Guest Editors: Dr. Wen Zhisheng (Edward), ESTL, Macao Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Han Lili, Director/Dean of ESTL, Macao Polytechnic
Prof. Hu Guangwei, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Commentary: Prof Li Wei, Director/ Dean, IOE, University College London, UK
Project Summary:
This special issue sets out to review and provide new insights into the bilingual and multilingual education policy in the Greater Bay Area of China (GBA, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong) in the light of the emerging translanguaging theory (Li Wei, 2018 & 2021; Li & Shen, 2021; Li & Kelly-Holmes, 2022). Specifically, it will apply the translanguaging lens to discuss the language of instruction (LOI; e.g., EMI, CMI) policy and the use of multiple linguistic codes (or mother tongue) in the foreign/second language classrooms and or content-based classrooms (CLIL). It features historical and analytical reviews of key language policies planning (LPP) issues in Hong Kong, and Macao, and Guangdong, tracing and discussing their past (background), present status and future developments. Overall, it is argued that LPP should not be monolithic, but be 'equitable multilingual' to capture the fluid, dynamic and complex social-linguistic interactions characterizing the superdiverse, multilingual, multicultural, and multisemiotic life realities of the GBA residents.
Topics and Contributors (5000~7000 words, due March 2022)：
1. Rethinking language policy planning across the Greater Bay Area of China: Insights from translanguaging theory Dr. Wen Zhisheng, Dr. Han Lili, (MPI) & Prof. Hu Guangwei (HK PolyU)
2. Language education policy in Hong Kong: Past, present and future
Prof David Li Chor Shing and Dr. Leung Wai Man (HK PolyU)
3. Rethinking TBLT in the GBA: Insights from translanguaging theory
Dr. Gavin Bui (HK Hang Seng U) + collaborators
4. Remapping the language and translation policies in China: Contributions from Macao
Dr. Han Lili (MPI, Macao) + collaborators
5. Global Englishes and curriculum design for international universities in the GBA of China
Dr. Fang fan + collaborators (Shantou University, Guangdong)
6. A historical overview of the "Preserving Cantonese" movement in Guangzhou
Prof. Li Yaling (South China Normal University, Guangzhou) + collaborators
7. Translanguaging in a remedial class
Dr. Brian Chan + collaborators (University of Macau)
8. Translanguaging pedagogy in Tutor’s Oral Corrective Feedback on Chinese EFL Learners’ Argumentative WritingDr. Li Danli (Wuhan University) + collaborators
9. Translanguaging and language policies planning (LPP)--Where we are and where to go from here? (Commentary)Prof Li Wei, Institute of Education, University College London, UK
Guest Editors' Contacts and Profiles
Dr. Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
Associate Professor, School of Languages and Translation
Macao Polytechnic Institute, MACAU
Email: wenzhisheng@hotmail.com;
ORCID iD：http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9041-6920https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zhisheng-Wen
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen (Ph.D., Chinese University of Hong Kong) is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Translation at Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macau. Dr. Wen has over 20 years of teaching and teacher education experience in applied linguistics and translation studies at universities across the Greater Bay Area (GBA). His broad teaching and research interests lie in second language acquisition and teacher education, task-based language teaching and learning, cognitive psycholinguistics and translation/interpreting studies, with internationally recognized expertise in language aptitude and working memory research. Prof. Wen has published extensively in indexed journals and edited volumes. His recent books include Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (Multilingual Matters, 2015), Working memory and second language learning (Multilingual Matters, 2016), Language aptitude (Routledge, 2019), and Researching L2 task performance and pedagogy (Benjamins, 2019), Cambridge handbook of working memory and language (CUP, 2022); Language aptitude theory and practice (CUP, 2022). Forthcoming volumes include Working memory in first and second language (CUP, 2022) and Memory in science for society (OUP, 2022).
