Volume 17, Issue 2 - Special Issue: From Translanguing to Transknowledging; Guest Editors: Yang Song and Angel M. Y. Lin

Linguistic norms and meta-norms involve reward and punishment, which typically take the form of emotional-moral judgments of praise and blame, respectively. The intensity of the “drive for cooperation and a drive to serve punishments” (Damasio, A. 2005. The neurobiological grounding of human values. In J.-P. Changeux, A. R. Damasio, W. Singer & Y. Christian (eds.), Neurobiology of human values , 47–56. Springer Verlag) is functional in maintaining and policing the boundaries of a linguistic community by enforcing the social obligation to talk in the ‘right’ way. Against this backdrop, I consider Gregory Bateson’s discussion of the selectivity of purposeful consciousness and its inbuilt value biases. I examine some examples of transitivity patterns to illustrate the problems that arise in relation to patterns of thinking such as “language use” and “speaking a named language.” Alternatively, the idea that we use or speak a language must be replaced with a view founded in communication, seen as the mutual integration of activities by the co-participants in communicative activities. On this basis, we can re-consider communicative competencies and their implications for learning and the role of languaging in learning and in communicative processes more generally.

The purpose of this article is to offer a historiographical account and theoretical perspective of transknowledging as central to ‘multilingualisms,’ intimately connected with communality and humanity in plural societies. This discussion continues earlier work that identifies transknowledging as one of three major characteristics of southern multilingualisms: (i) plural, multidimensional multilingualisms purposefully used for specific functions (Heugh 1999. Languages, development and reconstructing education in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development 19(4-5). 301–313); (ii) expression and exertion of linguistic agency and voice, i.e., ‘linguistic citizenship’ (Stroud 2001. African mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: Linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22(4). 339–355); and (iii) reciprocal exchange and translation of knowledge, i.e., ‘transknowledging’ (Heugh 2021. Southern multilingualisms, translanguaging and transknowledging in inclusive and sustainable education. In P. Harding-Esch & H. Coleman (eds.), Language and the sustainable development goals , 37–47. British Council). Southern multilingualisms with their triangular balance of characteristics occur alongside or intersect with several further sets of equibalanced triangular associations that have underpinned human societies for millennia. These include epistemologies, cosmologies and ontologies; logos, ethos and pathos; pasts, presents and futures. Missing from many discussions of linguistic plurality has been recognition of the triangular relationality of transknowledging alongside linguistic citizenship and the multidimensionality and plurality of multilingualisms. Recognising the importance of keeping these relationalities and pluralities in balance as central to homo sapiens amans and convivial societies has consequences for how educators and linguists weigh the ethos, pathos and logos of their work.

This paper examines how translanguaging and transknowledging manifest in the research-paper writing process of pre-university international students as English language learners in a Canadian EAP program. A wealth of research has documented the challenges these students face in learning the conventions of English academic writing. More recent research has explored the potential of translanguaging in writing pedagogy; however, we argue that current research has yet to fully enact the decolonizing agenda underlying translanguaging as a movement, that is, to dissolve monolingual ideologies and hegemonic structures and to allow for transknowledging that represents the diverse ways of knowing circulating within the EAP classroom. Drawing on the concept of assemblage, data from one student composing a source-based research paper is presented to highlight the presence of translanguaging and transknowledging in their work, as well as the threat of transgression that demarcates which languages and knowledge are permitted. We conclude with methodological and pedagogical recommendations to disrupt conventional logic in how translanguaging research and practice can serve to create more globally inclusive educational spaces.

The study examines the classroom practices of four STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers in an EMI higher education programme in China, investigating how they utilise diverse language resources to recalibrate epistemic frameworks in a knowledge (co)construction process. Drawing on class observations and interviews, the study moves beyond the flexibility of language use in EMI lessons to explore the intricate relationships between languages, semiotics, and knowledge systems in EMI teaching. The findings reveal that EMI teachers employed varied translanguaging strategies to facilitate knowledge co-construction, leveraging teachers’ and students’ existing knowledge as valuable learning resources. The epistemic diversity of bilingual teachers and students was recognised as an asset, breeding opportunities for knowledge development with a glocal grounding in EMI. Nonetheless, the study also highlights the need for greater support in raising teachers’ critical awareness of the ideologies underlying EMI and enhancing recognition of the transknowledging value of translanguaging pedagogy.

