Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Translanguaging as Everyday Practice pp 69–86Cite as

Translanguaging in a Birmingham Chinese Complementary School: Ideology and Identity

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 28))

Abstract

Translanguaging practice in contexts of ethnic language education has called more attention from sociolinguistic researchers in the past decade. It has been empirically proved as a ‘basic norm’ of multilingualism in such contexts. This chapter aims to discuss translanguaging practices with data from a linguistic ethnographic (LE) case study on a large Chinese complementary school (CCS) in Birmingham, England. The study investigates multilingual practices of adult participants in and around the school, focusing on the changing constructions of language ideology, Chinese teachers’ professional identities and the ethnic identification of Chineseness. It documents the impact of social mobility and superdiversity on the shifting relations among Chinese language varieties and English within and around the CCS. A 10-month-fieldwork for the study was conducted in 2013–14 academic year, with audio-recorded and noted observations and interviews as dominant methods for data collection. Findings show that (1) translanguaging is preferably chosen by a group of Chinese Putonghua (Mandarin) teachers as a pedagogy to construct and negotiate a flexible English-Chinese bilingualism related to the ideology of ‘language as profit’; (2) these teachers dynamically draw linguistic resources from English and Mandarin and other semiotic signs (e.g. body languages, images, tones, etc.) to perform professional identities in terms of professionality and transnational flexibility; (3) translanguaging practices on a school board meeting reveal new local discourses of Chineseness orientating to a ‘new Chinese voice’. In conclusion, a CCS is by nature a translanguaging space where multilingual Chinese migrants creatively use various communicative resources to generate, negotiate and reconcile certain preferable ideologies and identities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Cantonese is one of the most influential dialects with speakers mainly live in the South-eastern Province called Guangdong and the Hong Kong Special administrative Region in China).

  2. 2.

    Putonghua literally means ‘common speech’ which is the standard official language in P. R. China. In many discussions it is replaced by another term in English, Mandarin, for the same variety. In this chapter, the term of ‘Mandarin’ is used in recognition of its wider use.

  3. 3.

    In English there are no matching words to differ the way he addresses me as ‘你ni’, a pronoun used for more equal or casual relationships, and the way I address him as ‘您nin’, a pronoun to show more respect and politeness to elder people, or people with higher social status.

References

  • Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (3rd ed.). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benton, G., & Gomez, E. T. (2008). The Chinese in Britain 1800–Present: Economy, transnationalism, identity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benton, G., & Gomez, E. T. (2014). Belonging to the nation: Generational change, identity and the Chinese diaspora. Ethnic Racial Studies, 37(7), 1157–1171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2014). Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy. In A. Blackledge & A. Creese (Eds.), Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy (pp. 1–20). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Block, D. (2014). Social class in applied linguistics. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J., & Rampton, B. (2011). Language and superdiversity. Diversities, 13(2), 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bucholtz, M. (2003). Sociolinguistic nostalgia and the authentication of identity. Journal of SocioLinguistics, 7(3), 398–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2010). Locating identity in language. In C. Llamas & D. Watt (Eds.), Language and identities (pp. 18–30). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canagarajah, A. S. (2011). Codemeshing in academic writing: Identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging. Modern Language Journal, 95, 401–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chun, A. (1996). Fuck Chineseness: On the ambiguities of ethnicity as culture as identity. Boundary 2, 23(2), 111–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Copland, F., & Creese, A. (2015). Linguistic ethnography: Collecting, analysing and presenting data. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2010a). Towards a sociolinguistics of superdiversity. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 13(4), 549–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2010b). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching. Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 103–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dailey-O’Cain, J., & Liebscher, G. (2011). Language attitudes, migrant identities and space. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 212, 91–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gal, S. (2006). Migration, minorities and multilingualism: Language ideologies in Europe. In C. Mar-Molinero & P. Stevenson (Eds.), Language ideologies, policies and practices. Language and the future of Europe (pp. 13–27). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • García, O. (2007). Foreword. In S. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp. xi–xv). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, O. (2010). Languaging and ethnifying. In J. Fishman & O. García (Eds.), Handbook of language and ethnicity: Disciplinary and regional perspectives (Vol. 1, 2nd ed., pp. 519–535). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, O. (2011). Educating New York’s bilingual children: Constructing a future from the past. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(2), 133–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism, and education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gumperz, J., & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1990). Cultural, identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity, community, culture, difference (pp. 222–237). London: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, A. (2012). Unpacking mundane practices: Children’s experiences of learning literacy at a Chinese complementary school in Scotland. Language and Education, 26(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, A. W., & Xiao, Y. (2008). Chinese as a heritage language: Fostering rooted world citizenry. Honolulu: National Foreign Language Resource Centre, University of Hawai’I at Manoa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M. (2007). Bilingualism as ideology and practice. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 1–24). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M. (2011). Paths to post-nationalism: A critical ethnography of language and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M., & Duchêne, A. (2012). Pride and profit: Changing discourses of language, Capital and nation-state. In A. Duchêne & M. Heller (Eds.), Language in late capitalism: Pride and profit. Oxon/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G., Jones, B., & Baker, C. (2012). Translanguaging: Developing its conceptualisation and contextualisation. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18(7), 655–670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222–1235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei. (2013). Negotiating funds of knowledge and symbolic competence in the complementary school classrooms. Language and Education, 28(2), 161–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei. (2016). Transnational connections and multilingual realities: The Chinese diasporic experience in a global context. In Li Wei (Ed.), Multilingualism in the Chinese diaspora worldwide: Transnational connections and local social realities (pp. 1–12). New York/London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei. (2017). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei, & Zhu Hua. (2013). Diaspora: Multilingual and intercultural communication across time and space. AILA Review, 26, 42–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lytra, V. (2013). From kebapçı to professional: The commodification of language and social mobility in Turkish complementary schools in the UK. In A. Duchene, M. Moyer, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work (pp. 147–170). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mau, A., Francis, B., & Archer, L. (2009). Mapping politics and pedagogy: Understanding the population and practices of Chinese complementary schools in England. Ethnography and Education, 4(1), 17–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ong, A. (1999). Flexible citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, B. (1995). Crossing: Language and ethnicity among adolescents. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, B. (2007). Neo-Hymesian linguistic ethnography in the United Kingdom. Journal of SocioLinguistics, 11(5), 587–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, B., Maybin, J., & Roberts, C. (2015). Theory and method in linguistic ethnography. In J. Snell, S. Shaw, & F. Copland (Eds.), Linguistic ethnography: Interdisciplinary explorations (pp. 14–50). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tu, W. M. (1991). The triadic chord: Confucian ethics, industrial East Asia, and Max Weber: Proceedings of the 1987 Singapore conference on Confucian ethics and the modernization of industrial East Asia. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, H. P., Palmer, D. K., & Field, S. L. (2011). Understanding teachers’ professional identity and beliefs in the Chinese heritage language school in the USA. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 24(1), 47–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Jing Huang

Authors
  1. Jing Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jing Huang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Modern Cultures, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Gerardo Mazzaferro

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Huang, J. (2018). Translanguaging in a Birmingham Chinese Complementary School: Ideology and Identity. In: Mazzaferro, G. (eds) Translanguaging as Everyday Practice. Multilingual Education, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94851-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94851-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94850-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94851-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation