Speaker
Description
This presentation explores translanguaging as a way of understanding translation as a cognitive and cultural activity, focusing on how multilingual minds negotiate meaning across languages and cultures.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
The presentation adopts a conceptual and reflective research approach, drawing on key ideas from the cultural and cognitive turns in Translation Studies. The discussion is supported by selected illustrative examples from literary translation, which are used to explore issues of cultural mediation, multilingual cognition, and translanguaging practices rather than to conduct empirical analysis.
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
The presentation offers conceptual outcomes rather than empirical findings. It clarifies how translanguaging can be used to account for translators’ meaning-making processes, cultural positioning, and interpretive choices in multilingual contexts. The discussion demonstrates that translanguaging is particularly effective in explaining motivations and cognitive flexibility underlying translation decisions, while also highlighting the limits of this perspective when applied to normative or outcome-focused models. These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of translation as an activity shaped by multilingual minds rather than strictly bilingual norms.
Abstract section 5: References
García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
Li Wei. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. The Modern Language Journal, 102(1), 9–30.
Venuti, L. (2017). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
This presentation addresses two research questions: (1) How can translanguaging be used as a conceptual lens for understanding translation as a cognitive and cultural process rather than a transfer between bounded languages? (2) What aspects of translators’ meaning-making, cultural mediation, and decision-making become more visible when translation is approached from the perspective of multilingual minds?
Abstract section 1: Relevance
Recent research in Translation Studies and applied linguistics has increasingly questioned models that conceptualize translation as a transfer between discrete linguistic systems. In parallel, work on multilingualism and translanguaging has highlighted the fluid nature of meaning-making across languages and cultures. This presentation is relevant to current theoretical and research debates as it brings these strands together, exploring how translanguaging can serve as a useful lens for understanding translation as a cognitive and cultural activity shaped by multilingual minds, cultural mediation, and hybrid linguistic practices.
| Title | Translanguaging in Translation and Multilingual Minds |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | General |