Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2017

Whilst contributing to a person’s language, cognitive and personal development and whilst a common practice in the daily lives of bilinguals, translanguaging is rarely observed in educational institutions. The present paper examines the situations and the ways in which preschool children in trilingual Luxembourg translanguage during collaborative storytelling on iTEO, an iPad app which allows for the recording and editing of oral language. Currently 62.4% of children do not speak Luxembourgish on school entry. Language policies focus on the learning of Luxembourgish. This, the small class sizes and the absence of peers with similar language backgrounds may limit the opportunities for translanguaging. The present qualitative, longitudinal study takes a mixed-method approach. The findings show that the 5 focus children in preschool translanguaged frequently, in different ways and for a range of purposes, while drawing on features of several languages. The process of translanguaging depended on the individual child and on contextual factors. We argue that storytelling on iTEO opens up safe translanguaging spaces that contribute to inclusive multilingual pedagogies.

This paper investigates translanguaging practices and pedagogy with very young children in the trilingual country of Luxembourg. Recent research has shown that in early childhood education in Luxembourg there is a focus on Luxembourgish to the exclusion of other languages and that this appears to exclude children with foreign language backgrounds from everyday institutional life. Our research asks how and in which forms can a translanguaging pedagogy offer young multilingual children opportunities to engage in literacy practices. Our empirical qualitative pilot study carried out among children aged 2 to 6 in Luxembourgish early childhood programs clarifies forms of translanguaging when instruction is accompanied by pictures and reading in German. The findings suggest that gesture and body language are part of translanguaging, providing multiple resources that enable the young multilingual learner to make meaning.

The study reported in this article aimed at exploring the impact of pluralistic pedagogy practices on L3/Ln learners’ reading and writing abilities in a multilingual classroom. Students attended an Intensive Elementary Italian course. The prerequisite to register for this course was knowledge of at least one other Romance Language or previous exposure to the Italian language. Specifically, the investigation examined whether and how the plurilingual system of these learners could affect the development of the language abilities mentioned above. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaires and more traditional tests: a writing test and a reading test with a gradual increase in complexity. The results showed that a plurilingual pedagogy facilitated positive interlingual transfers, and consequently the development of both language abilities, particularly writing. It also appeared that connections between reading and writing were established, that is, the improvement of students’ writing skills affected reading comprehension and not vice versa. The development of these language abilities also seemed to be affected by other variables such as the proficiency level of languages present in learners’ plurilingual repertoire. To conclude, possible implications for language teaching/learning are discussed.

This study explores the issue of non-native speakers writing a text in their first language (L1) and then translating the text to the second language (L2) to enhance the final text in L2. Writing samples taken from 25 Iranian engineering students in an intermediate level compulsory general English as a foreign language class served as data. The students were provided with a form which instructed them to write their first essay in Farsi (L1) and then translate it into the foreign language, English. The compositions were suggested to be two paragraphs long to provide enough text to analyze. The second composition done by the same group of students a week later on a second topic was written directly in the target language (English). Each student’s work was evaluated in detail using a rating scale divided into two main sections, writing skills and effective writing. This study showed that intermediate level EFL students writing in L1 and then using a translation strategy did not produce better writing samples in L2 than when they wrote directly in L2.

Translanguaging is an emergent concept in bi/multilingualism and language education. It refers to discursive practices where multiple languages are used by plurilingual individuals as an integrated linguistic repertoire ( García and Li Wei 2014 ). This study focuses on the use of translanguaging in a group discussion in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom at a Japanese university, where Japanese students and one Arabic student talked in three Japanese and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The study examined why (the function) and how (the process) the participants translanguaged from Japanese to ELF in this particular context. During a forty-minute discussion, the participants spoke in Japanese most of the time, and ELF was used for less than ten minutes in total, especially between a Japanese and an Arabic speaker. Based on Gumperz (1982) and Klimpfinger (2007) , four functions of translanguaging were identified: (1) addressee specification, (2) assertion, (3) clarification and (4) appealing for linguistic assistance. The process of translanguaging was also examined in relation to turn-taking structure. The results show that the use of response tokens in ELF and meta-linguistic comments functioned as cues for translanguaging. In so doing, the participants co-constructed a translanguaging space.

This paper explores how racial slurs are dealt with in Anglo-American films and rendered in films dubbed in Italian. It focuses on the racist epithets ‘nigger’, ‘gook’ and ‘zipper head’ with a view to unveiling the linguistic choices made by Italian audiovisual translators. Furthermore, it supports the claim that taboo topics vary from culture to culture and sheds some light on self-censorship, which has allegedly shifted from sexual and religious topics to ethnic slurs ( Allan and Burridge 2006 ; Hughes 2006 ). In some cases the analysis reveals a wide spectrum of translation choices accompanied by subtle linguistic manipulations. In other cases translation choices tend to be fixed owing to the limited range of corresponding slurs in Italian. Also, the paper discusses self-censorship in contemporary Anglo-American films. In this regard, it is observed that ‘the n-word’ has characterized the majority of Anglo-American films since 2000 and has hallmarked a shift in self-censorship. The final question that this paper addresses is whether Italian culture is ready or not for this change.