Troubling translanguaging: language ideologies, superdiversity and interethnic conflict
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Panayiota Charalambous
Panayiota Charalambous is a Adjunct Lecturer at the Open University and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. Her research centers around the study of linguistic and cultural practices in education in divided societies. She has conducted research in literature and literacy practices, foreign language learning and peace education and has published her work in various peer-reviewed journals. In the past she has worked as a researcher in various Cypriot and European projects and as a teacher training on related topics.
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Constadina Charalambous
Constadina Charalambous is a Lecturer of Language Education & Literacy at the European University of Cyprus. Her research interests include language education, interactional sociolinguistics, peace education, and more specifically language learning in contexts of conflict. She has conducted research on peace education initiatives and Turkish-language classes in Cyprus and has been involved in teacher-training seminars. She has published a number of articles in relevant scientific journals.
Michalinos Zembylas is Associate Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. He is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation tosocial justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education.
Abstract
This paper looks at how histories of conflict and ideologies of language as a bounded entity mapped onto a homogeneous nation impact on attempts of translanguaging in the classroom in the conflict-affected context of Greek-Cypriot education. Drawing on ethnographic data from a highly diverse primary school, this study examines how nationalist understandings of language and belonging affect the ways in which a group of Turkish-speaking students of Pontian and Turkish-Bulgarian backgrounds relate to their Turkish-speakerness in classroom interaction. The findings show that, despite the multilingual and hybrid realities of this particular school, in formal educational practices Turkish-speaking students kept a low profile as to their Turkish-speakerness. Even when the teacher encouraged translanguaging practices and a public display of students’ competence in the Turkish language, this was met with inarticulateness and emotional troubles, fuelled by a fear that ‘speaking Turkish’ could be taken as ‘being Turkish’. In discussing these findings, the paper points to the impact that different overlapping histories of ethnonationalist conflict have on translanguaging practices in education; in our case by associating Turkishness with the ‘enemy group’ and socializing children within essentialist assumptions about language and national belonging. The paper argues that in this case the discourses of conflict create unfavourable ecologies for hybrid linguistic practices, which ultimately suppress creative polylingual performances.
About the authors
Panayiota Charalambous is a Adjunct Lecturer at the Open University and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. Her research centers around the study of linguistic and cultural practices in education in divided societies. She has conducted research in literature and literacy practices, foreign language learning and peace education and has published her work in various peer-reviewed journals. In the past she has worked as a researcher in various Cypriot and European projects and as a teacher training on related topics.
Constadina Charalambous is a Lecturer of Language Education & Literacy at the European University of Cyprus. Her research interests include language education, interactional sociolinguistics, peace education, and more specifically language learning in contexts of conflict. She has conducted research on peace education initiatives and Turkish-language classes in Cyprus and has been involved in teacher-training seminars. She has published a number of articles in relevant scientific journals.
Michalinos Zembylas is Associate Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. He is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation tosocial justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education.
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Sociolinguistics in a languagised world: Introduction
- Lingoing, language labels and metrolingual practices
- Learning to live with “Languages”
- Language learning, polylanguaging and speaker perspectives
- Troubling translanguaging: language ideologies, superdiversity and interethnic conflict
- Between ideologies and realities: Multilingual competence in a languagised world
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Sociolinguistics in a languagised world: Introduction
- Lingoing, language labels and metrolingual practices
- Learning to live with “Languages”
- Language learning, polylanguaging and speaker perspectives
- Troubling translanguaging: language ideologies, superdiversity and interethnic conflict
- Between ideologies and realities: Multilingual competence in a languagised world
