With or Without Translingualism

Abstract

Translingualism and L2 writing have come to be viewed as oppositional paradigms by many, in part because of a conflation of translingualism with translingual writing but also because of concerns over translingualism as a “brand.” As one way forward in reconciling translingualism and L2 writing, this chapter considers how postsecondary writing curricular decisions can be approached through a translingual orientation without explicitly branding them as “translingual.” After briefly describing the pitfalls of academic branding more generally, this chapter analyzes an ongoing revision of a writing curriculum in an English for Academic Purposes program at a large, public research university in the U.S. with a large population of international multilingual students and domestic language minoritized students. Significantly, it does not rely on explicit use of trans- terminology (translanguaging, translingual writing, translingualism, translinguistics, etc.) as a branding strategy while being guided nonetheless by general philosophies of translingualism. We argue that approaching writing instruction without translingualism as a brand, or in other words, “with or without translingualism,” enables instructors to avoid uncritically following disciplinary trends while selectively applying philosophies of translingualism based on local institutional and student needs.

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