Cover not available

Article published In: Literacies in Contact
Edited by Manuela Böhm and Constanze Weth
[Written Language & Literacy 23:2] 2020
► pp. 214–231

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

From the oral-literate debate to the translanguaging paradigm – and back again

A German perspective on multilingual writing strategies

 | Universitat de Barcelona
 | University of Osnabrück
Published online: 2 February 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00041.mun
Abstract
For several years now, the current debates on multilingualism and multi­literacy have revolved around the concept of translanguaging. In our paper we aim to contribute to the debate by presenting two theoretical approaches that have fueled the debate in the German-speaking academic context over the last thirty years and bringing them to the attention of an international readership. In discussing the analysis of written data of multilingual speakers from an acquisition perspective, we wish to demonstrate the fascinating aspects these works can contribute.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Immediacy/distance vs. orate/literate
  • 3.Taking on the written language challenge by young and by adult learners
  • 4.Recent contributions to the concept of language mixing
  • 5.Scribal practice and Ausbau in the multilingual classroom
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Literature
References (61)
Literature
Androutsopoulos, Jannis & Stæhr, Andreas. (2018). Moving methods online: Researching digital language practices. In Angela Creese & Adrian Blackledge (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of language and superdiversity, 118–132. Abingdon (New York): Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ascenzi-Moreno, Laura & Espinoza, Cecilia M. (2018). Opening up spaces for their whole selves: A case study group’s exploration of translanguaging practices in writing. NYS TESOL Journal 5(1): 10–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Colin. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. (5th edn.) Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian & Angela Creese. (2010). Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London: Continuum Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[BOE 2018] Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya 2018, nº 757. Retrieved from [URL]
Bühler, Karl. (2011). Theory of language: The representational function of language. (Translated by D. F. Goodwin.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [First published in 1934 as Sprachtheorie: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache. Jena: Gustav Fischer.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Canagarajah, Suresh. (2005). Dilemmas in planning English/vernacular relations in post-colonial communities. Journal of Sociolinguistics 9(3): 418–447. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Codemeshing in academic writing: Identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging. The Modern Language Journal 95(3): 401–417. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cenoz, Jasone & Durk Gorter. (2014). Focus on multilingualism as an approach in educational contexts. In Adrian Blackledge & Angela Creese (eds.), Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy (Educational Linguistics, 20), 239–254. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coronel-Molina, Serafín M. & Beth L. Samuelson. (2017). Language contact and translingual literacies. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 38(5): 379–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coulmas, Florian. (2013). Writing and society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creese, Angela & Adrian Blackledge. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? The Modern Language Journal 94(1): 103–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dürscheid, Christa. (2003). Medienkommunikation im Kontinuum von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit: Theoretische und empirische Probleme. Zeitschrift für angewandte Linguistik 381: 37–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erfurt, Jürgen. (2017). Von der Mehrsprachigkeit zur Mehrschriftigkeit: Elemente einer Theorie des sprachlichen Ausbaus. Bulletin VALS-ASLA, numéro spécial 2017, t. 11: 11–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. (1971). Language structure and language use. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. (1968). Readings in the sociology of language. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1972). Sociology of language: An interdisciplinary social science approach to language in society. Rowley (MA): Newbury House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flower, Linda & John R. Hayes. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication 32(4): 365–387. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ofelia. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, Oxford: Wiley, Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ofelia, Susana Ibarra-Johnson & Kate Seltzer. (2016). The translanguaging classroom. Philadelphia: Caslon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ofelia & Tatyana Kleyn (eds.) (2017). Translanguaging with multilingual students. New York, London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ofelia & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ofelia & Claire E. Sylvan. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Journal 95(3): 385–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbons, Pauline. (2009). English learners, academic literacy, and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone. Portsmouth (NH): Heinemann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom. (2nd edn.) Portsmouth (NH): Heinemann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gort, Mileidis. (2015). Transforming literacy learning and teaching through translanguaging and other typical practices associated with “doing being bilingual”. International Multilingual Research Journal 9(1): 1–6. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1975). Sprache, lokale Kultur und soziale Identität. Düsseldorf: Schwann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornberger, Nancy H. & Holly Link. (2012). Translanguaging and transnational literacies in multilingual classrooms: A biliteracy lens. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 15(3): 261–278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang & Clive Perdue. (1997). The Basic Variety (or: Couldn’t natural languages be much simpler?). Second Language Research 13(4): 301–347. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kloss, Heinz. (1952). Die Entwicklung neuerer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800. München: Pohl.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koch, Peter & Wulf Oesterreicher. (1985). Sprache der Nähe – Sprache der Distanz: Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und Sprachgeschichte. Romanistisches Jahrbuch 361: 15–43.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1990). Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch. Tübingen: Narr. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). Language of Immediacy – Language of Distance: Orality and literacy from the perspective of language theory and linguistic history. In Claudia Lange, Beatrix Weber & Göran Wolf (eds.), Communicative spaces: Variation, contact, and change: Papers in honour of Ursula Schaefer, 441–473. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. [English translation of Koch & Oesterreicher 1985.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Carmen & David Barton. (2012). Multilingual texts on Web 2.0: The case of flickr.com. In Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian & Carla Jonsson (eds.), Language mixing and code-switching in writing, 128–145. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lexander, Kristin Vold. (2012). Analyzing multilingual texting in Senegal: An approach for the study of mixed-language SMS. In Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian & Carla Jonsson (eds.), Language mixing and code-switching in writing, 146–169. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maas, Utz. (2008). Sprache und Sprachen in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Göttingen: V & R unipress.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009). Sprache in Migrationsverhältnissen: Sprachausbau (Schriftsprache) vs. mehrsprachige Kommunikation. In Ingrid Gogolin & Ursula Neumann (eds.), Streitfall Zweisprachigkeit – The bilingualism controversy, 145–161. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2010). Literat und orat: Grundbegriffe der Analyse geschriebener und gesprochener Sprache. Grazer Linguistische Studien 731: 21–150.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maas, Utz & Ulrich Mehlem. (2003). Schriftkulturelle Ressourcen und Barrieren bei marokkanischen Kindern in Deutschland. Osnabrück: IMIS Universität Osnabrück. ([URL])
Mahootian, Shahrzad. (2012). Repertoires and resources: Accounting for code-mixing in the media. In Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian & Carla Jonsson (eds.), Language mixing and code-switching in writing, 192–211. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehlem, Ulrich. (2010). Eine heilige Sprache? Literalität im Arabischen in Aus- und Einwandererkontexten. IMIS-Beiträge 371: 17–54.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehlem, Ulrich & Yazgül Şimşek. (2015). Bilingual resources and school context: Case studies from Germany and Turkey. In Hagen Peukert (ed.), Transfer effects in multilingual language development, 249–274. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer, Oliver & Do Coyle. (2017). Pluriliteracies teaching for learning: Conceptualizing progression for deeper learning in literacies development. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 5(2): 199–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrow, Lesley Mandel. (2020). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write. (9th edn.) Hoboken (NJ): Pearson Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Münch, Christian. (2006). Sprachpolitik und gesellschaftliche Alphabetisierung: Zur Entwicklung der Schreibkompetenz in Katalonien seit 1975. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noack, Christina. (2018). [How do newly immigrated children proceed in writing?] Unpublished data.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noack, Christina & Constanze Weth. (2012). Orthographie- und Schriftspracherwerb in mehreren Sprachen: Ein Forschungsüberblick. In Wilhelm Grießhaber & Zeynep Kalkavan (eds.), Orthographie- und Schriftspracherwerb bei mehrsprachigen Kindern, 15–34. Freiburg: Filibach.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olson, David R. & Nancy Torrance (eds.) (2001). The making of literate societies. Malden (MA): Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Otheguy, Ricardo, Ofelia García & Wallis Reid. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3): 281–307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rymarczyk, Jutta. (2008a). Früher oder später? Zur Einführung des Schriftbildes in der Grundschule. In Heiner Böttger (ed.), Fortschritte im frühen Fremdsprachenlernen, 170–182. München: Domino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008b). Mythos: “Paralleler Schrifterwerb ist unmöglich!”. Take Off 41: 48.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schroeder, Christoph & Yazgül Şimşek. (2010). Die Entwicklung der Kategorie Wort im türkisch-deutsch bilingualen Schrifterwerb in Deutschland. In Constanze Weth (ed.), Schrifterwerb unter den Bedingungen von Mehrsprachigkeit und Fremdsprachenunterricht. IMIS-Beiträge 371: 55–79. [URL]
Sebba, Mark. (2007). Spelling and society: The culture and politics of orthography around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). Orthography as social action: Scripts, spelling, identity and power. In Aexandra Jaffe, Jannis Androutsopoulos, Mark Sebba & Sally Johnson (eds.), Orthography as social action: Scripts, spelling, identity and power, 1–20. Boston, Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silva, Tony & Paul Kei Matsuda. (2001). On second language writing. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spitzmüller, Jürgen. (2012). Floating ideologies: Metamorphosis of graphic “Germanness”. In Aexandra Jaffe, Jannis Androutsopoulos, Mark Sebba & Sally Johnson (eds.), Orthography as social action: Scripts, spelling, identity and power, 255–288. Boston, Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thaler, Verena. (2007). Mündlichkeit, Schriftlichkeit, Synchronizität: Eine Analyse alter und neuer Konzepte zur Klassifizierung neuer Kommunikationsformen. Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 35(1/2): 147–182.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Velasco, Patricia & Ofelia García. (2014). Translanguaging and the writing of bilingual learners. Bilingual Research Journal 37(1): 6–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel. (1953). Languages in contact: Findings and problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weth, Constanze. (2008). Mehrsprachige Schriftpraktiken in Frankreich: Eine ethnographische und linguistische Untersuchung zum Umgang mehrsprachiger Grundschüler mit Schrift. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Mirjam, Egli Cuenat
2024. Exploring overt cross-linguistic influence in lower secondary learners written texts in English and French as a second or third language. International Journal of Multilingualism 21:2 ► pp. 1052 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue