Translanguaging Practices in Local Employees’ Negotiation to create Linguistic Space in a Multilingual Workplace

This study explores the language practices and beliefs of local employees at a Shanghai-based subsidiary of a German multinational company. We conducted a seven-month ethnographic study and collected data from the company’s publicly accessible documents, meeting transcripts, semi-structured interviews with five employees, and ethnographic notes. Qualitative data analysis revealed that local employees frequently utilized translanguaging practices despite the company’s implicit assumption that English would be used as the common corporate language. Four major translanguaging practices were identified: key terms in English, bilingual label quest, cross-language recapping, and cross-language alternation. In addition, local employees perceived language as both a resource and an obstacle, often engaging in translanguaging practices to establish their own linguistic and communicative spaces, indicating that translanguaging is a complex multilingual practice influenced by internal and external factors, subject to social milieu, personal language competence, and beliefs. Ultimately, this study extends the notion of translanguaging and probes its analytical benefits for understanding fluid and discursive activities in multilingual workplaces and the sustainability of linguistic ecology and knowledge dissemination.

Indonesian-English Code-Switching of Sacha Stevenson as a Canadian Bilingual Speaker on YouTube

Code-switching or language alternation is one of the linguistic strategies that is widely used in bilingual community, including Indonesia. This study attempts to find out the types and reasons of code-switching on YouTube as employed by a Canadian bilingual speaker, Sacha Stevenson. The data used for this study were transcripts of five videos about Indonesian culture taken from Sacha’s YouTube channel. Based on the analysis, there are a total of 313 occurrences of code-switching from Indonesian to English. Poplack’s theory (1980) was applied for the classification of code-switching. The findings showed that the most frequent type is inter-sentential code-switching (42%), followed by intra-sentential code-switching (34%), and the least is tag-switching (24%). This study also explored the reasons for code-switching by applying the theory proposed by Grosjean (1984). It was found that all code-switching occurrences fit into the 11 categorizations of code-switching reasons. This shows a variety of different factors that influence the use of code-switching. The most frequent reason which triggered code-switching is to fill a linguistic need for lexical item, set phrase, discourse marker, or sentence filler (31%). In addition to the 11 reasons proposed by Grojean (1984), another reason for code-switching was found, i.e., to gain popularity.

The influence of context on language alternation practices in English as a lingua franca

This paper scrutinizes language alternation practices in different settings where English is predominantly used as the lingua franca (ELF). Data from different interactional contexts are examined: academic interactions from the ELFA corpus, doctoral defense discussions (also from the ELFA corpus), and informal family interactions. Corpus, discourse and conversation analytic methods and ethnographic information are used in analyzing these spoken data. I argue that translanguaging in lingua franca contexts is not only affected by speakers’ repertoire or the linguistic setting, but that there is a complex web of individual, interpersonal, group-related, and discourse environmental aspects which play their part in whether and to which extent speakers alternate languages in spoken ELF communication.

Bilingual newspapers as sites of multilingual practice

This paper discusses multilingualism in three publications aimed at bilingual communities in Britain: speakers of Russian, Greek and Tagalog. Despite the fact that the editorial content in such publications is almost completely monolingual, they are sites rich in multilingual written practices. The focus here is on display advertisements, which make up a large part of these publications. The paper looks at what language mixing practices are present, and what insights they may give into the nature of bilingualism in the community of intended readers. I identify two types of language alternation: in-line alternation involves integrating words from two different languages within one textual unit. Compositional alternation involves juxtaposing units in two (or more) different languages within a more complex visually delimited text, such as a display advertisement. While the advertisements themselves are good examples of multilingual writing, the mixing of languages itself is unremarkable and unremarked. Content in one language is rarely translated into another, while at the same time ‘seamless’ switches from one language to another are common. The advertisements in these publications seem to reflect the language competences and literacies of their intended readerships, where the ability to read more than one language (though to different extents) is taken as given.

Writing in L2: Norwegian Students’ Use of Translanguaging at the Draft Stage

This study explores Norwegian students’ use of translanguaging at the draft stage of writing in English (L2). 37 drafts containing language alternation were analyzed using the proposed integrated framework of translanguaging and pragmatic code-switching. The analysis showed that the students’ uses of translanguaging range from a strategic juxtaposition of linguistic elements fulfilling certain socio-pragmatic functions, to highly flexible language alternation with the aim of generating content or experimenting with one’s linguistic repertoire. Based on the results, the study argues for the utility of the integrated framework of translanguaging and code-switching in answering the call for more empirical research on written form(s) of translanguaging in mainstream multilingual language classrooms.

Language choice in peer interactions and the role of peers in minority language maintenance

Drawing on the positioning theory and the conditions for language use, this article examines Vietnamese ethnic minority students’ language choice in interactions with their same-ethnicity and majority peers, focusing particularly on their communication motives underlying this choice. Findings suggest that in regulating their language alternation practices across peer groups in different contexts, the students shifted their participation status – from aligning (being alike) to disaligning (being distinct) – to (re)position themselves in relation to their peers. As their desires for alignment or disalignment were either supported or disrupted by their peers, peer attitudes played a critical role in providing opportunities and encouraging minority students’ willingness to use their L1 in school and ethnic community spaces. Implications are suggested for engaging peer support as a resource for maintaining or widening L1 use among young minority people in both of the domains.

Exploring the Code-Switching Behaviours of Chilean EFL High School Teachers: A Function-Focused Approach

The present study sought to assess and characterise the amount of first language use that two English as a foreign language teachers used to accomplish a number of functions in two classroom modes. An adapted version of the Functional Language Alternation Analysis of Teacher Talk scheme was used to analyse teacher talk in six English as a foreign language classes at a public high school. Results showed that the first language holds a hegemonic presence in these classrooms across a wide range of pedagogical functions. It is argued that initiatives that present prescriptive approaches to foreign language use need to take into account linguistic, contextual, and idiosyncratic factors in the English as a foreign language classroom.