Higher-degree teacher-researchers confront problems in demonstrating to university-appointed thesis examiners their capabilities for using 英语 (Yīngyǔ, ‘English language’) in critical discussions that contribute to advances in knowledge. A taken-for-granted solution to this challenge uses methods of critical discussion produced in 英语 (Yīngyǔ) to contribute to knowledge in 英语 (Yīngyǔ). Early childhood teacher-researchers recognise that collaborative research is a strategic professional learning activity for addressing complex, ambiguous problems, and requires openness to novel experiences and the open-minded pursuit of original contributions to knowledge. This study questions the exclusivity of 英语 (Yīngyǔ)- only Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) to explore the potential of integrating translanguaging and transknowledging into critical discussions through research methods that contribute to knowledge. This study analyses the logic of teacher-research practices for contributing to knowledge through critical discussions of the exclusionary use of 英语 (Yīngyǔ). Evidence of three interrelated fields of power governing the teacher-researcher’s systemic disposition for critical discussion is subjected to relational analysis. Working with postmonolingual thinking tools, higher-degree teacher-researchers can exercise epistemic resistance in their critical discussions of the tensions between state-induced multilingualism and state-driven monolingualism to contribute to transknowledging.

Emotions are gaining increasing attention due to their significant roles in language learning. Although prior research has emphasized the potential for the co-occurrence of emotions within individuals, understanding how this co-occurrence varies among language learners remains limited. This study employs latent profile analysis to identify emotional patterns that emerge among foreign language (FL) learners based on three prevalent emotions: enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom. Control-value theory is applied to explore control and value appraisals as antecedents of emotional profiles, with engagement and achievement as the outcomes of interest. A total of 1,151 Chinese high school EFL learners participated in the study, with data collected via a composite questionnaire. Statistical analysis identified three distinct emotional profiles: mixed, positive, and negative, with the majority of students classified under the mixed profile. Students with higher perceived control and value were more likely to belong to the positive emotional profiles compared to mixed and negative ones. Furthermore, students in positive emotional profiles demonstrated higher levels of engagement and achievement. By implication, language educators and stakeholders are encouraged to acknowledge the differences in student emotions and to explore ways to enhance control and value appraisals as a means to improve emotional well-being and learning outcomes.

Linguistic landscape (LL) studies explore how public spaces mediate cultural, social, and economic practices through semiotic resources. While prior research has emphasized top-down regulated heritage sites and globalized retail spaces, the LLs of everyday leisure venues, especially cafés in mid-sized Chinese cities, remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating the linguistic landscapes of independent cafés in Suzhou through an integrated framework combining discursive frames, thematic abstraction, and discourse itineraries. Drawing on municipal policy texts, news reports, ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and photographic documentation, this study identifies three overlapping discursive frames: resilient alienation, heritage commodification, and emotional self- and interpersonal care. These frames illuminate how multilingual signage, online catchphrases, poetic expressions, calligraphic scripts, and spatial design are appropriated by policymakers, café owners and consumers to critically or compliantly engage with overwork culture, aestheticize heritage, and cultivate care-oriented connection. Importantly, these discursive frames are not isolated; they intersect and are shaped by multiple agents in contingent ways at the online-offline nexus. This study contributes to LL research by extending attention to semiotic processes in everyday commercial settings and demonstrating how emotional, cultural, and socio-economic discourses become spatially and symbolically entangled. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed at the end.

