Translanguaging outside the Academy

Moving outside of classroom-based and English-dominant contexts, Rachel Bloom-Pojar draws from an ethnographic study of a summer health program in the Dominican Republic to examine what exactly rhetorical translanguaging might look like, arguing for a rhetorical approach that accounts for stigma, race, and institutional constraints.

Within a context where the variety of Spanish spoken by the local community is stigmatized, Bloom-Pojar examines how raciolinguistic ideologies inform notions of stigma in this region of the Dominican Republic, and then demonstrates how participants and patients in this study “flip the script” to view “professional” or formal Spanish as language in need of translation, privileging patients’ discourses of Spanish and health.

This framework for the rhetoric of translanguaging (1) complicates language ideologies to challenge linguistic inequality; (2) cultivates translation spaces across modes, languages, and discourses; (3) draws from collective resources through relationship building; and (4) critically reinvents discourse between institutions and communities. Ultimately, the study emphasizes how a focus on collective linguistic resources can enhance translanguaging practices between institutional and community contexts.

Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) series

Trecand in afara contextelor de clasa si dominante in limba engleza, Rachel Bloom-Pojar trage dintr-un studiu etnografic al unui program de sanatate de vara din Republica Dominicana pentru a examina cum ar putea arata exact translanguajarea retorica, argumentand pentru o abordare retorica care sa justifice stigmatul, rasa si constrangerile institutionale. Intr-un context in care varietatea de spaniola vorbita de comunitatea locala este stigmatizata, Bloom-Pojar examineaza modul in care ideologiile raciolingvistice informeaza notiunile de stigmatizare din aceasta regiune a Republicii Dominicane si apoi demonstreaza modul in care participantii si pacientii la aceasta studiati „intoarceti scenariul” pentru a vedea spaniola „profesionala” sau formala ca limba care are nevoie de traducere, privilegiind discursurile pacientilor despre spaniola si sanatate. Acest cadru pentru retorica translanguajului (1) complica ideologiile lingvistice pentru a contesta inegalitatea lingvistica; (2) cultiva spatii de traducere intre moduri, limbi si discursuri; (3) atrage din resurse colective prin consolidarea relatiilor; si (4) reinventeaza critic discursul dintre institutii si comunitati.