Competing terminology in Applied linguistics: Codeswitching or Translanguaging

Translanguaging is a relatively new term, and its original meaning has expanded to encompass the way in which multilingual speaker deploy their linguistic resources in communicative practice (Blommaert, 2010). García (2009) and García Wei (2014) incorporate code-switching as one of these translanguaging practices, but with epistemological differences between them. This would seem to indicate that the terms are not incompatible per se, but there has been a tendency for some authors to treat translanguaging as a new alternative to codeswitching. A further issue with translanguaging is distinguishing between ideologically constructed language in transcribing and analysing data, at the same time as asserting multilinguals have one linguistic system. Translanguaging has predominantly been applied to English and another language, but this paper examines the multilingual practices of speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Wu ‘dialect’ while addressing the status of Wu as a language. Without a written script, it is necessary to utilize Mandarin character in the transcription, which gives credence to language as one symbiotic system in both spoken and written data.
This ethnographic study was conducted in a Chinese bank focusing particularly on gender roles and how the female managers negotiate their understanding of modernity in a masculine work environment. The interviews were mostly conducted in Wu, but Mandarin was also used to highlight important events, or their perception of social norms. They used their language resources to position their professional identity, reflect their formal educational background and show affection to their families. They also used Mandarin Chinese to assert their modernity and affirm their Chinese identity. This paper will consider the suitability of translanguaging and code-switching for these language practices and the extent to which both could be applied and how this influences the researchers’ interpretation of the data.
Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century. Chichester Wiley-Blackwell.
García, O. and L. Wei (2014). Translanguaging. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.