Chapter 6 Translanguaging and language play
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Evgeniia Iurinok
Abstract
Recent research on translanguaging has shifted its focus towards a heteroglossic perspective, addressing particularly the issue of language play through translanguaging. However, the scope of such research is still mainly limited to translanguaging practices in content rather than language classes. This study contributes to this field by exploring how two groups of Catalan and Spanish bilingual adult students deploy translanguaging to entertain themselves and others in a Russian language classroom. Data collected through fieldwork in the academic year 2021-2022 evince that some students translanguage for fun - playing with word forms, semantic and pragmatic meanings. Such translanguaging in the classroom opens up opportunities for students to reveal their multilingual and multicultural identities, and show their linguistic awareness. Translanguaging in language play also helps students to memorize lexical units and diffuse tense situations in the classroom, creating a comfortable atmosphere which presumably facilitates language learning. Observations demonstrate that the main languages that students turn to in the classroom are their native languages. They rarely use additional languages common for the majority of them. English is occasionally drawn on, while French never is. This seems to be the most interesting outcome of this study contributing to the theory and practice of translanguaging since it provides evidence that the linguistic repertoire is not fully deployed by the students in classroom discourse. Nevertheless, there is need for further research to answer whether individual differences between students, the typological distance between Russian and additional languages, or competence in additional languages are the key factors leading to such results.
Abstract
Recent research on translanguaging has shifted its focus towards a heteroglossic perspective, addressing particularly the issue of language play through translanguaging. However, the scope of such research is still mainly limited to translanguaging practices in content rather than language classes. This study contributes to this field by exploring how two groups of Catalan and Spanish bilingual adult students deploy translanguaging to entertain themselves and others in a Russian language classroom. Data collected through fieldwork in the academic year 2021-2022 evince that some students translanguage for fun - playing with word forms, semantic and pragmatic meanings. Such translanguaging in the classroom opens up opportunities for students to reveal their multilingual and multicultural identities, and show their linguistic awareness. Translanguaging in language play also helps students to memorize lexical units and diffuse tense situations in the classroom, creating a comfortable atmosphere which presumably facilitates language learning. Observations demonstrate that the main languages that students turn to in the classroom are their native languages. They rarely use additional languages common for the majority of them. English is occasionally drawn on, while French never is. This seems to be the most interesting outcome of this study contributing to the theory and practice of translanguaging since it provides evidence that the linguistic repertoire is not fully deployed by the students in classroom discourse. Nevertheless, there is need for further research to answer whether individual differences between students, the typological distance between Russian and additional languages, or competence in additional languages are the key factors leading to such results.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction to heteroglossia and language play in multilingual speech 1
- Chapter 2 Getting serious about language play: Language play, interlanguage variation and second language acquisition 17
- Chapter 3 Voice, stance, and role in Chinese immersion second graders’ language use 43
- Chapter 4 Escríbalo en tu own words, güey 67
- Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom 91
- Chapter 6 Translanguaging and language play 117
- Chapter 7 Language play and social positioning in L2 narrative retells 137
- Chapter 8 Channeling Charlie: Suprasegmental pronunciation in a second language learner’s performance of others’ voices 161
- Chapter 9 Coda: Pedagogical implications and applications for language play beyond second/foreign language learning 191
- Subject Index 205
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction to heteroglossia and language play in multilingual speech 1
- Chapter 2 Getting serious about language play: Language play, interlanguage variation and second language acquisition 17
- Chapter 3 Voice, stance, and role in Chinese immersion second graders’ language use 43
- Chapter 4 Escríbalo en tu own words, güey 67
- Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom 91
- Chapter 6 Translanguaging and language play 117
- Chapter 7 Language play and social positioning in L2 narrative retells 137
- Chapter 8 Channeling Charlie: Suprasegmental pronunciation in a second language learner’s performance of others’ voices 161
- Chapter 9 Coda: Pedagogical implications and applications for language play beyond second/foreign language learning 191
- Subject Index 205
