Friday, December 22, 2017

What is multilanguaging? Ubuntu or botho translanguaging?

Many questions arise as to what is multilanguaging. I introduced this concept in my recent articles and chapters not to discredit translanguaging, which has somehow taken the role of what was traditional termed 'codeswitching'.  A full appraisal appears in my latest book: Shifting lenses: Multilanguaging, decolonization and education in the global South. It is the first book volume to use the concept, "multilanguaging", but here are the points to explain how we arrive here. I used some  technical terms for non-linguists and educationists, but please ignore them and concentrate on the logic of the argument.

The SINS of CODE-SWITCHING

No one says there is no code-switching, but what we say is that it is conceptually flawed and very subservient to translanguaging. The former focuses on language codes and has a monolingual orientation. It assumes that there are actual codes- first felony. Second felony, it assumes that these codes operate in isolation- hence the switching on and off. Linguists will call this on and off complimentary distribution, which means one occurs in the place where one isn't to make a coherent whole. The fact that it speaks to one language at a time, I find it problematic and increasingly not a useful frame for thinking about multilingualism from the point of view of the user. Thirdly, we refute the view that the speaker is switching (but we are also not saying this is not happening in emergent bilingual situations where one is struggling with one of the named languages).  In other words, codeswitching is hearer oriented- that is, it is the opinion of the hearer based on what they hear as truncated and identifiable language units that are exchanged. Are we sure that speakers actually do this? Many multilingual speakers do not 'feel' themselves when languages are used in meaning making--why? becuase they focus on meaning not on the languages. It is for this reason and the ones above that I argue that code-switching is monolingual in orientation and that it is epistemologically different from translanguaging.

TRANSLANGUAGING

What about translanguaging? First we say there are no codes- we made this up for administration purposes. These codes we refer to as languages (named languages to be precise) are artificial. The boundaries are fuzzy; there is a contiuum of language use. Where is the border between isiZulu and isiXhosa? Sepedi and Sesotho? English and Afrikaans? Spanish and English? The features of each of the named languages leak into each other; they overlap in complex ways known to speaker who selects, organizes and speaks as and when it is necessary often without feeling these ' boundaries'. Then we say even if a speaker happens to utter words that seem to resemble one of the the named languages, it does not mean that the features of the other named language are off in the cognitive domain of the speaker (they are not switched off). The boundaries between languages known to multilingual speakers are not there in the phonological loop either (an organ where language is incubated). We then prefer the term repertoire, which is a blend of language features used strategically and simultaneously by a multilingual speaker. Instead of language use, speakers are languaging and between many names languages, they are translanguaging. Translanguaging is meaning oriented and speaker oriented. What people do with languages (they are languaging) rather than what langugeslook like (language codes). Simultaneity is judged in meaning segments rather than moments.

THEORY DISRUPTION AND RE-RECREATION

I have long counted myself as one of the global education distruptors advocating for recognition of languaging phenomemnon  and discredit monolingual bias where many people still hold on to the ancient myth that using more than one language creates mental confusion. Too old a myth, but still prevalent in our curriculum systems and in the 'mouths' of many parents who are not well-informed. They think being educated means speaking one language very well! As a social justice issue, we argue that monolingual bias fails multilingual learners in schools that are designed to educate an ideal monolingual speaker in various guises.  Global education distruptors like me use the SANKOFA  (Akan mythical birth)  approach to go back and fetch, but also strech forward to prepare the future.  The reality we live with now is that many children are exposed to more than 3 languages before age 6 (an optimal age for language acquisition). If they speak more than 3 languages  at age 6, what is their mother tongue? their first or second language? Irrelevant concepts, aren't they? I often ask kids in Soweto schools: What is your mother tongue? They look confused, but will eventually choose one [becuase they feel obliged to choose one]. The next day, when you ask the same question, they will give you a different language and you are assured of different mother tongues depending on the number of days you go and ask the question.  These kids give me a perspective that in fact the world is moving in this direction where boundaries are becoming fuzzy.  I changed my question to: which  languages do you speak? and generally prefer to see them performing their languages. Shouldn't we be ready for the next 50 years? So we move research and theory to reflect these 'new' realities to stay relevant in the future.

When we look for new theories, I found the logic of ubuntu-- no one language is complete without the other  and temporal fluidity of SANKOFA (past and future integrated) as Africal cultural  constructs that should define literacy and language theories and practices in the 21st century. From this point of view, multilingualism is a convenient concept, not as accuarte as MULTILANGUAGING is- where more than three named languages are used fluidly and normatively seen in the soap operas  (see Muvhango, the Generations, etc) and everyday communication practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and much of the global South communities. Here we go multilanguaging.
 

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