Translanguaging and Mobility in Higher Education Institutions: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

This chapter discusses how immigrants adopt translanguaging practices (i.e., the flexible use of linguistic resources by bilinguals or multilinguals to make sense of their worlds inside and outside classrooms) to scaffold learning, clarify concepts, facilitate communication, and promote academic understanding. Even inside the campus, outside the classroom discourse, translanguaging can be used to navigate bureaucratic systems, such as filling out forms, engaging in social gatherings, or accessing library services, that require proficiency in the language of the host country. Whereas the academic context is not always a positive space for translanguaging practices, everyday communications usually create a positive space for translanguaging. This chapter discusses translanguaging practices in academic and nonacademic contexts. We also provide an overview of the negative pedagogical attitudes toward translanguaging in higher education institutions, where challenges commonly faced by mobile and immobile non-native English scholars pertain to strict strategies. Reflections on the restrictive publishing policies that constitute a negative translanguaging space, acceptable and nonacceptable translanguaging practices in academic publications and the role of translanguaging facilitators, such as artificial intelligence (AI) applications, are also deliberated based on the field experience of a professional copy editor.

Citation

Bowden, J., Abdelzaher, E. and Essam, B.A. (2024), "Translanguaging and Mobility in Higher Education Institutions: Challenges and Strategies", Sengupta, E. (Ed.) War, Mobility, Displacement and Their Impact on Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 55), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120240000055002