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Introduction to the January special issues on language(ing), multilingualism, diversity, equity, social justice, and language activism

Concepts employed to capture certain language phenomena are often intended to depict and reflect real-world occurrences of such phenomena. Rarely ever does the intentionality of doing so entail capturing linguistic and sociolinguistic misrepresentations. In some instances, linguistic and sociolinguistic representations are one thing; in other instances, they can result in misrepresentations. This conceptual paper uses South Africa as its main point of reference. Against this backdrop, the paper explores the nexus between multilingualism, translanguaging, diversity, equity, social justice, and language activism in the South African context. Firstly, it contends that even though translanguaging is often framed differentially from multilingualism, the latter, nevertheless, serves as its alter ego, its point of reference, and its nemesis. Secondly, it argues that both multilingualism and translanguaging, as transformative vehicles for realising human rights-centric goals such as diversity, equity, and social justice, and as efforts for challenging and dismantling the hegemony of English or Anglonormativity in South Africa, are inherently constrained and hamstrung. Thirdly, it unpacks the myth about multilingualism and translanguaging in South Africa. Fourthly and lastly, it highlights the conundrum of South Africa’s multilingualism.

This article reports on the impact of translanguaging in enhancing communicative competence of the university students in three selected institutions in Lesotho. Data were collected through focus group interviews with ninety (N=90) selected students from the three selected institutions and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with nine (N=9) lecturers from the three institutions as well. The findings reveal that most students prefer being taught in both the target language and their mother-tongue instead of only the target language. These findings highlight the importance of adopting pedagogical translanguaging in the classroom so that students from all backgrounds can be included in their own learning. Future research should therefore focus on how pedagogical translanguaging can be adopted in ESL classroom so that students can have a liberty to draw from their mother tongue in cases where they encounter challenges with the target language.

Although the ideology of monolingualism prevails in traditional English language classroom teaching, it is gradually failing to meet the current dynamic landscape of socio-linguistic and socio-cultural diversity. Translanguaging has created more spaces for students to use their varied linguistic and multimodal repertoires to express themselves and enhance learning in actual classroom practices. This paper aims to explore students’ perceptions and practices of translanguaging at a university located in southeast China. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The study employed qualitative content analysis to investigate the ways in which the establishment of a translanguaging space might facilitate students’ access to linguistic and epistemic equity. The paper ends with suggestions and implications regarding the importance of raising students’ awareness of translanguaging as a means to embrace all languages, meaning-making resources, and previous knowledge for equitable English language education.

This qualitative study explores translanguaging pedagogical practices in the undergraduate tutorial classroom at a South African university. The paper reports that tutors and tutees draw from their different linguistic repertoires to make sense of the facilitation of learning in the tutorials. In this process, they decide which languages to use and when and how to deploy them to enhance their tutorial practices. To generate data, tutors and tutees participated in semi-structured and focus group discussions. Translanguaging theory was utilised as a theoretical framework. Data were then analysed using thematic analysis. Findings showed that translanguaging pedagogical practices have the potential to (a) assist tutors and tutees in creating a comfortable space for learning and (b) enhance content understanding and collaborative learning, and (c) could be valuable in decolonising tutorial pedagogies. Tutors indicated that they require specialised tutor training on how to use translanguaging in multilingual tutorials.

The widely publicized 2015 #FeesMustFall student protests in South Africa (SA) have foregrounded concerns about social justice, epistemic justice, access to higher education, and decolonization of the curriculum, and language. This paper critiques the English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy and a monolingual English language proficiency (ELP) curriculum in a university and suggests strategies for epistemic decolonization. The article is based on the locus of enunciation of the author, and the analysis of language curriculum documents. It draws on epistemologies of the South and decolonial perspectives to answer two questions: What are the prospects of decolonizing EMI in Higher Education? How can English language proficiency be decolonized? The article argues that English proficiency is anchored by epistemic racism, Anglocentric ideologies and an inequitable policy of EMI, and the continued disregard for multilingualism in higher education. It proposes that decolonization strategies are necessary to enhance epistemic justice, reduce inequality and transform the EMI and ELP in South African higher education. This can be done through English as a multilingua franca and solidarity-based epistemologies, such as Ubuntu-Neplanta.

With many countries across the globe failing to deliver an education system that works for and favours all their citizens, calls for mother tongue instruction have intensified. This qualitative study explored the perceived contribution of decolonisation epistemologies in promoting social justice and language equity in accounting education. Positioned in the epistemological assumptions of the critical theory of education and interpretivism, data were collected from a sample of eighteen accounting educators using focus group interviews and a questionnaire for triangulation purposes. The main findings underscore the perceived importance of mother tongue instruction in promoting social justice and language equity in accounting education and yet question the feasibility, sustainability, and practicability of mother tongue instruction. Responding to these polarised findings, this study recommends extensive consultations between custodians of education systems and language experts in collaboration with subject content experts together with well-articulated pilot projects. The paper further cautions that in the absence of plausible supporting scientific evidence, mother tongue instruction threatens to reverse the gains of social cohesion and the global village delivered by a common language of instruction across the globe.