Translingual Practices
Playfulness and Precariousness

Based on range of global case studies, this book expands current work on translingual playfulness through an exploration of precariousness.

Sender Dovchin (Edited by), Rhonda Oliver (Edited by), Li Wei (Edited by)

9781316513514, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 May 2024

272 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'This edited volume offers an intellectually engaging exploration of translingualism … the contributors and editors make a compelling case for readers to be critically aware of individuals' sense of precarity even as they produce playful language through translanguaging.' Ting Ye, Language in Society

Bringing together work from a team of international scholars, this groundbreaking book explores how language users employ translingualism playfully, while, at the same time, negotiating precarious situations, such as the breaking of social norms and subverting sociolinguistic boundaries. It includes a range of ethnographic studies from around the globe, to provide us with insights into the everyday lives of language users and learners and their lived experiences, and how these interact in translingual practices. A number of mixed methodological frameworks are included to study language users' behaviours, experiences and actions, cover the complexity of language evolutionary processes, and ultimately show that precarity is as fundamental to translingualism as playfulness. It points to a future research direction in which research should be pragmatically applied into real pedagogical actions by revealing the sociolinguistic realities of translingual users, fundamentally addressing broader issues of racism, social injustice, language activism and other human rights issues.

1. Introduction: Translingualism: Playfulness and Precariousness Sender Dovchin, Rhonda Oliver and Li Wei
I. Beyond Translingual Playfulness: Towards Precarity
2. Translingual Playfulness, Precarity and Safe Space Sender Dovchin, Toni Dobinson, Qian Gong and Paul Mercieca
3. Behind the Jovial Translingual Displays: Negotiation of Power and Job Security among Transnational Workers Hae Ree Jun and Junko Mori
4. Precarious Assemblages: Translingual Entanglements Alastair Pennycook and Emi Otsuji
5. Multilingualisms, Masking and Multitasking: Spaces of Hopefulness Mei French, Necia Stanford Billinghurst and Janet Armitage
II. Online Activism: 6. 'Are You Poor?': Relational Transpositioning through Local and Transnational Transmodal Communications Margaret R. Hawkins and Nikhil M. Tiwari
7. Instagram and Language Use: A Case Study of a Young Australian Aboriginal Artist Rhonda Oliver and Mike Exell
8. Translingual Narratives in Precarity: Narrativizing Undocumented Immigrant Status Lyana Sun Han Chang and Suresh Canagarajah
III. Critical Pedagogy: 9. 'Because I Growed up … Big Martu Ways': Translating the Playfulness and Precarity in Translanguaging for Critical Pedagogy Gillian Wigglesworth and Rhonda Oliver
10. Translanguaging, Translinguality, and Labor Bruce Horner
11. The Political Underbelly of Translingual Practice in English-Medium Higher Education Sarah Hopkyns and Shaila Sultana
IV. Ways Forward: 12. Translanguaging as Mass: A Lay-Oriented Approach Sinfree Makoni and Adrian Pablé
Afterword: Precarity and Playfulness as Forms of Life Daniel Silva
Index.

Subject Areas: Bilingualism & multilingualism [CFDM]