The COVID 19 pandemic emergency is over; however, the impacts of pandemic-related discrimination on child development are unclear. This mixed-methods research aimed to understand Chinese Dual Language Learners’ (DLLs’) Chinese-English bilingual vocabulary development in the face of discrimination. Specifically, it examined the interrelationships among COVID-related and Pre-COVID discrimination, person-, home-, community-, and school-level literacy factors, and language and Chinese DLL’s bilingual vocabulary profiles. Data were gathered via a questionnaire survey with 162 parents and semi-structured interviews with 10 parents. Thematic analysis, latent profile analysis, and multinomial logistic regression modeling were conducted. It was found that Chinese DLLs had diverse bilingual vocabulary profiles ranging from Balanced High, to Chinese Dominant, or English Dominant, or Balanced Low. Furthermore, Pre-COVID discrimination was a risk factor for Chinese DLLs to develop Balanced High bilingual vocabulary profile, while a child’s interest in reading Chinese, father’s Chinese proficiency, interactive activities in English, weekend school attendance were resilience factors associated with Balanced High biliteracy profile. The major implications are that Chinese DLLs should not be treated as a homogenous group; and that it really takes collective efforts for Chinese DLLs to develop linguistic resilience against historical discrimination.

Continuation writing efficiently enhances language learning, particularly vocabulary learning. This study focuses on the under-researched role of gloss language and alignment in continuation writing. Three groups of L2 learners read an incomplete story with L1, L2, or L1 & L2 glosses. After reading, they completed the story and underwent unanticipated vocabulary tests. A delayed posttest was administered after ten days. Results revealed that gloss language significantly influenced alignment and vocabulary learning, but its influence on alignment differed across different types of words. Furthermore, gloss languages and alignment played different roles in vocabulary learning in continuation writing. It was found that in meaning recall, gloss language not only affected lexical learning directly, but also indirectly through alignment. In form recognition, gloss language had no direct influence on vocabulary learning but indirectly affected it entirely via alignment.

The study aimed to address a research gap pertaining to establishing the role of personality traits in foreign language learning. Particularly, the aim of this paper was to examine the link between the personality trait of Conscientiousness and the L2 willingness to communicate, when mediated by language anxiety, and moderated by gender. The participants were 590 secondary school students whose responses to a questionnaire allowed to test a moderated mediation model, assessing language anxiety as a mediator, and gender as a moderator in the Conscientiousness-L2 WTC link. The established results suggest that the positive link between Conscientiousness and L2 WTC is slightly weakened with the mediation of language anxiety, being negatively related to language anxiety, that, in turn, negatively predicts L2 WTC. Moreover, the link under consideration is strongly moderated by gender, which proves that conscientious females are more willing to communicate in a foreign language, in spite of the influence of language anxiety. This research can be regarded a significant step towards a better understanding of the direct and indirect effect of personality traits on FL-specific factors.

This study investigates the correlation of hate speech and self-victimisation by focusing on below-the-line (BTL) comments on Ukrainians in Polish news articles and blogs. The comments analysed were posted between 20/04/2020 and 19/04/2021 and therefore before the Russian invasion in February 2022. The analysis was based on two corpora, one representative and one tailored corpus, and a two-tier methodology with a quantitative and a qualitative phase. The quantitative phase was conducted on Sketch Engine, and it focused on identifying and extracting a self-victimisation trope through the lexemes we-they, victim, Pole, Ukrainian . The qualitative phase focused on the BTL comments’ general sentiment towards Ukrainians. Two software packages were used, MultiEmo and HateSpeech (CLARIN-PL), and the respective results were compared. The findings show that on average 30 % of the comments feature negative sentiment, but not hate speech per se, however the self-victimisation trope is notable and worthy of further investigation. Recommendations are provided to fine-tune the software and increase manual annotation in follow-up studies.

This paper centres on the dilemmas of situated ethics in the context of participatory ethnography, while making a case for an ethics of care in applied linguistic research in situations of conflict. We discuss encounters in which the requirements of ethics approval challenged ethical subjectivity and the participatory process. While exploring Ukrainian students’ homemaking on the internationalised campus against the background of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the authors placed themselves alongside the student co-researchers as subjects of the same process of knowledge production and ethical care. Relinquishing academic researchers’ control resulted in a tension between two aspects of ethical research. The personal ethical imperative to treat the non-academic researchers’ experience responsibly was at odds with the universal commitment to minimising the risk for all participants. Instead of managing risks through forms of institutional governance, project participants co-created a space for the affective agency concerning their wartime experience, finding ways to narrate how they lived through fear, loss, and grief. This contributed to integrating their experience in newly negotiated life-trajectories. Our analysis centres on the ways in which ethical dilemmas were negotiated in all participants’ intersubjectivities through the participatory process, reflexivity, and a situated care ethics.

Despite intensive research on English academic writing, few studies compare how English-as-a-first-language (L1) and English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) writers conceptualise the task rather than simply perform it. Addressing this gap, this study surveyed 458 UK postgraduate students (258 EAL, 200 L1) from eight research-led universities using a Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) prompt (“Academic writing is like…because…”) and followed up with 45 metaphor-checking interviews. Inductive coding of metaphor entries generated four overarching themes. Two revealed clear language-group contrasts: EAL writers framed difficulty as external precision or gatekeeping, whereas L1 peers emphasised internal struggle and self-expression. The other two themes – an affective arc from struggle to catharsis and a constructive blueprint of building, crafting, and journeying – were strikingly similar across groups. These patterns extend CMT by showing how positionality in Anglophone knowledge networks shapes source-domain choice, yet also corroborate academic-literacies claims that cognitive, rhetorical, and emotional demands transcend native-speaker status. The study thus offers an integrated lens for theorising academic-writing cognition and lays a conceptual foundation for more equitable support strategies.

Linguistic landscapes are an important part of a lived space, and the social semiotics of rural linguistic landscapes can reveal the everyday social practices of Chinese peasants. In this paper, the first researcher, a native born and brought up in an average Chinese inland village, conducted an ethnographic study of the rural linguistic landscapes in his hometown village. Walking through the village, using observation, photography and interviews with villagers, enabled him to collect rich data of the characteristics of these linguistic landscapes. This data reveals the current Chinese peasants’ lived space-times – chronotopes, including their business practices, which are embedded in the traditional and usually harmonious interpersonal relationships that ground their everyday life. Modernity and mobility represented by the language signs signal that rural revitalization is taking place in this space. Other chronotopes identified in these linguistic landscapes relate to rural governance, village democracy and leadership of rural revitalization. This paper contributes to scholarly understanding of chronotopes and China’s rural revitalization and suggests that the villagers’ construction of rural linguistic landscapes needs to be actively supported by local authorities to bring about sustainable rural revitalization.

Under the influence of economic globalization, many globalizing companies are seeking for overseas markets and sending employees to a host workplace as business expatriates. Although extant studies have explored issues relating to business expatriates’ cross-cultural practices, insufficient attention has been given to them from the perspective of the interplay of their translanguaging practices, agency, and their transpositioning. In this study, a cohort of Chinese business expatriates’ language/communication experiences in Singapore are examined, and in-depth interviews conducted to collect data for this paper. It is found that, although these business expatriates preferred to maintain their Chinese positioning, they have actively exercised agency and utilized translanguaging practices to achieve transpositioning and effective business communication. The collected data and its implications inform our suggestions for globalizing companies and business expatriates. This study provides insights into the translanguaging practices and transpositioning of business expatriates, contributing to transnational business communication research and offering language policy suggestions for globalizing enterprises.

This multinational study sought to uncover the complex relationships among bilingual learners’ self-efficacy, speaking embarrassment, speaking anxiety, and willingness to communicate (WTC) in second and foreign language (L2) classrooms. Using maximum variation sampling, data were collected from 736 bilingual learners across China, Iran, and Kuwait, ensuring a diverse representation of cultural and linguistic contexts. A serial mediation model was used to examine whether speaking embarrassment and speaking anxiety mediate the relationship between self-efficacy and WTC. The results showed that learners’ self-efficacy was strongly associated with their WTC. More importantly, speaking embarrassment and anxiety significantly mediated this relationship – both independently and sequentially – with higher self-efficacy reducing speaking embarrassment, which in turn lowered speaking anxiety, ultimately leading to greater WTC. Notably, the observed patterns were consistent across the three bilingual contexts, highlighting the cross-cultural robustness of these findings. Theoretically, the study extends the pyramid model of WTC by demonstrating how enduring personal traits like self-efficacy interact with transient affective states, such as embarrassment and anxiety, to shape bilingual L2 learners’ communicative behavior. Practically, the results point to the need for pedagogical interventions that simultaneously strengthen L2 learners’ self-efficacy and alleviate their negative emotional experiences, ultimately enhancing their tendency to speak in the target language.