long, an educator in Duolingo, spent his childhood in the Navajo culture of the mountain people in the southwest of the United States, hoping that Navajo can be passed on and that hundreds of thousands of young people can get in touch with it through game oriented applications, He said: “We are at a critical moment. If we do not attract any children who want to learn or should learn, we will lose a lot… When you lose a language, you will lose a culture.”
Duolingo has been used to save a language facing extinction. In 2014, Duolingo included Irish Gaelic in the platform for the first time. When the Irish language course was launched in 2014, it was estimated that only 100000 people were parents’ language users. Today, 4 million people have used the application to learn this language. This feat won the public thanks of the Irish President in 2016. If this effort continues, the revival of Navajo and Hawaiian languages is promising.

Questions:
1. What do you think of the way to publicize the vanishing indigenous languages? What are the advantages and disadvantages? (feel free to share your opinions)
2. How to arouse people’s awareness of the protection of indigenous languages of ethnic minorities? You can choose one from school, family, society, and other aspects to talk about (if you want to say more, that would be great!)

References:

Galla, C. K. (2018). Digital realities of indigenous language revitalization: a look at Hawaiian language technology in the modern world. Language and Literacy, 20(3), 100–120. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29412

Josep, C. (2015). Language revitalization from the ground up promoting Yucatec maya on facebook. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(3), 284–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.921184

Greek schools in Québec; Maintaining Hellenic culture

Marina Koutsis

When my grandparents migrated to Québec from Greece more than 50 years ago, they made a promise to one another that they would not lose their culture and would pass it on to their children. Maintaining one’s culture when migrating to another country is very important as it is a way to stay connected to the home country, especially if one cannot easily travel back. And it is not always easy to pass down the culture to future generations when parents work a lot and children are sent to schools where only the host country’s language is taught. This was a reality for many communities, such as Greek immigrants, that came in large numbers to Montréal after the Second World War.

In 1909 in Montreal, the first Greek school was founded though it only counted 25 students, but by 1971, however, the school, named Socrates, was moved to a larger building with 11 classrooms. This gave access to Greek education and culture to even more students of Greek origin (https://www.socdem.org/). What is interesting with this school is that it is a good reflection of the multicultural aspect of Montréal. In fact, 66% of the lessons at Socrates are taught in French, 24% in Greek, and 10% are taught in English (École Socrates-Démosthène, 2022). Though I thought that 10% was little, the school does count more hours of English per year than regular public schools. And surprisingly, Socrates students read and analyse classic English novels such as Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies, which I had never read until I reached Cégep despite having done all my education in anglophone schools.

Other than through language, Socrates allows students to connect with their Hellenic heritage through traditional dance lessons. There are so many types of dances in Greece that vary depending on the region and they are all very much part of Greece’s culture and religious celebrations. Such a Hellenic school offers choice to parents seeking this approach, but unfortunately these remain private and are not affordable to all. This approach to instruction demonstrates that it is possible to study more than one language at once successfully. Québec has experienced various power dynamics associated with language, especially in relation to French vs English. It is understandable that French should be prioritised in educational institutions within the province, but second language education should not be ignored. Other languages should still be encouraged in schools, especially as multiliteracy and plurilingual education has been proven to be beneficial for student learning (Galante, 2020). Even though I did not personally attend Socrates, it is still important that people have the opportunity to connect to their heritage.

References

“Αccueil.” École Socrates-Démosthène, 20 Oct. 2022, https://www.socdem.org/.

Galente, A., Okubo, K., Cole, C., Elkader, N. A., Carozza, N., Wilkinson, C., Wotton, C., & Vasic, J. (2020). “English-only is not the way to go”: Teachers’ perceptions of plurilingual instruction in an English program at a Canadian university, Tesol Quarterly, 54(4), 980- 1009. 10.1002/tesq.584

Vernacular Language, Language Varieties, and their Deserved Place in Education

Written by Alison D.

One can arguably say that we all speak our own version of a given language. As social beings, we are influenced by our peers, our elders, our environment, as well as other languages in our language repertoires to contribute to the way we speak. As we explore the idea of dialects, tongues, and Vernacular forms of the English language, it is eminent for us to take a moment to explore how these comes to be, how they are continuously reinforced, as well as what can we do as language specialist to perhaps halter the divide and social-status attribution to particular forms of language.

Van Herk (2017) mentions in his work that “Geographical location is probably the most-studied social factor affecting language variation” (p.27). That said, depending on where we are located physically, our language variety will change. As we are highly influenced by the way people around us speak, it is only natural for the way we speak to change depending on where we are. This phenomenon also applies to children! Before the age of 4, children are almost exclusively spoken to, thus linguistically influenced, by their parents. Their parents’ languages and variations which are affected by geographical location, are thus passed down to their children (Tagliamonte and D’Arcy, 2009).

If you take a moment to reflect on this, our kindergarten learners often come to school at the age of 5 never having had language experiences other than immediate family. Thus, the varieties and Vernacular languages are simply the languages that they speak! Educators, then become language models and evaluators of children who speak unique forms of languages. Though, the educators in question, do not always value these Vernacular languages and varieties the same way they would value ‘standard’ languages.

The idea of a standardized or ‘ideal’ form of English dates back many years. Typically, the standardized form of a language is associated with users of a higher social class. Examples such as highly regarded occupation and income will be associated with individuals who speak a more ‘ideal’ and ‘recognized’ form of language. ‘Non-Native-like’ speakers of English, such as second language learners and speakers of Vernacular languages in such contexts are often faced with instances of insubordination and unequal treatment due to the difference in the way they speak. This relationship of ‘ideal’ languages versus ‘other languages’ tends to reinforce the hierarchal division of society based on social class.

Even when I think about students in my high school classroom, they are speaking in such unique ways. Their ways of expressing themselves, their slang, word choice, intonation and overall linguistic behaviour reminds me every day why I love teaching secondary English. This said, since I have gotten to know my learners quite well, I can expect certain variations of English from certain students, while different forms of English from others. I, however, cannot expect a particular learner to speak more like one of their peers. This would be taking away from their individuality as well as right to express themselves the way that best fits their identities. If promoting a safe space where students can express themselves comfortably is the goal, where is the line drawn? At assessment? For oral presentations? Does it have to be drawn at all? Is there a way for all variations and forms of language to be valued and celebrated in the classroom?

Regarding the place of English Vernaculars in education, perhaps a shift from using English to ‘move up in the world’ towards a focus on intelligibility and open communication can be a good starting point to having language learners and users embrace their individuality to richen their repertoires. Educators can then ponder on “what does it mean to be a language speaker” as well as what the actual goal for language learning is, instead of focusing on creating the most ‘native-like’ English speakers. Additionally, reconsidering evaluation methods could strengthen this shift but, alas! We can explore this topic another time.

Take a moment to view Morgan Gill’s take on African American Vernacular English and it’s place in Education.

References:

Ramanathan, V. (2005). The english-vernacular divide : postcolonial language politics and practice (Ser. Bilingual education and bilingualism, 49). Multilingual Matters.

Tagliamonte, S., & D’Arcy, A. (2009). Peaks beyond phonology: Adolescence, incrementation, and language change. Language, 85(1), 58-108. https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/5791997425

Van Herk, G. (2017) What is Sociolinguistics? Linguistics in the world. Wiley Blackwell.

Education and Poverty

Sabrina Chang

Being a bilingual or even multilingual person has become a norm in Taiwan lately. Parents are eager to have their children learn English as early as they can. One of the students I tutor is only 2 years old, cannot deliver Chinese sentences properly but knows what the “Statue of Liberty” is. Her mom is very anxious about her child getting behind other children of the same age so she asked me to teach her daughter English as much as I can. On the other hand, my sixth-grade student in a local school does not even know what an “airplane” is. They only learn English for two hours per week and have little contact with this language. Their parents are not able to provide a good language learning environment for them. What led to this phenomenon?

From my point of view, it is directly related to class and poverty. Parents who are more economically available want to immerse their children in a bilingual environment. Whether it is to hire a tutor for them or send them to cram schools, parents use whatever means they can to help their children get ahead of others. On the other hand, people who are in a lower class do not have as much choice. They work from 9 to 5 every day and have no extra money for their children to go to cram schools. It is not to say that children from lower classes have lower achievements than those from higher classes, however, they must be work twice as hard to reach the same height as them.

According to my students who are studying in international schools, most of them have one-on-one tutors who guide their homework at least once a week. Parents are willing to pay high salaries to teachers who are able to help their children improve. I have also asked my students in local schools whether they have tutors. The answer is, most of them do not. If you ask me whether these two groups of students have differences in terms of academic performance, I will have to say, absolutely. However, they do not have much choice, do they? Children living in poverty may have to make money as soon as they are old enough. While other children are doing their schoolwork and holding spring fairs, those children, especially girls, must stop going to school and make money so they have food to eat.

People always say, education ends poverty. But how is education going to be fair when children start at an unfair place from the moment they are born? How can teachers help students have an appropriate language learning environment when they have difficulties maintaining their basic needs?

References:

HOW DOES EDUCATION AFFECT POVERTY? IT CAN HELP END IT.

https://www.concernusa.org/story/how-education-affects-poverty/

Understanding the Connection Between Education and Poverty

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/poverty-education-satistics-facts/

China safeguards interests of children in poverty

https://archive.shine.cn/nation/China-safeguards-interests-of-children-in-poverty/shdaily.shtml

The impact of poverty on educational outcomes for children

http://ubitaiwan.org/zh/2018/07/16/the-impact-of-poverty-on-educational-outcomes-for-children/

Sociolinguistics Goes to School

Béatrice

“My monolingualism dwells, and I call it my dwelling; it feels like one to me, and I remain in it and inhabit it. It inhabits me.”Jacques Derrida.

One of the major changes that I have witnessed in the time since I was last in school, is the overwhelming air of acceptance pervasive on almost every level of socio-cultural behaviour. The education system has evolved, there is hope for humanity.

I’m a firm believer in EDUCATION. My family, my upbringing, it was, and still is, all about getting an education.

This brings me to the troublesome issue of Quebec French monolingualism.

It is about NOT getting an education.

Is education bringing real equity?

By Wei Yang

I finally start my blog 3 connecting to my blog 1 as I promised, but I have a lot of thoughts that I just can not put them all out into a tidy and neat blog.

We keep on saying that education is the only way for people who come from a low social class to get equal opportunity to fight for what they want, to live a life that the so called rich people can live. So we hope an educational system that is efficient, respects diversity, assists economic growth, provides accountability to citizens, and gives parents reasonable control over the values their children learn (Godwin & Kemerer, 2002). But the truth is with the huge gap between the rich and poor getting bigger and bigger, only a small number of people get benefits from education or only the people who can afford to go to good schools benefit from education.

Continue reading “Is education bringing real equity?”

Factors That Influence Language Acquisition

By Jia Pu

Inspired by one of the class discussions, I’d like to share my first post with you about the factors that influence my acquisition of a foreign language. Before that, I’ll briefly introduce my language biography.

I was born in southeast China, with Mandarin my first language. As the official language, Mandarin is taught by teachers since I entered kindergarten. But in fact, I speak Chengdu dialect more often, especially in my daily life because both my parents are local Chengdunese and they have a deep affection for our dialect. Then later, when I was in elementary school, English became a compulsory course from grade 3. Ever since then, English has always been an important part in my life because under the influence of globalization, Chinese government is making increasingly more efforts to popularize English nationwide.

Continue reading “Factors That Influence Language Acquisition”

Coco’s language biography

Cocoa Puffs

I was born in Beijing, China. My mother tongue is Mandarin. My parents speak Mandarin to me, and I speak Mandarin to my parents and my Chinese friends. I do not speak any dialect. However, since my great grandmother and my grandmother were originally from Hunan, a province in the southern part of China, they spoke one of the numerous dialects in Hunan. As I spent every holiday with my great grandmother and my grandmother when I was a little kid, I could understand the dialect in Hunan. Interestingly, my grandfather was not from Hunan. He came from Shandong, the northern part of China. When he spoke to my grandmother, he would use Mandarin, the language that I understood well. Unfortunately, I failed to speak any dialect. Nevertheless, when I met people from Hunan or Shandong provinces, I would proudly connect myself with them, and I was keen to learn more about the dialects because the dialects represent my heritage.

Continue reading “Coco’s language biography”