Foreword: translanguaging LPP

Abstract

For me, language policy and planning (LPP) is both a field of practical enquiry and a field of theoretical enquiry. As a practical field, LPP is about actions; actions that are taken by various agents and agencies on the structure, use and acquisition of language. As a theoretical field, LPP critically assesses these actions and further our understanding of why individuals and society decide to take certain actions at certain times in certain ways with regard to language structure, language use and language acquisition. Ultimately, this will help to further our understanding of society. Crucially, LPP as a theoretical field of enquiry needs to raise critical questions about the actions, rather than simply describing and documenting what the actions are. In doing so, LPP studies need to adopt specific theoretical stances. In the present case, the theoretical perspective that the contributors to this special issue have adopted is that of Translanguaging. I am grateful to the editors of the special issue for their invitation to write this short foreword to introduce and contextualise the special issue. I want to do so by highlighting what I think the potential contributions of Translanguaging as an analytical concept are to the studies of LPP, with reference to the Greater Bay Are of China that I would describe as an emerging and evolving Translanguaging Space.