Translanguaging: A Vital Resource for First Nations Peoples

Abstract

This chapter draws on conversational data between four First Nations adolescents collected over 30 years ago and reflects on what this data can tell us about the interconnected processes of lexical innovation, lexical attrition, language switching and translanguaging. The chapter considers how these adolescents use English resources when they position themselves as speaking in a Cree monolingual mode and when they position themselves as speaking in a Cree-English multilingual mode. The findings illustrate the multiple roles that English plays in this Cree discourse, the interwoven nature of the linguistic resources, and the explanatory power of translanguaging for the understanding of social acts. The unpacking of the layers shows how translanguaging both overlaps with and differs from other linguistic practices and how translanguaging serves as a vehicle to transition between worlds.