Translanguaging as Transformation: The Collaborative Construction of New Linguistic Realities

This book examines translanguaging as a resource which can disrupt the privileging of particular voices, and a social practice which enables collaboration within and across groups of people. Addressing the themes of collaboration and transformation, the chapters critically examine how people work together to catalyse change in diverse global contexts, experiences and traditions. The authors suggest an epistemological and methodological turn to the study of translanguaging, which is particularly reflected in the collaborative, arts-based and action research/activist approaches followed in the chapters. The book will be of particular interest to scholars using ethnographic, critical and collaborative action and activist research approaches to the study of multilingualism in educational and creative arts contexts.

Emilee Moore is Serra Húnter Fellow (Associate Professor) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She researches interactional practices in multilingual and multicultural educational contexts. She is coordinator of the B.A. in Primary Education, preparing early childhood, primary and secondary school teachers to educate children and youth in contexts of linguistic diversity. She is a member of the Research Centre for Plurilingual Teaching & Interaction (GREIP) at the UAB and co-convenor of the AILA Research Network on Creative Inquiry in Applied Linguistics. Recent publications include the co-edited: Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities (2020, Multilingual Matters).

Jessica Bradley is Lecturer in Literacies in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield where she co-directs the BA Education, Culture and Childhood and the Literacies Research Cluster. She is interested in arts-based approaches to language research. Her research has explored linguistic landscapes through creative and participatory research methods while her doctoral research focused on translanguaging practices in street arts production and performance. She co-edited Translanguaging as Transformation: the collaborative construction of new linguistic realities, published by Multilingual Matters in 2020. 

James Simpson lectures in Language Education at the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK. His research interests span multilingualism and language education, and include adult migrant language education practice and policy, and creative inquiry in applied linguistics. He is the co-author of ESOL: A Critical Guide (OUP, 2008, with Melanie Cooke), the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics (2011), and the co-editor of three further books. He is active in migrant language education policy formation nationally, regionally and locally. He was a Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded project ‘Translation and translanguaging’ (2014-2018).