Translanguaging as methodology to study language cafés: implications for managing multilingual data

Abstract

This article explores the affordances of translanguaging as methodology by reflecting upon the role of the multilingual repertoires of research participants (including the researcher) in shaping an ethnographic inquiry on 'language cafés' (LCs), understood as public events which provide a non-formal learning space for (foreign) language socialisation.Drawing on the 'researching multilingually' framework proposed by Holmes et al. (2013Holmes et al. ( , 2016)), we reflect on the affordances and complexities of using different languages in the research process.In particular, we focus on how the researcher's fluid multilingual approach enabled her to co-construct translanguaging spaces with LC participants as part of a methodology to study multilingual socialisation for and through the lived experience of those involved in the research.We aim to inspire researchers to make visible the multilingual, collaborative, and relational processes that shape their research, and to problematise and be reflexive about their choices of transcription of multilingual data.We argue that applying translanguaging as methodology to study multilingual environments can challenge the monolingual ideologies that still prevail in research, while enabling research participants to perform and develop their multilingual social selves.Translenguar como metodología para estudiar 'language cafés' y su repercusión sobre el tratamiento de datos multilingües RESUMEN Este artículo explora las affordances o posibilidades de acción que ofrece el translenguar como metodología a través de la reflexión sobre cómo los repertorios lingüísticos de los participantes de la investigación (incluida la investigadora) pueden moldear un estudio etnográfico sobre 'language cafés', entendidos como eventos públicos que ofrecen un espacio informal para la socialización en lenguas (extranjeras).Siguiendo el marco propuesto por Holmes et al.