Dr. Lili Han
Associate Professor, Dean of School of Languages and Translation
Macao Polytechnic Institute, MACAU
Email: hanlili@ipm.edu.mo
https://www.ipm.edu.mo/eslt/en/academic_staff.php
Lili Han (Ph.D., University of Lisbon) is currently an Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Languages and Translation of Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macau. Over the last two decades, Dr. Han has lectured, practiced and researched in interpreting, a seasoned interpreting practitioner and trainer for conference interpreting (Chinese-Portuguese-English) in partnership with the DGI (SCIC) of the European Commission. Her recent research focuses on applying the translanguaging perspective to analyze language and translation policies, interpreting studies, and intercultural studies,. She is the new Deputy Director of the Portuguese Specialist Committee of the China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) and a member of the editorial board of Journal of Translation Studies. Her major publications include a theoretical review paper titled "An aptitude model for translation and interpreting: Insights from the translanguaging theory" (CUP, 2022, co-authored); Translation Critics (2021), Introduction to Chinese-Portuguese Interpretation (2020, co-authored), Luís Gonzaga Gomes – filho da Terra (2018), Portuguese Poets of Macau (2009), and The Gentle Miracle (2018, translation of Eça de Queiroz). Dr. Han is currently working on an edited volume "New perspectives on interpreting training: Insights from the Greater Bay Area" (Springer).
Prof. Guangwei, Hu
Professor, Department of English
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Email: guangwei.hu@polyu.edu.hk
ORCID iD：https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2297-4784
Hu, Guangwei (Ph.D., Nanyang Technological University) is Professor in the English Department of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to Hong Kong, he was in the English Language and Literature Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. His current research interests include academic discourse/literacy, bilingual education, language policy, and second language writing. He has published extensively on these topics in such international journals as Higher Education, Instructional Science, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Journal of Pragmatics, Language Learning, Research in the Teaching of English, Review of Educational Research, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, TESOL Quarterly, and Teachers College Record.
Prof. Li Wei (Commentary/Discussant):
Li Wei (Ph.D., University of Newcastle) is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK. He holds a Chair in Applied Linguistics. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, Academia Europaea, Academy of Social Sciences, UK, and Royal Society of Arts, UK. His research interests are in the broad field of bilingualism and multilingualism. Amongst Li Wei's publications are the best selling The Bilingualism Reader, The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader, Applied Linguistics, Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education (with Ofelia Garcia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) which won the 2015 BAAL Book Prize and has been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, and other languages; and The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism which won the 2009 British Association for Applied Linguistics Book Prize. He is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Taylor & Francis), and Applied Linguistics Review (De Gruyter). He is editor of the Wiley-Blackwell book series Research Methods in Language & Linguistics and Bloomsbury Studies in Linguistics.
Preamble to the special issue:
2019 witnessed the implementation of the "Outline Development Plan of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area" (hereinafter referred to as the GBA) by the Central Government of China. The GBA, given its superdiverse multilingual landscape of "Biliterate and Trilingual" 两文三语as in Hong Kong (Leung & Li, 2019) and 'Triliterate & Quaralingual" 三文四语 (e.g., Chinese Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and Portuguese, etc.) and multicultural complexities, calls have been made to formulate a unified Language Policy Planning to align with the five aspects of the strategic positioning of the Plan. These include, namely, (a) “A vibrant world-class city cluster”, (b) “A globally influential international innovation and technology hub”, (c) “An important support pillar for the Belt and Road Initiative”, and (d) “A showcase for in-depth cooperation between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macao” and (e) “A quality living circle for living, working and travelling”) (c.f. Li Yuming & Wang Hailan, 2020; Qu Shaobing, 2019; Liu Jiaxin & Yuan, 2019; Guo Jie, 2019).
This proposed special issue focuses on the multilingual social-linguistic features and practices of four representative cities of the GBA, including Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou and Shantou, by analyzing the existing Language Policy Planning (LPPs) of these cities. We contend that to sustain the dynamics of the GBA, a translanguaging-informed LPP orientation has a lot to offer. Based on previous studies of LPP issues in Greater China that had drawn on the seminal work of Ruiz’s (1984) (c.f. Shen Qi & Gao Xuesong, 2018), it is argued that the LPP of GBA can be oriented to guarantee a “social space for the multilingual users by bringing together different dimensions of their personal history, experience and environment, their attitude, belief and ideology, their cognitive and physical capacity into one coordinated and meaningful performance” (Li Wei, 2011, p. 1223).
