Translanguaging in a Japanese research context:
Collaborative autoethnographic insights into language affordances and limitations
Theron Muller
Waseda University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Japan
John L. Adamson
University of Niigata Prefecture, International Studies & Regional Development, Japan
Introduction
Translanguaging
Collaborative autoethnography (CAE)
Methods
CAE (Chang et al. 2013; Adamson & Muller, 2024)
Data
CAE Texts:
(Muller & Adamson, forthcoming)
(Muller & Salem, forthcoming)
Findings: Insights from our CAE texts
Pedagogical practices and local norms of translanguaging
John (2018) “I adhere to a multilingual policy as our language and content classes are not to prepare students for the academic norms of a western university. In this sense, local norms of practice can be exercised… When our university first opened in 2009, we conducted research with [Japanese EMI] content teachers, which showed us that they wanted students with not only English proficiency to the level where they could understand lectures and take part in seminars, but also Japanese academic skills … intermixed with those English skills."
Reflections
→ De-centering of monolingual pedagogy = from exclusion (monolingualism) to inclusion (translanguaging), although these aren’t binary categories
→ ‘recognizing’ students’ biliteracy competences (Block, 2018; Gentil, 2017) but outside
the classroom in institutional discourse = monolingual Japanese expected
Findings: Insights from our CAE texts
Institutional policies at odds: Pointing outward, pushing inward
Theron (2024): Requirements for ethical approval of English grant application to be submitted in Japanese, little institutional support:
… after I received my kaken grant, the first step was to apply for human research ethics approval through the University of Toyama. As my grant application was in English, the initial documents I submitted used the English from my grant application in the Japanese form. However, the ethics review office [...] said that the forms needed to be submitted in Japanese.
Reflections
→ Institutional language policy promotes writing and publishing in English, but requires underlying paperwork be submitted in Japanese
→ Language policy structures lack coherence (Mačianskienė, 2011)
Synthesis:
Reflection Questions
References
Adamson, J. L. & Muller, T. J. (2024). Collaborative autoethnography in applied linguistics: Reflecting on research practice. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 285, 155-178. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2023-0001
Block, D. (2018). The political economy of language education research (or the lack thereof): Nancy Fraser and the case of translanguaging. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. 15(4), 237–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2018.1466300
Chang, H., Ngunjiri, F. W. & Hernandez, K-A. C. (2013). Collaborative Autoethnography. Left Coast Press Inc.
Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94, 103-115. http://doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00986.x
Gentil, G. (2017). Afterword: Moving Forward with Academic Biliteracy Research. In D. M. Palfreyman & C. van der Walt (Eds.) Academic Biliteracies: Multilingual Repertories in Higher Education. (pp. 206 - 220). Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters.
Mačianskienė, N. (2011). Developing institutional language Policy. Coactivity: Philology, Educology/Santalka: Filologija, Edukologija, 19(2), 158-167.
Muller, T.J. & Adamson, J.L. (forthcoming). Translanguaging in writing for academic and publication purposes: Autoethnographic insights from the Japanese tertiary context. In B. Goodman & B. Seilstad (eds.). Researching Multilingually: Conceptual and Methodological Failures, Struggles, and Successes. (pp. 73-98). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Muller, T. J. & Salem, A. (forthcoming). Language and identity in the writing and publication process in the Japanese context: trans-speakerism and knowledge production. In T. Hiratsuka (Ed.), Trans-speakerism: A collection of empirical explorations.
Wang-Hiles, L. (2023) Promoting multilingualism at university writing centers: International students’ perceptions of non-native English-speaking writing tutors and the employment of their native languages in tutoring. In K. Raza, D. Reynolds and C. Coombe (Eds.) Handbook of Multilingual TESOL in Practice (pp. 85–98). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9350-3_6
Zheng, Y., & Guo, X. (2019). Publishing in and about English: challenges and opportunities of Chinese multilingual scholars’ language practices in academic publishing. Language Policy, 18(1), 107–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9464-8