Relanguaging translingual writing in a Khayelitshan primary school

Abstract

Linguistic heterogeneity and fluidity – prominently captured in the notion of ‘translanguaging’– are starting to be seen as normative and natural. In turn, homogeneity and fixity, instantiated for example in standard languages, are becoming the ‘odd-ones-out.’ I challenge the dichotomy between linguistic fluidity (languaging) and fixity (named languages), in a situated conceptual account of translingual writing practices in English classrooms in a Khayelitshan primary school. These spaces fold the linguistic fluidity typical of South African townships, and the fixity of two standard languages, into one complex spatial repertoire. Operationalizing this spatial perspective, I suggest that students are constantly engaged in relanguaging, recursively sorting out the classroom repertoire according to the various linguistic norms enfolded in the space, and of bringing together linguistic resources in various combinations. Relanguaging systematically unsettles the dichotomy between fluid languaging and fix institutional language norms retained in dominant conceptualizations of translanguaging. This way it opens up new conceptual and analytical perspectives with possible pedagogical implication for writing instruction and testing. Standard English could, for example, be assessed beyond its own confines, using writing tasks that can make visible increasingly sophisticated linguistic sorting skills as students.

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