Critical Inquiries in the Sociolinguistics of Globalization: (14 Encounters)

The studies in this collection seek to examine the notions of ‘linguistic diversity’ and ‘hybridity’ through the lenses of new critical theories and theoretical frameworks embedded within the broader discussion of the sociolinguistics of globalization. The chapters include critical inquiries into online/offline languages in society, language users, language learners and language teachers who may operate ‘between’ languages and are faced with decisions to navigate, negotiate and invent or re-invent languages, local and global and virtual spaces. The research took place in contexts that include linguistic landscapes, schools, classrooms, neighborhoods and virtual spaces of Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, South Korea and the USA.

Table of Contents:
Tyler Barrett and Sender Dovchin: Foreword  Chapter 1. Shaila Sultana: Linguistic and Multi-Modal Resources within the Local-Global Interface of the Virtual Space: Critically Aware Youths in Bangladesh Chapter 2. Dejan Ivković, Violetta Cupial, Jamie Arfin and Tiziana Ceccato: Linguascaping the City: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Linguistic Placemaking of Toronto’s Chinatown and Kensington Market Neighbourhoods Chapter 3. Dariush Izadi: “That's My Husband’s Sees the Smoke on This Card Bill He Doesn’t like Me Smoking” Service Interactions in Persian Shops in Sydney Chapter 4. Kara Fleming: Language, Scale, and Ideologies of the National in Kazakhstan Chapter 5. Sender Dovchin: The Politics of Injustice in Translingualism: Linguistic Discrimination Chapter 6. Jerry Won Lee: Translingualism as Resistance Against What and for Whom? Chapter 7. Tyler Barrett: Transgrammaring Bilinguals and ‘Ordinary’ English in Japanese Ethnic Churchscapes Chapter 8. Kim Rockell: The Coding Catastrophe: Translingualism and Noh in the Japanese Computer Science EFL Classroom

About the Author :
Tyler Andrew Barrett is an academic who teaches in the Division of Continuing Education at the University of California, Irvine, USA. His research interests include the sociolinguistics of globalization, language ideology, language policy and translingualism. Sender Dovchin is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education, Curtin University, Australia. Her research interests include translingualism, the sociolinguistics of globalization, critical applied linguistics and bi/multilingualism.

Review :
This is a must-read collection for anybody searching for novel ideas in the field of the sociolinguistics of globalisation. This timely and exceptional book recognises diversity both as a challenge and as an opportunity. It focuses on the importance of everyday language practices, as well as other non-linguistic, semiotic and spatial relations. A highly compelling volume which takes a critical inquiry approach to post-multilingual diversity. Relying on sophisticated translanguaging and translingual analytical frameworks, this timely book explores the multiple complementary and conflicting ways global language practices across multiple semiotic modalities are currently performed around the world in different communities. Methodologically, the book is given a strong sense of immediacy, relying heavily as it does on first person narratives as a mode of data elicitation. This book does a good job in focusing on the sociolinguists of globalization. One of the strengths of the volume is that it contains not only the theory but also the analysis of actual language in different settings. This edited volume makes an original contribution to our understanding of translanguaging practices, including some of its shortcomings. The multiple mediums and modalities of meaning making from a wide variety of research sites, including the periphery, provide an excellent survey for students of sociolinguistics and multilingualism who wish to have a detailed picture of the ways globalization has impacted our current world.