Translanguaging spaces and multilingual public writing in Zambia: tracing change in the linguistic landscape of Ndola on the Copperbelt

• Published in: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development Vol. 44; no. 9; pp. 773 - 793
• Main Authors: Costley, Tracey, Kula, Nancy, Marten, Lutz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 21.10.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Advertisements; Advertising; African languages; Applied linguistics; Asian studies; Billboards; Chinese languages; Classrooms; College students; Colleges & universities; Colonialism; Communication; Educational research; English for academic purposes; Higher education; Language; Language contact; Language usage; Learning; Linguistic landscape; Linguistics; linguistics landscapes; multilingual practices; Multilingualism; Postcolonialism; Pragmatics; Semiotics; Social environment; Social meaning; Sociolinguistics; Teaching; Translanguaging; Youth; United Kingdom > UK; Zambia
• ISSN: 0143-4632; 1747-7557
• DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2022.2086985

Zambia is home to a complex set of language practices, which involve languages being used in different ways across social contexts. Historically written communication has typically been associated with English with African languages mainly associated with used spoken contexts. Recently, however, there has been a shift in this pattern with African languages being used more frequently in and across the linguistic landscape of Zambia in public writing [Banda, F., and H. Jimaima. 2017. "Linguistic Landscapes and the Sociolinguistics of Language Vitality in Multilingual Contexts of Zambia." Multilingua 36 (5): 595-625; Simungala, G. 2020. "The Linguistic Landscape of the University of Zambia: A Social Semiotic Perspective." Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Zambia; Simungala, G., and H. Jimaima. 2020. "Multilingual Realities of Language Contact at the University of Zambia." Journal of African and Asian Studies, 1-14]. In this paper, we add to the growing body of work within linguistic landscape research that draws on a translanguaging perspective to understand the ways in which language is used as a resource for meaning making in the social world [Wei, Li. 2011. "Moment Analysis and Translanguaging Space: Discursive Construction of Identities by Multilingual Chinese Youth in Britain." Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5): 1222-1235; Wei, Li. 2018. "Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language." Applied Linguistics 39 (1): 9-30; García, O., and T. Kleyn. 2016. Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments. Routledge; MacSwan, J. 2017. "A Multilingual Perspective on Translanguaging." American Educational Research Journal 54 (1): 167-201; Jaspers, J. 2018. "The Transformative Limits of Translanguaging." Language & Communication 58: 1-10]. More specifically, we adopt the concept of translanguaging spaces [Wei, Li. 2011. "Moment Analysis and Translanguaging Space: Discursive Construction of Identities by Multilingual Chinese Youth in Britain." Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5): 1222-1235; Wei, Li. 2018. "Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language." Applied Linguistics 39 (1): 9-30; Reilly, C. 2021. 3 Malawian Universities as Translanguaging Spaces. In English-Medium Instruction and Translanguaging, 29-42. Multilingual Matters] to explore the ways in which language is used in billboards and advertising spaces and propose that important shifts in language uses are observable. We discuss the changing status and uses of local African languages and why this is important in understanding language use in post-colonial contexts such as Zambia.