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Becoming aware of the possibilities and complexities of
researching multilingually
Mariam Attia (The University of Manchester) Prue Holmes (Durham University)Richard Fay (The University of Manchester)Jane Andrews (University of the West of England)
Aston English Research Seminar Series, Aston University 27 February 2013
Outline
Part I: Insight from the literature
Part II: Insights from the Researching Multilingually project
Part III: Insights from your own experiences
Part I
Insights from the literature
Insights from the literature
Researcher mobility especially in relation to internationalization of higher education (Rizvi, 2011)
Advances in ICT -> an unprecedented progress in transnational onsite and online learning (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2011; Rizvi, 2011)
As globalization continues to connect diverse cultural and linguistic communities -> deeper understanding of the processes of cross-language research (Halai, 2007)
Insights from the literature
Studies that focus on multilingualism itself, for example, in the field of linguistic ethnography (Martin-Jones & Gardner, 2012)
Interpreters/ translators as active members of the research process (Temple & Edwards, 2002) -> ‘Co-researchers’
Interpreters/ translator roles to cover both data collection and analysis for purposes of safeguarding validity (Tsai et al., 2004)
Insights from the literature
Reading and writing across languages can pose challenges to researchers -> disempowerment by established practices for ‘academic writing’ within predominantly mono-lingual academic contexts (Magyar and Robinson-Pant, 2011)
Supervisors may discard unfamiliar writing (Robinson-Pant, 2009) -> Advise against consulting literature in languages other than English
Insights from the literature
Shapes researcher conception of what constitutes ‘good’ literature (Magyar & Robinson-Pant, 2011) -> informs future decisions as to language choice for research dissemination
The geopolitics of academic writing and publishing (Canagarajah, 2002)
Conflict as to whether to write for an international audience or for one’s local community (Duszak & Lewkowicz, 2008)
Insights from the literature
Halai (2007) -> workload doubles in the case of full translations, subtle meanings may be lost, and lack of suitable multilingual data analysis software
Shklarov (2007) -> Multilingual researcher are able to mediate between different linguistic systems, point out areas of methodological complexity, and develop higher levels of ethical sensitivity
Insights from the literature
Shklarov (2007) -> situated ethical understandings may not conform to established institutional practices
Magyar & Robinson-Pant (2011): “surprisingly little attention was paid to the effects of imposing ‘standard’ ethics procedures and academic writing conventions on research that is to be conducted and read in a different cultural context” (p. 674)
Cross-language research and the importance of reflexivity (e.g., Giampapa & Lamoureux, 2011; Magyar & Robinson-Pant, 2011; Temple & Edwards, 2002)
Part II:
Insights from the Researching Multilingually project
The beginning..
‘Intercultural Pedagogy’ seminar at the University of Sheffield (2009) -> Richard Fay (The University of Manchester) and Mike Byram (Durham University)
Students’ developing sense of appropriate methodology for cross-language research (Mandarin and English) -> was not an aspect of research methodology on which there was much discussion
Realisation
Many research endeavours invite the use of more than one language
Opportunities and complexities are not widely discussed in the research methods literature or research training courses
Finding a focus
Durham Exploratory Seminar (July 2010)
Many (often missed) opportunities for researching multilingually
Complexities -> from initial thinking to dissemination Researchers (and their supervisors, examiners, publishers,
etc) typically had limited or no supportive materials Researching multilingually vs. researching multilingualism Relationships with translation studies and linguistic
ethnography
Insights further developed
Two Colloquia given at the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL, 2011, and 2012)
The AHRC ‘Researching Multilingually’ project (December 2011- November 2012)
The Project
Objectives:
Explore the possibilities for and complexities of researching multilingually (within predominantly English language contexts)
Examine researcher reflections on, and developing awareness of, processes of researching multilingually
Identify from their insights methods and techniques that effectively manage multilingual processes
Research Questions
RQ.1: How is researcher awareness developed vis-à-vis the processes of researching multilingually?
RQ.2: What possibilities and complexities are researchers aware of in relation to their multilingual research practice?
RQ.3: What implications does this have for researcher development?
Data Analysis
Thematic analysis of 25 online profiles and 35 presentations
Identifying particularities and commonalities
Developing Awareness
RQ.1: How is researcher awareness developed vis-à-vis the processes of researching multilingually?
Discussions with their supervisors
“Under […]’s supervision, I gradually noticed so many things to which I had
been blind, such as relevant literature written in Mandarin, similar research
studies undertaken in Mandarin with unique methodological insights and
the potential of richer interpretations of the data when drawing on different
linguistic resources” (Zhou)
Developing Awareness
Experiences of supervising international students
“The bonus for me is that my horizons have frequently been enlarged and I
have been pleasantly stretched” (Lewis)
Developing Awareness
Supervisor being aware of the complexities but not having
the chance to act upon this awareness
“Because of heavy workload and tight schedules most of academics in HEIs
face these days, I never got around to acting upon the issues, even though
I was aware of the relevance of the issues to research quality” (Feng)
Developing Awareness
Researchers who grew up in multilingual contexts (e.g., India,
Pakistan, Luxembourg)
not aware of the multilingual nature of their work until they
embarked on large-scale research especially a PhD
“Researching multilingually started at a very young age in my life in an
informal and unconscious way” (Bashiruddin)
Developing Awareness
Engaging with the Researching Multilingually project itself
“The series of seminars on “Researching Multilingually” work as a guide to
me for presenting multilingual data in my dissertation write up” (Naz)
Possibilities and complexities
RQ.2: What possibilities and complexities are researchers aware of in relation to their multilingual research practice?
Some possibilities:
1)Growing up in multilingual environments multilingual affordances
1)Gaining rich insights
1)Neutralising power imbalances
Possibilities and complexities
Some complexities:
Issues specific to research practice (from the genesis of a research idea to dissemination)
Interpretation and translation
Institutional policies and practices The geopolitics of language use
The importance of reflexivity
Implications
RQ.3: What implications does this have for researcher development?
The overarching construct for thinking about the possibilities for and complexities of researching multilingually
-> developing researcher awareness The life-long process of becoming more confident when
making research(er) decisions as appropriate for particular studies and contexts -> increasingly purposeful as researchers (rather than simply following fashion or convention)
Implications
Four steps in the process of developing researcher competence / intentionality vis-à-vis The possibilities, complexities associated with researching multilingually:
1) Realising that multilingual research practice is indeed possible and permissible
2) Exploring the multilingual possibilities3) Making informed choices Research design (Re)presenation4) Developing collective researching multilingually
awareness
For more details..
Holmes, P., Fay, R., Andrews, J., Attia, M. (2013, forthcoming). Researching multilingually: New theoretical and methodological directions. International Journal of Applied Linguistics.
Part III
Insights from your own experiences
.. So, over to you!