As an emerging theory of human communication and cognition, the translanguaging theory (Li Wei, 2018) provides a fresh and innvoative lens to reflect on the dynamic multilingual reality of the GBA, as well as an instrumental catalyzer to develop and promote the language policies in the area. In essence, the translanguaging theory captures the fluid, dynamic and complex social-linguistic interactions that characterize the superdiverse, multilingual and multicultural life realities of the GBA residents, allowing vested-interest agents and stakeholders to focus on the process of knowledge construction and meaning making process in the language service industry. Therefore, we argue that the perspective of translanguaging sheds new light on the language policy planning, contributing to the language matrix to accomplish the five stated goals of the Plan's strategic positioning, and thus providing valuable insights, guidelines and an overarching blueprint for the LPP issues in the GBA and beyond.
Key references (point of departure):
Gao, Xuesong. “‘Cantonese is Not a Dialect:’ Chinese Netizens’ Defence of Cantonese as a Regional Lingua Franca.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33, no. 5 (2012): 449-464.
Chan, Brian, HX (2021) Translanguaging or code-switching? Reassessing mixing of English in Hong Kong Cantonese. Chinese Language and Discourse. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.20003.cha
Han, L., Wen, Z., Lin, Z. & Li, Wei (2022). An aptitude model for translation and interpreting: Insights from translanguaging theory. In Wen, Z., Skehan, P. & Sparks, R. (eds.), Language aptitude theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hu, G. (2021), English language policy in Mainland China: History, issues, and challenges. In Ee Ling Low & Anne Pakir (eds.), English in East and South Asia: Policy, features and language in use (pp. 19–32). London, UK: Routledge.
Hu, G. (2021), English as a medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: looking back and looking forward. Applied Linguistics Review. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0182
梁慧敏﹑李楚成 [Leung, Wai Mun & Li, David C. S.]. (2020). 兩文三語: 香港語文教育政策研究 [Biliteracy and trilingualism: Language education policy research in Hong Kong]. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
李楚成﹑梁慧敏 [Li, David C. S. & Leung, Wai Mun.] (2020). 回归二十年香港「两文三语」语言格局: 挑战与对策建议 [Two decades of renationalization: Hong Kong’s ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ policy, challenges and recommended coping strategies]. 语言战略研究 [Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning] 5(1): 46-58. 4.
Li, David C. S. & Tong, C. L. (2020). A tale of two special administrative regions: The state of multilingualism in Hong Kong and Macao. In Henning Klöter & Mårten Söderblom Saarela (eds.), Language diversity in the Sinophone world (pp. 142-163). London and New York: Routledge.
Li, Wei. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9-30.
Li, Wei, (2021) Translanguaging as a political stance: implications for English language education, ELT Journal, ccab083, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab083
Li Wei and Helen Kelly-Holmes (2022) Language Policy: Taking stock in a changing context. Robert Blackwood & Unn Røyneland (eds.) Spaces of Multilingualism.
Li, Wei. & Shen, Q. (2021). Translanguaging: origins, developments, and future directions. Journal of Foreign Languages, 44(4), 2-14.
Li, Yaling 李娅玲; Li, Danli 李丹丽and Gao, Xuesong (Andy) 高雪松(2019) The complexity of family language policy decisions: The case of Cantonese and other regional Chinese varieties. In: Yongyan Zheng 郑咏滟and Xuesong (Andy) Gao 高雪松(eds.) Multilingual Research in the Chinese Context. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 79, 61-76. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/clac.65648
Liu Haibo, Fan (Gabriel) Fang, Towards a Global Englishes-aware National English Curriculum of China, ELT Journal, 2021; ccab040, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab040
Shen, Qi., & Gao, Xuesong. (2019) Multilingualism and policy making in Greater China: ideological and implementational spaces. Language Policy 18, 1–16 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9473-7
Tai, K. W. H. and Li, Wei. (2021). ‘Constructing Playful Talk through Translanguaging in the English Medium Instruction Mathematics Classrooms’. Applied Linguistics 42 (4): 607-640.