Multilingual Perspectives on Translanguaging

Abstract

It would not be an exaggeration to claim that translanguaging, which "promotes a positive view of bilingualism, permitting bilinguals to act naturally, using language as they might at home and in their communities," (p. 2) has been one of the most popular and attractive concepts in the field of language education in the last ten years. It has been widely studied and has been the subject of many highly cited works. It has also been addressed in papers that have critically examined it (see Jaspers, 2018;MacSwan, 2020). This timely book, as one of the works that claim to assess the deconstructivist argument of translanguaging theory critically, aims to contribute to the advancement of translanguaging theory as well as to provide a rational critique of it. To this end, distinguished scholars from several fields come together in this book to discuss significant subjects in relation to translanguaging. The book consists of five parts and 11 chapters as well as an introductory preface by Jeff MacSwan and an insightful afterword by Stephen May. Before reviewing the book, I would like to acknowledge the dedication to Vivian Cook, who passed away before the publication of his chapter. I must state I recognize Professor Cook's significant contribution to the field.In the introduction, MacSwan discusses the deconstructivist perspective on translanguaging, which challenges the idea that distinct languages with specific names exist. While MacSwan considers languages and language communities as ontological entities that actually exist, he does not disregard that "'named languages' have been used as part of an effort to colonize" (p. 11) and that deconstructivists strive for social justice. However, he also points out how our individual languages, what he refers to as I-languages, share similar features to languages that are spoken by "other members of our immediate linguistic communities" (p. 8). He cautiously concludes that the deconstructivist thesis risks undermining comprehensive empirical research on bilingualism and language education and the advocacy of linguistically diverse communities.Part 1, on inter-speaker language variation, begins with Vivian Cook's contribution (chapter 2), in which he draws a comparison of multicompetence and translanguaging. He contends that our communities are linguistically more diverse than ever, noting the minority status of monolinguals. Throughout his chapter, he discusses the interaction between languages from multicompetence and translanguaging aspects. He claims that, while both multicompetence