Exploring the complexity of linguistic minority students’ use of and attitudes toward everyday translanguaging practices

Abstract

This article examines Teochew-speaking learners of English as an example of linguistic minority students’ use of and attitudes toward everyday translanguaging practices. By conducting a series of semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study specifically examines students’ translanguaging process with their mother tongue – Teochew (L1), as well as Putonghua (L2), and other languages/dialects in various contexts, such as family, school, and the wider community. The findings indicate the various translanguaging practices but also reveal a decline and marginalization in Teochew across different generations. This paper argues for the need to preserve Teochew and other heritage languages and home dialects for inclusiveness of language practice. Moreover, translanguaging practices should also be viewed as key in readdressing issues such as power and identity in daily language use, and their importance must be recognized for educational purposes.

Reflections on language learning and social practice for language minority students

“…Schools, in particular, may take on the role of replacing languages rather than building expanded linguistic repertoires. Fang and Huang (2023) trace the plurilingual realities that result from the addition of the dominant language, but also observe the ways that a monolingual habitus impacts on language ideologies and perceptions of the value and worth of the other languages in speakers' repertoires positioning them as having lesser relevance, utility and/or prestige and thus undermining their legitimacy. Wang's (2023) paper is a reminder that the inclusion of a language in an educational space is not simply a linguistic phenomenon but also links to the ways that the meanings and knowledges created in and through the language are included or excluded.…”

“…Joo et al 's children who talk about language as enabling affiliation to different groups appear to be negotiating the complexities of belonging in their various communities and trying to integrate these identities, and do not seem to think in terms of the transcendent dimension that global citizenship represents. Fang and Huang (2023) examine the plurilingualism of minority language students in a context in which the dominant language, and a monolingual habitus associated with it, are exerting pressure of the maintenance of a local minority language. They examine the place of translanguaging by Teochew speakers in China and reveal the existence of translanguaging as a productive and significant way of using language(s) across a range of contexts including home, school, and the wider world.…”

Language learning for language minority students in a globalized world

“…The fifth article, by Fang and Huang (2023), is entitled Exploring the complexity of linguistic minority students' use of and attitudes toward everyday translanguaging practices. This work examines the complex use of translanguaging practices by Teochew-speaking learners in various contexts, including family, school, and wider communities.…”