Horner, Bruce, Min-Zhan Lu, Jacqueline Jones Royster, and John Trimbur. “OPINION: Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach.” College English 73.3 (Jan 2011) 303-321.
Horner, Lu, et al describe how the intended ossification of language use in the classroom is in direct conflict with the actual usages that intersect in the classroom by way of the average (U.S.) classroom’s heterogeneity. Though traditionally perceived as “interference” the authors propose that a “translingual approach” that will serve “as a resource for producing meaning in writing speaking, reading and listening” (303). Taking up the 1974 CCCC’s “Students’ Rights to Their Own Language”, the authors challenge educators to approach language difference with “an attitude of deliberative inquiry” (304).
The authors begin by outlining two current responses to language difference, explaining that both responses are problematic in that they treat “language and language practices as discrete, uniform, and stable” (307) and herein, they hit upon what must change in order for language practices to work within a translingual approach. Essentially, language practices must value the complicated ways that language gets taken up and used by speakers. This understanding of language practice is particularly relevant to the sorts of language policies at work in social/cultural groups; as well, it presents specific ramifications to the ways that writing programs promote translingualism in their administrative, hiring, and pedagogical practices (for students and student teachers). The end of this article functions specifically to those ends (for writing programs) by offering references to those who are interested in taking up this idea of translingualism in writing program.
texturology 