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

• Published in: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development 2023-09, Vol.44 (8), p.737-750
• Main Authors: Polo-Pérez, Nuria, Holmes, Prue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Code Switching (Language); Collaboration; College Faculty; Decision Making; Dining Facilities; Foreign Countries; Informal Education; intelligent transcription; investigar de manera multilingüe; Language; Language acquisition; Language cafés; Language Usage; Methodological problems; Multilingualism; Native Language; Public events; Reflexivity; Research Methodology; Researchers; researching multilingually; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Socialization; transcripción inteligente; Transcription; Translanguaging; translenguar; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0143-4632; 1747-7557
• DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2023.2197882

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. ( 2013 , 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.