To translanguage or not to translanguage: Ideology, practice, and intersectional identities

Abstract

Abstract Translanguaging is an emerging research area within applied linguistics that blurs the lines between named languages used by bi- and multilingual language users and considers all languages to be part of the individual’s single semiotic repertoire. In parallel with this emergence, issues surrounding language teacher identities and emotion labor have also become prominent sites of research in applied linguistics. In this paper we adopt a unique two-stage qualitative research approach involving aspects of narrative knowledging and duoethnography in order to investigate the challenges and obstacles faced by teachers of English in implementing translanguaging practices in their personal and professional lives. By using intersectionality as an analytical tool, we found that the challenges to making use of translanguaging practices were intimately and intricately linked with personal identities and social context. The results suggest that decisions surrounding translanguaging practices can be seen as context-dependent, discursively produced constructions, rather than the cut and dried options that they have been presented as in previous literature.